Why Driver has gone downhill

[Yackemflaber]

To any fans of the Driver series, you all know that since Driv3r the series has been in a slump. Driver: PL fixed a lot of the technical problems, but in some ways was actually inferior to Driv3r.
Last night while pondering what Ubisoft will do with the series, a theory came to my head.
The Driver games have always revolved around you being an undercover cop (excluding Parallel Lines) but in Driv3r, despite being an cop, you stole cars, ran people over, and killed your fellow police men. Parallel Lines made it even worse by putting you in the shoes of an actual criminal, giving you more reason to do all the above mentioned things.
Let's face it, GTA will probably always dominate the crime-based free roaming games, and killing hundreds of police would surely have gotten Tanner put in jail no matter how deep undercover he was in Driv3r. Why not make the next one make sense? Put us back in the shoes of Tanner, but make him out to be more of a good-intentions cop instead of a sadistic killer.
HOW TO FIX THE FORMULA WITHOUT DAMAGING IT:
When you jack cars he could scream at the drivers something like "I'M A POLICE OFFICER GET OUT OF THE CAR!" or say something so the innocent pedestrian isn't fearing for their life in that moment.
If you shoot at innocents, make the consequences fit the crime. Maybe when you get caught your badge is taken and the game ends. Maybe take the route of the upcoming game Crackdown and don't even let us shoot innocents.
And if you're on a mission and get caught by the cops, the mission could be ended with a message reading "you're cover was blown" instead of "you were arrested/busted"

now I know that these ideas aren't too drastic or changing of the game, but I think they help you to understand what I'm talking about.
Agree or disagree?

[SI-crash_VAX]

How about we go back to square one and never get out of the car... I always liked it like that.

PS - I agree with you.

[Yackemflaber]

How about we go back to square one and never get out of the car... I always liked it like that.

PS - I agree with you.
I agree with you as well, I'm pretty damn sure they could make a free-roaming game where you never got out of the car and it would be awesome, I had even made a thread in the Driver forums before they were closed explaining how they could do this. (example: To change your car you drive to one of your garages and choose it through a menu, and what's wrong with that?)

[Driv3r912]

I like where you are going with this... But as I am a huge Driver Fan, lol, I have to say, it would screw up the storyline.

Since driver came out from it's grass roots in early '97, the game has had a huge success. Tanner from the beginning has been undercover. Now when you say let's make Tanner a good cop, we are going into games like TrueCrime. I admit, I loved the True Crime Series (I own both), but after a while of just driving, arrests, and writing up tickets, it gets boring.

What us Driver fans really want to know is, did Tanner survive? The ending of Driv3r was outrageous! Then we go to a completley different guy altogether in Driver PL???.

It's nice to have a good cop/bad cop side to the player.

I would like to see them make a free roam of something like this. Now that I say this...

YES! YES! Tanner should be a good cop for once. I sometimes just jack a cop car to pretend I am a cop. Turning the sirens on and chase a car, they don't pull over so I can "Drive Recklessly" into them (In Driv3r of course).

Good idea!


How about we go back to square one and never get out of the car... I always liked it like that.

PS - I agree with you.
You've got to be kidding me? When ever you drove down the highway in that game, cars would constantly be honking at you in the other lane... I like where you can get out of the car while the cops are chasing you. I also liked Driver 2 where you can jump out of the car in mid air and see it go through the road and pop back up, or hit the side of a building.

[Lightning]

What a shame. In terms of the Storyline, I hope the Driver Series bounces back as I have Driver 2 for
the PS1 & I have played Driver 1 as well. They were very good. Just that for the Playstation 3 &
Xbox 360 (assuming there will be one) it should be like GTA (without copying it) & this time:

*Kill in self defence & use a vary of Amminition
*Chase the Villians in different Vehicles
*Walk into any Building
*Start the Vehicle by the Player actually turning the Engine on
*Players can actually see their controlled Character talking & conversing with
others with different Quotes

Just a few quick Ideas I came up with for the next Installment.

How about we go back to square one and never get out of the car... I
always liked it like that.

PS - I agree with you.

You are kidding, right? That will be a total backward in Video Gaming & will destroy the Driver Series.

[Driv3r912]

I like the idea Lightning, where you said you will have the user start up the vehicle along with turning it off. verey good idea. If we wanted to get too crazy and turn it into a simulation, we can have the user put the vehicle in P, R, N, D..., but that takes away the fun in just getting in a car and driving.

Nice points... :up:

[Lightning]

Thanx!

[Hellsing]

Agree!!

[Patrick2007]

Didn't Tanner die in Driv3r, didn't he get shot by Jericho when he ran for that car door? They should change it so hitting a car isn't an offense. In real life you don't get shot for having a car accident.