I do not think Driver 3 is the greatest game, but it does not deserve a 5.4.
The reason why most Driver fans will say they liked this game is because truthfully, this game was an improvement over the original. It gave players guns, a better on-foot control scheme, better graphics, and more cars. It is safe to say that there are many really good improvements in Driv3r, but they are often clouded by the errors that were made in this game. People compare this game to GTA quite a bit, but I do not think that these two games can really be put into the same genre. While GTA is more like a shoot-and-drive type of game, Driv3r is a Hollywood style driving game. It is not meant to be based around shooting.
Driv3r is basically about an undercover cop named Carols Tanner, who is trying to stop a car smuggling ring. There are some pretty exciting moments in this game, but it gets a bit repetitive after a while. The car chase sequences get annoying, and they are very hard. If you make one mistake, you lose. That is why you have to be a veteran driver to beat this game. It was not that hard for me, because I got used to the over exaggerated whip of the cars, along with the hard breaking. The story is fun, but usually unbelievable most of the time. For one thing, why would an undercover cop plow through 3 cities, killing hundreds of police officers just to stop some car smugglers?
Driv3r actually has a pretty good graphics engine. The cars look great, and there is a lot of detail in each car. Up to 4,000 bullet holes can be on one car, and even though it is kind of useless, it is still a neat idea. Most of this games landscapes are simply beautiful, because each place is based off of the real world. You get to drive through the streets of Miami, Nice, and Istanbul, and each map has realistic qualities. They actually mapped several hundred square miles and re-created it to fit their needs, which I thought was pretty amazing. It is cool to be able to go to Istanbul and see all of its most famous landmarks. The scenery played a large role in the game, but I think the developers forgot about that toward the end of their production. As one can see, there are only a handful of missions in each level, so the player often misses out on some of the cool landmarks. The CG was very good in this game, but the in-game character models were nothing much to look at. The pedestrians were under-detailed, and Tanner was not much better.
Gameplay has improved slightly in this game, but the series has veered off its old course. It was once based solely on driving, but with the addition of guns, it adds some new feeling to the game. The on-foot controls were not that bad, although they took a while to get used to. I didn't like the overall motion of Tanner, because he faces foward when he walks. He strafes to the left and right, and instead of turning around, he walks backwards. The aiming system was ok, but it could have been much better. Like I said, it takes some getting used to, but it is fairly easy after a while. The camera angles remain the same, which is good because most people like the close, behind-the-car angle.
Adding to that feeling of trying to copy Grand Theft Auto, this game also included a few side missions. One mission is to kill Timmy Vermicelli 10 times. Timmy Vermicelli is kind of funny, because he is used to make fun of Vice City's Tommy Vercetti. He has orange skin which pokes fun at GTA's cartooney graphics, and he also wears water wings, making fun of his inability to swim. That was a nice bit of humor, and I am glad they added it. One of the most exciting side missions is 18-Wheeler Havoc. In this mode, you go to a safe house near the Coral Gables. There, you find tons of weapons, health, and ammo to stock up on.
When you go outside, there are these red blips on your map. So you go over to check them out. When you get there, there is a huge 18-Wheeler speeding toward you! So you get into your Go-Kart, which was what I was driving at the time, and you speed off. Looking behind you, you see the 18-Wheeler gaining on you at about 200 mph! You push that go-kart for all its worth, trying to escape through the narrow alleys, but before you know it, there are five 18-Wheelers on your tail. One of the rams you, and you go flying 50 feet in the air and explode when you hit this ground. It is so funny to see that, and it is also a lot of fun to play it with friends. I played it with my 10 year old cousin, who was screaming "Go Go Go!" every step of the way. This is one of my most memorable moments with this game.
It was nice to see that this game kept the "Take A Ride" mode, because it is a chance to get away from the undercover mode and just have fun. In take a ride mode, you drive around and pretty much go wherever you please. It would have been nice to see this mode combined with the story mode, but that would have been copying the Grand Theft Auto series because of the free roam capabilities. Take A Ride functions as a great way to experiment with different vehicles. It is also a good place to practice driving. There are over 80 vehicles to choose from in this game, and each one has its own level of difficulty in terms of handling, braking, and speed. Most people only use this mode to find jumps or blow up tons of cars with the grenade launcher, which can be very entertaining at times. It is great how they included full damage modeling on cars, because instead of just blowing up and turning black, they explode into showers of junk metal like doors and motors. It can be a lot of fun to destory cars in this game.
The Film Director mode has also been kept for Driv3r. It functions well sometimes, and you can make some funny movie clips with it. Other times, it is unbearably glitchy. If you make a long video, the cars wont be in the same places, and that means that Tanner can't get into the car in the video. In that case, he does the actions of whatever buttons you pressed while driving. He jumps all over the place, rolls around, and just looks like a complete idiot. Glitches were a large problem in this game, because they really did take away from some exciting gameplay. Often, I could fall off a motorcycle and land on the ground. Then I would just slide slowly for 20 feet on my hands and knees, until I rolled around on the ground and got up. If the developers would have worked out a few of the major glitches, the gameplay might have been a lot better.
The sound in this game is one of its better qualities. The voice acting in the cinematics is believable, and the actors are actually very good most of the time. The music in the CG fits the action well. The in-game music is ok, but sometimes it can get annoying when you have to listen to a series of bells and horns on the Istanbul soundtrack. The one thing that was kind of interesting about Istanbuls sound was that you could hear the wake-up prayers of the Muslim mosque being played over loud-speaker near the Hagia Sophia. That was a nice little detail to add into the game. The vehicle sounds are really something special, because the muscle cars sound like muscle cars, the trucks sound like trucks, the motorcycles sound like motor cycles, and the snozberries taste like snozberries. (Willy Wonka reference) The weapon sounds, although they are a bit bland at times, are somewhat realistic. Sound was definetly not one of the major drawbacks of this game.
Overall, Driv3r was a fair game, but with some improvements it could have been a lot better. For fans of the original game, it was a huge improvement, because it gave most fans everything they had ever wanted in a Driver game. You can't understand what it was like to have to play Drivers 1 and 2 without any weapons at all. It was agonizing at times, but Driv3r gave people what they wanted. It was nice to be able to swim, instead of just dying when you drove into the water. The biggest problem with this game was that they tried to copy Grand Theft Auto, but they can't do that. They can't compare two games that aren't very much alike. Driver used to be about driving, but Driv3r is about driving and shooting. It was nice to have weapons and all, but they should have stuck to their old action driving roots. Driv3r was a decent gameplay experience with some fun moments, but I do not think that people will remember this game for some of the good qualities it did have.