Parallel Lines doesn't stay completely true to the Driver series, but what it does, it does well.
You start off as TK (The Kid, creative huh?) in the late 70's, at first sight I thought he was some dork and wanted Tanner back, as I played on I found my self liking TK, surprisingly enough. He is a 'Wheelman' (like Tanner, without the 'undercover cop'ness) and aparently he is the best their is. You manage to find yourself a group of friends who send you on missions throughout the first half of the game. It's hard to review this game without ruining anything, so if you don't want to be spoiled, don't read the next paragraph.
Your 'friends' set you up, betray you and put you in gaol (this is the Australian spelling, get over it) for over 20 years, in which you are let out in 2006 and get revenge. Simplistic story yeah, but it was told very well with incredible voice acting and great CGI cutscenes. I found TK wasn't as cool in '06, which is reasonable, but I WAS playing as him. Pretty much EVERYTHING changes when you step into 2006, such as the NPC's, TK, the heads-up display, weapons, vehicles and environment. To be frank, the 70's were way more awesome than '06, the colour scheme and soundtrack is just... more awesome! I don't want rap in a Driver game, it's a simple as that. The two different timelines is why the game is called parallel lines.
You can read again now if you hate spoilers... I noticed the game focused on Driving this time around, again. Shooting was still there, it just wasn't used very much (which is a good thing by the way). Shooting on foot was focused on in some missions, which wasn't actually a bad thing this time around IMO, I mean, it would be better if there was no shooting at all (excluding the drive-by system, I'll explain later), but the missions added to variety and were no where near as frustrating as D3 ones were. I guess Reflections learnt from their mistakes in Driver 3 (which I thought was great unlike most did).
Although I wouldn't say it beats the driving mechanic from the original Driver game, the driving in this is still top-notch. It still has that awesome movie-like driving too it, and it's still the best at the 'I only just made that!' feeling, which is what Driver does best.
It's extremely easy to notice that the developers were trying to make it feel like a driver game, from the colour scheme to the smashing cones through a dirty alleyway, it's just all very... Driver, without Tanner...
There are welcome additions in the gameplay of PL, drive-by's for one, are awesome. You can stick you're arm out the window and shoot at things with almost every weapon in the game (in fact, the only one you can't use is the minigun... yes, there is a minigun). It's easily the best system I've ever used in terms of drive-bys, simply because you can lock on. A little trick I liked to use in this game was to handbrake, 180 turn, shoot my persuer while reversing, then 180 back around. Think of the game 'Wheelman' except with skill involved, it took a while to get right, but once I got it, it was awesome.
Another welcome addition was the vehicle customisation, which is good fun. You do it at a garage called 'Rays' owned by Ray who is a somewhat major character in the game. It costs ingame money, which is gained in a strange way.
Unlike Grand Theft Auto (which this game is being compared to too much), the main missions don't actually give you any ingame money, the side missions do. These involve chases, escapes, taxi missions, races and a survival type thing that you activate by smashing donut stands. The others are activated by getting in a car with a rotating minigame icon above it.
This game is full of unscripted memorable moments, like that time I landed on a cop car and it blew up only to see me do a frontflip to a land. Or that time I threw someone out of their car into a bus. Heh, good times.
The on-foot sequences have been improved quite a lot too, TK doesn't always face away from the camera, like Tanner did, using a keyboard and mouse prevents TK from walking, which I wasn't fond of. TK can lock on and he even has an over the shoulder view for more precise shots, it still isn't great, but it is good.Problems with on foot controls are; you can't jump! Every game needs a jump button! Even if it's uneeded (which it isn't in this game... meaning it is needed), you can't swim, and ducking (or crouching... whatever) is extremely awkward. You can't shoot or move while inbetween ducking and standing, and he moves really slowly while ducking. If I gave the on-foot sequences a rating out of 10 it would be 6.5.
There is no more take-a-ride or side missions that you select from a menu, like GTA, it mashes everything into one story-mode thing, which I think works quite well, you can start missions from the map by hitting 'T' while they are highlighted, or you can simply drive to them. I didn't like the 'T' button in the game, I found it much more fun to drive to each one, I also thought it ruined immersion a little.
Speaking of immersion, TK, and the peds, have gameplay dialog! That's about as much as I can say, and it is a step up from previous Driver games.
The biggest disappointment I had from this game is the fact that there is no more Film Editor! Like seriously?! A Driver game without the Film-Editor! That's simply lame.
This game is compared to GTA simply too much, when it's not. It focuses on Driving, GTA focuses on being bada$$, and that's why the critics have given it negative reviews in my opinion.
I won't say anything about the graphics because... well... just look at a gameplay video or something, pictures are worth a thousand words right? I will comment on the cutscenes, they are the usual Drivers CGI cutscenes, which are great! I particularly liked the voice acting and narration of TK, it was brilliant!
All up, Driver: Parallel Lines doesn't stay completely true to the Driver series, but what it does, it does well. In this review I have found all the negatives in the game I can think of, and no where near all the positives, this is one of the best games I have played in quite a while, surprisingly. I highly reccommend it!
Written by minimme on Thursday the 1st of July 2010.