A solid GTA clone for you to play with between two Vice City sessions.
Graphics-8/10
Well,really,not bad graphics at all.Not high-end,but they certainly beat GTA-s or Scarfaces ones. Good textures, wisely chosen colours, but strange character animations. Some cool effects ,but nothing special. What really is special are the cutscenes- superbly done ,very convincing & all.
Sound-10/10
Maybe I'm a little too generous with this rating but I loved the sound of the game.Sure,the sound effects such as crashes, gunshots sound well, voice acting is solid but the music from the '70s ....AWESOME. Even though I'm a rocker don't listen to other genres too much,the '70s pop music was perfect... exactly as it was in Scarface OST in The World is Yours. The one from 2006 is not that good though.
Story-8/10
Well you are TJ,an 18-year old guy who gets along well with the badasses of New York & tries to become someone.He assists them in races, driving missions, kidnaps/breakouts & some shootouts. Then he gets betrayed & serves a 28 year sentance in jail,& in 2006 he gets out & wants to take vengeance upon all his ex-parteners.Simple but well structured, & I'm especially refering to the cutscenes.
Gameplay-8/10
You should already know what to expect here,since it's a GTA copy. A huge city to explore by foot or via cars -bought or stolen- .You can do side missions (especially races) to earn money & customize your cars stored in garage,but that's not usefull unless you want to do more races, customize, race , customize , race .... & that's not my cup of tea in an action-oriented game. Sure,there are a lot of customization options (think at it as a Need for Speed Most Wanted) ,& atmospheric races with smart opponents,but that's not the idea of Parallel Lines.But I must say I really really liked 2 races, different from the typical "WIN MOFO" type.I had to make sure an other guy won,& sice he was a real "talent" I had to go the opposite direction & make a head-on crash with each opponent to get him out of the race. Reall fun & enjoyable,I think it's really awesomely done! The other missions,as I saud before,consist in "escape the cops" , "go there" , "pick that up & get it there" , "take that back" , "chase him" , "blow up that" or " break him from prison. Yeah the "get the car ,ram it with a bomb & get it back mission" from GTA III is here as well,so is the one from Scarface & GTA III "get the packages thrown from the helicopter before the cops do". The driving parts are exciting, cops are smart.They follow your car,& if you manage to get into an other car without them seeing you,you escape.Sounds familiar... the same system was used in Mafia, 5 years before Parallel Lines,& I can assure you it worked better there...but no matter. If you're crazy enough you can do some cool stunts with motorcycles on rooftops & not only... Well this was the '70s part, 'cause the 2006 one works on the same principles,but is slightly different.You get a new "modernized" HUD,& New York had changed a lot in 28 years.The producers have done a good job of transforming the city,its buildings,streets,cars & people. It's a completely different place,& you'll really feel that.Missions somehow have the same basics,but oh well...
So the conclusion is the following: if you liked Mafia & the GTA series , you liked the clones such as True Crime series,The Godfather, Scarface The World is Yours (at least one of theese),I assure you that you'll certainly find Driver Parallel Lines satisfying, real good option to play when you'll get a desire to play GTA III or Vice City again.So,try it!