Format: PlayStation
Release: 1998
Publisher: Infogames
Developer: Reflections
Towards the end of its life, it became fashionable to denigrate the PlayStation. To claim its incredible success owed more to the Sony publicity machine than the quality of the software. To bemoan the wannabe-cinematic formula of cutscenes, glitchy 3D and poorly selected camera angles that characterised so many mediocre titles released in the console’s latter years.
Yet the PlayStation wasn't always a rest home for staid franchises, and there was a time when the term ‘cinematic’ didn’t seem quite so loaded either. Driver is a perfect example. It’s derived from an ancient genre and utilises a simple pick-up-and-play, drive-from-A-to-B mechanic. But add some super-stylised presentation, some ’70s cool, some of that much fabled Sony PlayStation ‘attitude’ and the concept is transformed unrecognisably.
Reflections’ founder and MD Martin Edmondson explains the game’s genesis: “The idea for Driver actually came about during the development of Destruction Derby. I was messing about on one of the tracks called ‘Crossroads’, and thought it would be great to make a game that was full of these crossroads and would let the player choose the direction he drove in. This rapidly developed into a ‘car chase’ game, as I had an unhealthy appetite for them as a kid.†However, because Reflections was already contracted to produce Destruction Derby 2, the game’s development was delayed. With unexpectedly positive consequences.
At the most base level, the elongated gestation time helped not only to hone Reflections’ PlayStation expertise, but to banish any lingering doubts that Driver would actually be possible on the console. Without that extra time, one of the Sony machine’s flagship titles could have been PC only. “When we initially started hawking the idea around publishers and journalists we showed them a PC version… which gave rise to plenty of doubts about whether the game would actually be possible on PlayStation hardware. A rumour which wasn’t helped when we took a dev kit to E3 to show the PlayStation version to trade, only for it to be destroyed during shipment.â€
The extra time proved beneficial from a design perspective too. Having already mastered the PlayStation racer with the impressive Destruction Derby series, the Newcastle-based developer was determined to really push the genre forward. “We decided to do a story-driven racer… we particularly wanted to avoid all the clichés like earning money for jobs, points for running down pedestrians and so on. We also wanted the feeling that you were solving something and hunting a person down. We wanted to enable complete changes of situation – sometimes you’d be blasting down the street and screeching in and out of traffic with cops on your tail; and at other times trying to cruise as unobtrusively as possible.†It pays to remember, that before Driver’s timely reinvigoration of the arcade racer the genre was suffering something of a malaise. Heading down a post Gran Turismo blind alley of airbrushed cars with ever more realistic graphics and, um, ever more realistic handling. Hardly the most diverse future.
This dissatisfaction with the state of racing games led Edmondson and his team to draw inspiration almost entirely from TV and the movies. The ’70s setting then, was a result of several factors. Firstly, Edmondson's own personal fondness for the decade, “Personally, I think the ’70s is very interesting in terms of style… modern US vehicles are incredibly dull compared to the classic ’70s muscle cars.†The beautiful thing about the lopsided heavy gas-guzzlers of Driver’s world being that they are so much fun to drive. Because the cars are, by European standards, hopeless, even the gentlest curve threatened to send you spinning into oncoming traffic. While it was also common to slip into slides which could only be driven out of with plenty of opposite lock and throttle application. Then there was the thick smoke of the multiple pile-ups and the hubcaps that pinged off with the slightest encouragement. And the repetitive “suspect heading north†speech. It’s pure theatricality. And perfect for the PlayStation. Revelling in grease, fumes and crisis, Driver was clearly Gran Turismo’s wayward little brother. Which brings us on to the second point about the significance of Reflections’ use of cars from the ’70s. It taps into the rich cinematic heritage of classic car chase movies such as Bullit, The French Connection, The Italian Job, Cannonball Run, and The Blues Brothers. The gameplay feels designed to enable you to relive the sliding-down-an-alley-knocking-over-cardboard-boxes chaos of those memorable chases, and it was for exactly this reason that such a comprehensive action replay editor was included. Indeed, Edmondson hails the quality of the replays as Driver’s “greatest achievement"
What’s more impressive is the way that Driver’s cinematic borrowings are incorporated into the game itself. The presence of the love-it-or-loathe-it garage trial is predominantly down to the influence of celluloid. “It was influenced by the garage sequence in Walter Hill’s 1978 picture The Driver,†admits Edmondson. “In it, the eponymous driver [Ryan O’Neal] demonstrates his driving abilities by smashing up an orange Mercedes. In the event though, I wish we’d made it optional because I know it really pissed a lot of people off.â€
The inclusion of such console-unfriendly eccentricities as the garage test, is one of the things that make Driver so noticeable. A testament that behind the opulence of the Antonio ‘Huggy Bear’ Fargas starring adverts the creation of the game was a lot less surefooted – a sure sign of the false starts and stuttering that characterises real innovation. And it’s clear that Edmondson has had second thoughts on many of the game’s most famous features. Of the cutscenes he says, “They were extremely simple and, looking back on them, pretty poor, due to lack of time and resources. We could also have done with a few more to help the player follow the story more.†Even the famous answer-phone-as-mission-choosing-mechanism isn’t exempt from criticism. “Having mission choices in Driver is something I regret to an extent. It made it impossible to tie all the missions into a story.†And what about the insane difficulty level of the last mission, The President’s Run? “Yes, perhaps it was too hard also,†admits Edmondson, sheepishly, before adding, “It's absolutely possible though.â€
But while many of the problems of these peripheral features were ‘fixed’ for the sequel – the first game is still the title that stands out. The reason being simply, that while the cut-scenes in Driver 2 may be more impressive, the difficulty level more forgiving and the incidentals more polished, it just wasn’t as entertaining. “We probably pushed the envelope too far with Driver 2,†says Edmondson. “We added more cars, curved roads, getting out of the vehicles, splitscreen… Driver was simpler, it ran faster, and had a longer draw distance... I have to admit that if it comes to ten minutes of ragging around the streets I prefer Driver because it feels better.†But perhaps more importantly, the freedom to drive anywhere (the whole point of Edmondson’s initial crossroads idea) was badly curtailed in the sequel.
What’s also very interesting about Driver is that while Reflections’ was dreaming up its freeform 3D driving world, Rockstar was honing a similar vision for its equally prophetic Grand Theft Auto series. Edmondson comments, “Driver started development well before GTA was announced but I must admit I was worried when I read the first GTA press releases because it did sound like Driver.†However, while for most people Reflections’ racers surpassed the PlayStation incarnations of the GTA series, what did he make of the distinctively Driver-like synthesis in later incarnations of the competing franchise, notably GTAIII? “From a design point of view, yes, I was impressed. If you’re talking technically, visually or vehicle dynamics, then no, it was very disappointing.†Touché.
Not that Edmondson needs to worry about the continued critical standing of Driver. Because while the game was to be much imitated, just like Mario Kart (though not quite in the same league), Reflections’ racer has managed to maintain its superiority over the many pretenders to the throne. It’s the handling, the real cities, the civilian vehicles, the mix of the ultra cool and incredibly cheesy… and yes, the cinematic nature, which make Driver special.
This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared in E111.