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DRIV3R for PlayStation 2
In DRIV3R for PlayStation 2, you take the wheel as Tanner, an undercover officer infiltrating an international gang of car thieves. The investigation takes you from Miami to Nice and Istanbul. You follow suspects, deliver stolen vehicles and try to shake off pursuers without completely wrecking your car. Each city has a different street layout: wide American roads give way to bends along the French coast and narrow passages in Turkey. You therefore need to keep judging where you can drive fast and where braking early offers a better escape.
Cars react to collisions and lose parts while police vehicles try to box you in. Along the way, you can change cars, take a motorcycle or head onto the water in a boat. Some assignments put Tanner into shootouts on foot, where you aim for yourself and seek cover behind your surroundings. Outside the story, Take A Ride lets you drive freely around the cities. Separate driving challenges involve pursuits, checkpoints and surviving with the police on your tail.
You play alone with a controller; a second player cannot join in. Film Director lets you change camera angles in replays of your drives. To save progress, you use a PlayStation 2 memory card in slot 1. Unlocks earned in Take A Ride are not saved automatically: save your profile manually afterwards through Options and Profiles.
Region and language
Our PlayStation 2 games are PAL editions and come with a Dutch or English box, unless stated otherwise. By default, you receive the version for the European market. We note it in the product details if the region is different or the box is in another language. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
Manual
The manual is missing from this copy of DRIV3R for PlayStation 2. That is why the product title says “No Manual”. You receive the game in its box, without the instruction booklet. This makes the contents clear before you order.
The original printed manual usually contains at least English and often around six European languages. The languages vary by edition; Dutch is not always included. This information describes the original booklet and does not mean that it comes with this copy. A copy with a manual is offered separately when available.
The history of DRIV3R
Reflections Interactive released DRIV3R for PlayStation 2 with Atari in 2004. After two Driver games on the original PlayStation, the studio moved the series to a new generation of consoles. In the meantime, Reflections had gained experience with heavy collisions, suspension and precisely performed film stunts through Stuntman. The technology for that game provided a starting point for DRIV3R's vehicle physics. Tanner returned as the lead character, with Tobias Jones as his partner and Jericho as a familiar adversary from the series.
In interviews, developer Martin Edmondson mainly cited chase films such as Bullitt, The Driver and The French Connection as inspiration. The team wanted a car's weight, sliding rear wheels and deforming bodywork to play a part in the action. Miami, Nice and Istanbul provided different backdrops and road types for this. The cinematic approach also shaped the presentation: cutscenes linked the assignments, while Film Director allowed players to re-edit their own pursuits and view them from other angles.
DRIV3R further expanded freedom outside the car with shootouts, swimming and vehicles on the water. This changed the rhythm of the earlier games, in which driving had been even more dominant. The PlayStation 2 release thus records an intermediate step in the series: the familiar undercover officer travels through several cities, but the action scenes are larger and presented more prominently. The later Driver: Parallel Lines would then choose a new protagonist and a single city in two different eras.
Similar games for PlayStation 2
Driver: Parallel Lines for PlayStation 2 shares DRIV3R's pursuits, damaged vehicles and alternation between driving and shooting. However, you follow TK in New York in 1978 and 2006, rather than Tanner during an international investigation. Garages and car customisation receive more attention. DRIV3R instead offers three different cities and a Film Director for editing replays. Choose between a story built around two eras and a succession of separate urban environments.
Like DRIV3R, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for PlayStation 2 combines a sunny coastal city, car theft and armed assignments. There, Tommy Vercetti builds his own position in the underworld and can take over businesses. Tanner remains an undercover officer trying to infiltrate a gang. Vice City offers more side activities around a growing criminal empire; DRIV3R focuses its story more tightly on vehicle deliveries, pursuits and the move between Miami, Nice and Istanbul.
The Getaway for PlayStation 2 likewise links crime scenes on foot to dangerous drives through a recognisable city. Its London story follows a former criminal and then a police officer. The restrained presentation uses car indicators, among other things, for route guidance. DRIV3R shows meters and a map more clearly and offers separate driving challenges outside its story. Where The Getaway develops a single urban backdrop, DRIV3R asks you to adapt your driving style across three cities with different roads.
Stuntman for PlayStation 2 also comes from Reflections and shares DRIV3R's emphasis on vehicle weight, slides and collisions. There, you perform stunt sequences under a film director's instructions: a jump or turn must happen at the right moment to complete the shot. In DRIV3R, you receive objectives within streets filled with traffic and pursuers. Both demand control of the car, but Stuntman is more strongly focused on repeating a prescribed performance.
Like DRIV3R, True Crime: Streets of LA for PlayStation 2 lets you control a police officer who alternates between driving and fighting. Nick Kang investigates crime in Los Angeles and also encounters street offences and unarmed combat. DRIV3R primarily uses Tanner as an infiltrator within a car-theft gang and places greater emphasis on the consequences of collisions during pursuits. The difference lies in everyday police duties and fighting techniques versus dangerous drives through three international cities.
