I've never been in a car accident - except one that happened at my house when I thought I was hitting the brake but really hit the gas, and then proceeded to bend the heck out of a chain link fence that put little Xs all along the back of my car. True story. Well, with Driver: Parallel Lines, I'm ending up in a lot more accidents than usual thanks to the loose controls, but I did learn the Klingons were right…revenge is a dish best served cold.

THE STORY SO FAR
The Place: New York. The Year: 1978. And You: an 18-year-old fellow named TK who moves to the city from out West in hopes of finding a place a little more habitable for his wild and crazy ways. Once you get to New York you seek out your old buddy – Ray – who taught you everything you needed to know about cars and driving when you were growing up. Well, Ray has some contacts for you that you might enjoy, and so he sets you off on your first mission as a driver (in other words, the guy who drives the car whenever a crime goes down and someone has to be the wheelman). You meet up with Slink, an afro sporting strip club owner who is looking to obtain your services if you can prove yourself worthy enough.

As your reputation increases, more and more people come seeking your services, as you slowly position yourself in what is a fairly high profile crime syndicate. This crime family has big plans, but the bad news is that you aren't included in them. After you take the fall for a certain crime, you end up in jail for 28 years, and when you are released it isn't with thoughts of living this new life as a reformed man…no, no, no…cause there is only one thing you've been thinking about during that time…revenge!

Imagine the story of Kill Bill, replace Beatrix Kiddo with a guy who drives more cars than he does martial arts, and you've got a good idea as to what the last half of the game is like.

The story is told through the actual missions you partake in and the scattered CG cutscenes that tell the rest of the story. The CG work is quite good, as it really helps the game feel like a big Hollywood movie, and it does an excellent job at advancing the plot forward. The only complaints I have about the CG scenes are the arms of the characters. I know…odd isn't it? Well, you can't help but notice the jerky motions of the arms since everything else is surprisingly well animated; imagine someone doing the robot…there you go.

As far as the actual missions go, the story comes from the various tasks you are asked to do. Slink needs you to go collect some money, but somebody has a thing against Slink and tries to kill you why you collect the money. It isn't much, but it does involve central characters, and besides, these are missions you have to complete in order to advance the story of the game. Though some story missions are uninspired, you'll occasionally get moments such as the one where you have to pump a prison guard for info, then break into a prison, bust someone out, and then hightail it out of there. Or, another key mission, is one where you have to help setup an ambush and everything rides on your performance; do everything you need to do and you have no problems, but should you miss a key step in the plan things could go bad (in this instance, the game doesn't fail your mission and make you start over, it just means things will be a bit rougher).

Overall, the story is nicely done, and was the key factor that made me want to play to the game's completion.

GAMEPLAY
Since there isn't a multiplayer portion of the game, content boils down to strictly single player affairs.

As already mentioned, the crux of the game revolves around these missions that advance the story. To get these missions, you'll typically be presented a cutscene to inform you what is going on and then you'll get a call on your radio (during the 70s and pager/phone during the 00s) to inform you a new mission is available. These new missions are presented as yellow markers on your world map, which you'll then have to drive to in order to activate them. Once you park your car or walk into one of these circles (though it is worth noting a select few require specific criteria to be met) a screen will pop into view informing you what your mission is.

Given these story missions are the driving force behind the game, the gameplay dynamics around this area must be airtight and not show a single flaw or weakness. Can you guess what I'm about to say? Yep, there is a flaw…a big one at that. In order to get to these missions you actually have to drive all the way there, which can take anywhere from just a handful of minutes to an extremely long trek giving the distance between your starting position and the position of the mission marker. There is a limited warp ability that allows you to start off at one of Ray's auto shops or your safe house, but those only help you out a bit. Now, the problem is all that can happen during that journey…namely the police (blue, fuzz, popo, whatever you want to call them). Since you can't start a mission with a tail (i.e. the police following you), you have to make sure you shake anything you currently have on you in order to start. So, if you find yourself attracting those flashing blue lights near the finish point, you'll have to make some detours to lose them, but that can take you pretty far away from your destination, which means an even longer commute, and that isn't even factoring in the fact that in many cases the police like to patrol for your vehicle…right at that exact spot.

New York's finest is also some of the smartest idiots I've ever seen. Whenever you are fleeing for your life from the police, the AI is usually too good as they manage to mimic your swerves through traffic almost to the letter; if you look behind you it is quite laughable to see these chorus line of moves happening. Though you can outrun them the hard way (i.e. swerving through traffic, ramming them, etc.) I typically found it easy to just…stop. Yep, a time tested process I discovered was going preferably down a very long straightaway, stopping the car, getting out, and then making the cops get out on foot themselves and chase me down. After you lead the cops far enough away from their own cars (don't worry, their bullets don't do too much damage if you have enough health) you can steal a parked car you find, hop in, then run the cops down if you are maniacal and then just pull away; the ones you don't kill will take forever to get back to their cars, meaning you get to easily pull away and shake their tail.

Not only are the police a hampering force while trying to get to your missions, but also the pedestrian traffic is just as equally frustrating. Small, blocked roads of traffic that crawl at a snail's pace, means you'll have to swerve in and out of traffic more times than Tara Reid after a hard night of drinking, but that isn't the easiest thing when your controls are so loose. You might see an opening between two cars, think to yourself you'll be able to squeeze between them, but then – BAM! – you misjudge, your car skids awkwardly and you are crashing headlong into traffic. And that, dear readers, is more wasted minutes as you try to regain your composure, get reversed out of the way, and then get heading back towards your destination; to remedy the situation I usually just drove on the sidewalks and hit whoever was in my way.

Besides the clumsiness of having to actually drive great distances to get to your missions and the looseness of the vehicles' handling (graceful turns end up being laughable slips on ice covered ponds – I can't tell you how many times I thought I'd clear something, only to end up smacking dead on instead), everything else is solid…for the most part.

Though the actual driving is good enough, the shooting leaves a lot to be desired. You can auto-target an enemy, for example, by having it right in front of you and then holding the left trigger; as you hold the left trigger, you are free to shoot and circle strafe all you want. The auto-target is a bit different when trying to shoot while driving a vehicle, as it is now assigned to the X-button to activate and the actual A-button to shoot (on foot missions use the right trigger). Given that you need to be looking almost "directly" at your intended target, it often leads to hilariously twitchy instances where you lock-on to either nothing at all (meaning you are running around blind while this guy pops you full of holes) or onto someone you didn't want (like, say, an innocent pedestrian). Oh sure, you can flick your thumbstick around to switch off to various targets, but the time it takes to switch between random targets in the vicinity could mean your death.

Besides the main missions, you've also got some side missions, which I honestly never partook in unless it was required of me so I could advance the story. These missions range from Steal to Order (take a tow truck and quickly grab cars and bring them back to a set location), Loan Shark (chase someone down and ram/shoot them enough times to make them give you the money they owe your employer), Street Race (point to point races on the crowded streets of New York), Circuit Races (closed off race tracks designed just for racing), and Hitman (kill someone). I always did the Loan Shark missions when I needed money, but I had some experience with Circuit Races and Street Races thanks to playing the story missions.

As you drive around, you've got a felony meter for both your vehicle and yourself. Say you are driving around, preferably on the wrong side of the road, and a cop just happens to see you…well, now your car has a felony meter on it, which is this ever increasing bar that goes higher and higher (making you more and more wanted) as you try to evade the police and cause even more traffic violations in the process. Now, this meter is attached solely to the vehicle you caused the commotion in, so even if you are being hounded by the police, should you slip away from them long enough you can ditch the car (you can't be seen doing it) and you get to walk away clean as could be. However, if you are seen leaving the vehicle, or you have to prematurely bail because it is about to explode, you instantly become the wanted man, and can only shake that by typically starting a mission to make it go to zero.

GRAPHICS
The graphics do an excellent job at making you feel as if you are playing during these actual time periods. The 70s is full of muscle cars, New York isn't the city as it is now, and a light golden-brown hue fills the screen to give you the impression that all this is actually happen in the past; it is just slight, so it is never distracting and only does what it is supposed to do, which is make you feel as if you are viewing the 70s. Meanwhile, the 00s look like the more traditional New York with all the blinking signs in Times Square and even just the minute details such as the more electronic/digital driver gauges instead of the bulkier ones seen on old cars. Speaking of cars, though no name brands, they look like other counterparts from their respective years; if you were only to see the cars available, you could easily discern whether you were currently playing in the 70s or 00s.

The city itself is pretty photo realistic as well, though it isn't an exact replicate of the beloved city. Debris flying down shortcut alleys, the self activated slow-mo moments, and viewing sunsets across the horizon are all nicely done and pretty spectacular.

SOUND
I'm not a stickler when it comes to voice acting in a videogame, but I like to acknowledge the good from the bad whenever I run across it. Though Driver: Parallel Lines isn't the pinnacle of top-notch voice acting, it is very solid though perhaps a tad clichéd (maybe not even that really since the game seems to be trying to invoke the feel of an exploitation film from that era and those types of movies were known for these clichés). Regardless, either way, it still holds up well.

The sound effects are also good, ranging from the gunshots to the all encompassing sound of one metal giant smacking another right in the side; the initially metallic boom and resulting car crunches sound very authentic.

Driver also has a nice licensed soundtrack…if you are into old 70s music and rap from the 00s. Me? I'm neither really, so I could care less. There are a few songs I know – "Low Rider," "Papa Was A Rolling Stone," etc. – that were enjoyable after a few listens, but quickly became played to death. On the flipside, however, the game starts you off with a nice chase from the cops to the sound of "One Way or Another" by Blondie that I didn't hear nearly enough on the radio while I was driving around.

CLOSING COMMENTS
I want to rate the game higher, because I certainly enjoyed my time with it when it was firing on all cylinders and doing the things that it did best (telling its story), and though I was constantly inclined to play it to the end, I can't in good faith overlook the problems I encountered in the game and tell you they don't matter…cause they do. Still, given its flaws, it is overall still a fun outing, and fills me with hope that any other game in the series will continue to build upon this foundation and fix the problems I had with the game.

Rating:
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