Ode to Driver PS1
-
Most people I gather are familiar with the Grand Theft Auto games yet most probably don’t know the series that punted Rockstar in the ass at the start of the new millennium.
Driver: You Are the WheelmanMy parents bought me a PlayStation for Christmas in 1998. Likely because they were sick of me winging Hot Wheels across the hardwood with accompanying vroom vroom noises. This started a very impressive proficiency. My launch games were Test Drive 5, Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit and Gran Turismo. Followed the next year in 1999 by Driver. So you might be wondering why I might focus on this game? Well one thing is not the same as the others… Sandbox
You see most people would credit Grand Theft Auto III 2001 as the formula for console 3D sandbox (open world) driving games. It was actually 2 years later than the game that pioneered success in it. 1999 would have the release of the original Midtown Madness on the PC, followed a few months later by Driver on the PC and PS1. Midnight Club: Street Racing, Midtown Madness 2 and Driver 2 would drop later in 2000.
Driver 2 would push the PS1 to the absolute ragged edge requiring 2 discs (and despite being released after the PS2, was not available on it). It featured the ability to get out of the car, walk around the map and steal other vehicles. You can bet both of these games heavily influenced Rockstar to up the ante from the original top down gameplay of GTA and GTA II.
Driver was heavily based on a film that was released over 2 decades earlier in 1978 titled bluntly The Driver. This film was centered around a career wheelman working for criminals and evading a hunting detective. There is reduced dialog and long pauses in this film compared to modern movies (especially while driving), the characters themselves aren’t named, only given titles such as The Player and Teeth. It was a film that could be very much classified as a flop, with poor reviews, and weak box office take. Odder still that it spurred some newer films with an obvious influence in Drive (2011) and Baby Driver (2017).
So, a videogame based on a movie that flopped 20 years ago? Sounds like a recipe for disaster. Only, it wasn’t.
Reflections Interactive actually made a gem of a game for the era following this theme. It’s not cut and paste of the movie but it’s unmistakably similar. They even included the same crash sounds. Driver never states what year none of the vehicles (which are similar to real models) in the game are younger than 1981. https://driver.fandom.com/wiki/Vehicles_in_Driver
The opening of both the game and the movie features both main characters riding an elevator in a parking structure, breaking into and stealing a car.
The story is cut and dry. A washed up racing driver turned undercover cop is sent to infiltrate an organisation [Italian mob] as a wheelman and figure out their plans. All the game cut scenes also feature little minimal and dry dialogue like the movie.
The first mission is similar to the Orange Benz scene, except you’re not supposed to hit anything (3 strikes). You’re given a little checklist, with things like 180, burnout, lap, slalom, speed and a 60s time limit to complete them any way you want. For some people they regard this as the hardest introductory mission in a driving game. While the game is arcade, the vehicles have boat like weight and rotation inertia with floaty suspension. They are not nimble at any speed.
Even in this videos comments, you can find people that say they’ve never beaten it or didn’t know what the slalom is (even though the game demos what your supposed to do). I knew a kid that was a grade ahead of me that couldn’t pass it, he actually invited me over to beat it for him.After passing this mission Driver became kind of a choose your own adventure that would take you to Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York in all the boxy glory the PS1 could sort of handle. Criminals would leave job offer messages on your answering machine (along with some comical miss-dials).
Typically you would have 2 missions and occasionally 3 to choose until you got to mandatory central plot parts. They ranged had variations: Time trials (pickup/deliver criminal or package), deliver a fast car, avoid the police, escape the cops, don’t hit anything/transport the bomb, follow/chase/disable the suspect, lead the suspect, scare the passenger, steal a cop car.
Driver featured a Damage Bar and a Felony Bar. A full Damage Bar would stop your car and end the session or fail the mission (flipping the car would cause a full Damage Bar after 5s). The Felony Bar from breaking the law (speeding, hitting things) would dictate how aggressive the cops would be looking, chasing and setting up road blocks. Felony varied: Hitting traffic cones would be minor felony, hitting cars would be a chunk of felony.
Cops would have a small Field of View and ignore you with very low or no felony but would expand it when engaging a chase and after if you lost them. The police basically acted like seeking missiles in chases at certain distance, trying to ram you to disable your car or make you lose control even if it meant theirs would fail first. You could kite them into poles, trees, jumps and civilian cars pretty easily if you had the right distance. They would over shoot and spin out on grass if you turned. Like most games if you left their FoV or dispatched them off the mini-map the chase would end, the other way was damaging them out. The police are faster but can’t take as much damage.
The vast bulk of the missions were fairly simple affairs of getting to the markers on the map in the times allotted, without damaging out, or having the police following. However, the final mission was arguably the hardest driving game scenario on the PS1 ever developed. It’s the hardest single driving mission I’ve ever played across PS1, Xbox, PS3 and PS4. It makes the cone challenges in Project Gotham 1 and 2 seem like child’s play. I don’t remember how long it took me. I think I had to play something else for a week off because I got so angry, maybe a 3 weeks or a month?
This guy basically got Hail of Mary lucky. I’ve been disabled many times after losing control at run time 0:25 and 0:43 and after 1:30 the cops went so weak. The AI were NEVER that like that for me, it was continuous SLBM avoidance attempts the entire time. 1:45 leading to 1:50 should have wrecked him, same with the cut mess up 1:58. And yet I can’t really fault this because this mission does actually require persistence and luck to complete.I don’t know if you picked up on it during the last mission but it was changing from day to night. Driver had missions that took place at different times and actually allowed free roams to take place day or night in Miami and San Francisco.
Was this game perfect? HELL NO. This baby dropped framerate on the PlayStation something fierce and was buggier than a Bethesda Beta. It wasn’t uncommon to find false walls (though textured) and drive inside the buildings while the cops spazzed out. Many people ended up beating the last mission that way. Also the collisions for the roof and underside of the cars were very very strange. They were powerful, and with the smallest tap it could (and usually would) launch the cars violently, especially hit with a corner at an angle. Sometimes the police could flip you back over if you were immobile stuck on your side.
This is very prevalent when doing survival type in hilly SF:
Anyways I hope you enjoyed this weird blast from the past. I brought it up because I searched up the tunes from the game and to my surprise Driver 1 and 2 were remastered this year by the original composer Allister Brimble. It’s the first time I’ve seen a childhood game of mine get a completely remastered soundtrack.
-
Yes! I LOVED this game.
My buddies and I would take turns in college trying to beat certain levels (that may have been Driver 2).
-
I still have this game. 100% a sold game and etched into my childhood forever.
-
@exage03040 yes! I loved the original driver!
It did take me a while to finish all the maneuvers in the garage tho...
Also, relevant:
-
@exage03040 Had it, probably still have it somewhere, and loved it. I loved the little details like turn signals and hubcaps falling off. The Miami and San Fran map are burned into my brain. I should find a copy and relive some memories.
-
Driver is a fantastic game, right up there with Gran Turismo for nostalgia and replayability. I still have my original copy and my original, still-working PSX deck.
-
I remember watching a lot of Driver San Francisco on Youtube but I've never played it. The Driver games are good so it surprises me that it's based on an obscure older movie.
I'm afraid this is a little before my time but I have hours and hours and hours and hours sunk into Midtown Madness 3 and Burnout 3 Takedown.
I loved how many different cars and paint jobs there were in that game. I think there was one paint job I could just never quite get that was in an awkward place on a jump that seemed too far away to reach.
Here's a car list video. I unfortunately lost the disk to this one but I think it might be better in my memory. I mostly drove the Mustang fastback, the Mini, and the Renault 5.
Burnout 3 takedown at least holds up far far better than you might expect. My friends regularly played it with me when they used to come over (sigh).
-
@whoistheleader said in Ode to Driver PS1:
I remember watching a lot of Driver San Francisco on Youtube but I've never played it. The Driver games are good so it surprises me that it's based on an obscure older movie.
I'm afraid this is a little before my time but I have hours and hours and hours and hours sunk into Midtown Madness 3 and Burnout 3 Takedown.I stopped with the series after Driver 2 and moving to Xbox. GTA absolutely massacred the Driver series once they put out GTA III.
Most information about Driver briefly mentions its connection to the movie but when actually playing it's quite heavy. Sort of like someone teetering on the edge of infringement. Being a kid, I had zero idea about the movie at all. It would be years if not a decade before I found out about it. You could stream it in full on YouTube 5-7 years ago but I think the only way is torrent these days or just look at the chase clips.I had both of those games as well. I came from Midtown Madness 2 which online most people played cops and robbers using exclusively the long city bus, that was a good time. 3 Was a little bit more goofy and had a more 'on rails feeling'.
Burnout 3 was just barely controlled chaos. I played it a bunch as well.
-
Man, those 2 years between Driver and GTA III felt like an eternity. Really felt like Driver and Driver 2 had it made for a looong time before anything else came along. Maybe it's because I didn't get a PS2 for a few years after release anyway.
I could never beat the challenges, I'd just take a ride in Miami and San Fran, over and over and over. Loved it. I did find a false wall and I could still drive straight to it. In San Fran I spent most of my time going back and forth on the steep hills near the start haha.
I got a lot of fun out of Driv3r too, but there's no denying it was well behind its competition in a lot of ways.
The physics were always better in Driver than GTA.
-
@exage03040 said in Ode to Driver PS1:
I stopped with the series after Driver 2 and moving to Xbox. GTA absolutely massacred the Driver series once they put out GTA III.
Most information about Driver briefly mentions its connection to the movie but when actually playing it's quite heavy. Sort of like someone teetering on the edge of infringement. Being a kid, I had zero idea about the movie at all. It would be years if not a decade before I found out about it. You could stream it in full on YouTube 5-7 years ago but I think the only way is torrent these days or just look at the chase clips.I had both of those games as well. I came from Midtown Madness 2 which online most people played cops and robbers using exclusively the long city bus, that was a good time. 3 Was a little bit more goofy and had a more 'on rails feeling'.
Burnout 3 was just barely controlled chaos. I played it a bunch as well.
I would play the same thing in split screen with my brother with the big city bus in 3 (never had 2). I never actually played it online and most of the original Xbox games I played after their prime anyways as it was my dad that originally bought them for him to play. One fun thing was to get two people in the giant buses and go to one of the far corners of one map where a 6 lane road had a nearly 90 degree turn. For some reason in that spot the cars would just keep spawning forever and you could cause a massive traffic jam. Now I'm impressed the game handled it.
Man, this takes me back. I wish the national mall had that many jumps in real life. Pretty sure the dangerous corner is in the top left.
I think "barely controlled" is a little optimistic for Burnout 3. Now that is an incredibly fun game that has held up shockingly well. Though in split screen sometimes the pixel density it can render the screen in is bad for long distance visibility.
-
The decade between like 1996 and 2006 for console games was huge. Revolutionary changes happened in that time. It makes this last decade look like a joke.
Oh I think we all would go find the big hills and steps in SF and just have the cops fly over. I would go to Bal Harbour and play with the cops at the southern crossing jump. That was my favourite place to flip cops on their side and then launch them.
-
@kitt222 The turn signals, speeding being a crime and hubcaps falling off were way ahead of their time.
-
I'm one of the people that had a hard time with the opening mission. Couldn't beat the clock.
-
@whoistheleader Midtown Madness was everything. 1, 2, and 3. I have so many hours in those games it's not even funny. From jumping the river in Chicago, to climbing the pointy building in San Francisco, to stunts on the National Mall. I was amazed with where you could go and what you could do.
Now I find funky hitboxes and errors in Forza Horizon and I'm just disappointed.
-
@carsoffortlangley said in Ode to Driver PS1:
The turn signals, speeding being a crime and hubcaps falling off were way ahead of their time.
Also the replay/movie mode. I don't think I've ever played another driving game series that has that amount of camera views and allows customization of filming.
-
Sometimes many times after.
-
@exage03040 I LOVED Driver and Driver 2. I played the crap out of them, especially the sandbox modes. The ridiculous physics were so much fun.
Though there was a level in Driver 2 that was practically impossible to beat. I never finished that game.
-
@saracen said in Ode to Driver PS1:
Though there was a level in Driver 2 that was practically impossible to beat. I never finished that game.
The only missions I remember failing multiple times was the Mase in Chicago with the closed bridges. Explosive truck in Havana. Vegas, Stake Out and Beat the Train (damn fast train). And the chase in Rio near or at the end.
-
@exage03040 said in Ode to Driver PS1:
@saracen said in Ode to Driver PS1:
Though there was a level in Driver 2 that was practically impossible to beat. I never finished that game.
The only missions I remember failing multiple times was the Mase in Chicago with the closed bridges. Explosive truck in Havana. Vegas, Stake Out and Beat the Train (damn fast train). And the chase in Rio near or at the end.
Yeah, the Chase in Rio was the one. It gave me fits.
-
@saracen said in Ode to Driver PS1:
@exage03040 said in Ode to Driver PS1:
@saracen said in Ode to Driver PS1:
Though there was a level in Driver 2 that was practically impossible to beat. I never finished that game.
The only missions I remember failing multiple times was the Mase in Chicago with the closed bridges. Explosive truck in Havana. Vegas, Stake Out and Beat the Train (damn fast train). And the chase in Rio near or at the end.
Yeah, the Chase in Rio was the one. It gave me fits.
I can't believe I'm remembering all these missions haha! I totally do.
Because you'd repeat them hundreds of times.Is it just me who still has the starting lines of the intro to Driver 2 stuck in his head?
I'm a pop ya neck with my hands...
You'll wish you never met me...
Vasquez
gun shots -
@exage03040 Was Bal Harbor straight ahead from the Take a ride spawn point then left? I remember going up there and there were these curved bridges over the water. Lots of fun launching cops over those.
-
@nauraushaun said in Ode to Driver PS1:
Was Bal Harbor straight ahead from the Take a ride spawn point then left? I remember going up there and there were these curved bridges over the water. Lots of fun launching cops over those.
Yep.
After beating the game. I spent hour after hour with the invincibility cheat, flipping over cop cars and launching them.The ones I distinctly remembered were the Rio chase and the train. Then I took a trip on the YouTube looking at the comments and finding the others that people had PTSD from. Yes I do now remember doing that one at least 3 dozen times... I still think Presidents Run was the all time hardest though, that required so much luck in addition to skill.
And that's the thing, they made the games almost impossibly hard because it would boring otherwise. This was a few years before online so the 'solution' was to just stall players on a mission.
-
I had driver 1. I could not get past that damn parking garage mission. I was only 10 at the time.
Did play driver 2 and Driv3r all the way though.
-
@exage03040 Moved to Best of OPPO.