TDI | Outsourcing | Edinburgh: Driver for iPhone/iPod Touch | Game review

Driver for iPhone/iPod Touch | Game review
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Guardian.co.uk on 30 December, 2009 02:23:15
 
iPhone/iPod Touch; £3.99; cert 12+; Gameloft
With fond memories of the original Driver, a PlayStation classic that was
something of a pioneer of the time, I was really looking forward to seeing
whether Gameloft could recapture its glory in this iPhone/iPod Touch outing, 10
years on. I wasn't disappointed.
The new Driver feels like an exact replica of the original, and that is a huge
compliment. The joys of outrunning the cops down a busy road, pulling off
handbrake turns around sharp corners, launching your car off ramps to fly over
the heads of the police; it's all here. The cars handle like a dream, with a
perfect mix of arcade and realism. While not always easy to keep under control,
this makes it so much more rewarding when you pull off that perfect powerslide.
You control Tanner, a undercover NYPD detective sent to infiltrate a crime gang
using his driving ability to gain the trust of the mob bosses. With an
impressively sized story mode, cut into short bursts designed for portable play
and set over four expansive cities, there is much to keep you occupied. What's
more, all of the driving games from the original have been revived –
including the popular survival mode, where you must keep your car on the road
for as long as possible in the face of kamikaze cops trying to destroy it.
There are three options when deciding how to control your car. The best is the
virtual D-pad, which makes it the easiest to keep the car on the road and,
crucially for a nostalgic like me, is closest to the original PlayStation
controller. Then there's the stick, which is just too fiddly. The
accelerometer, a great idea in theory, makes use of the iPhone's tilt function,
but isn't really precise enough to get the most of the gameplay.
It's a slight annoyance that you can't take Tanner out of the car, which seems
a little dated, while the cops are frustratingly draconian. Go faster than a
milk float and they'll respond with an unsophisticated head-on ram, forcing you
to make a run for it. It's probably for the best though – it wouldn't be much
of a game if all Tanner had to do was drive according to the highway code.
Yet these issues merely add to the reason that I love this game so much; it
just feels so decidedly retro. The original Driver was an excellent game for
the PlayStation. Its iPhone equivalent may be almost exactly the same 10 years
on, but it's just as much fun now as it was then.
Rating: 5/5
*Games	*iPhone	*iPod	*Handheld
Todd Nash
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