DRIV3R

Times Online

The graphics are divine, with vast urban locales and spectacular crashes. The cars handle well, and each vehicle has its own characteristics. Yet this is no easy driving game — one of the reasons why, subject matter aside, it carries a 16+ rating.

Games Radar UK (Pre-2006)

A technical marvel that sets a new benchmark. The plot may twist until you lose grip of it altogether, but the balls-out street-driving action saves the day. [PSM2]

Playboy

Your investigation jump-starts reckless car chases through more than 150 miles of highways and city streets in detailed re-creations of Miami, Nice and Isantbul. Slam into any of the 30,000 buildings and your car crumbles realistically. [Apr 2004, p.38]

1UP

No matter the situation, whether you're sneaking around a dark building or barreling through a shopping mall with three police cars in pursuit, you always feel on edge, as if you're living the 007-like "danger is my middle name" lifestyle at all times.

Gamer.tv

Stays true to the series blueprint and moves things forward into the current console generation with style.

PGNx Media

Guys at Reflection could have fixed the spotty AI and graphical problems. As is, fans of the series will certainly want to pick this up since this up since it is the best iteration of the series.

Electronic Gaming Monthly

This is the first game to successfully mix death-on-the-freeway antics with a plot you might actually care about, and it's worth a shot for that alone.

TotalGames.net

A game of two vastly differing stories. One tells of the awesome technology and design work that has gone into constructing the game world. The other is about a failure to utilise that game world into making a cohesive, fun and rewarding videogame experience. Driv3r is glitchy, unfinished and, as we've already stated, fundamentally flawed.

Yahoo! Games

There are moments of controller-throwing frustration, but also many flashes of true craftsmanship and design excellence.

3DAvenue

The driving sections of the game are superbly executed and feature some great gameplay but the on foot sections can cause a great deal of frustration.

Official U.S. Playstation Magazine

The 20 percent that takes place on foot takes four times longer than it should because of countless design flaws. In brief: The driving parts are awesome, the running around sucks.

Next Level Gaming

I was pretty disappointed in the Playstation 2 port because it just did not seem right. The graphics could not match the Xbox version and the controls felt a tab better on the Xbox controller.

DailyGame

If you’re looking for a racing or action game, you’re better off buying a title more focused on those genres.

RealGamer

While the game can be entertaining for short lengths of time playing for prolonged periods can lead to bouts of frustration as you are more often then not required to play the same missions over and over until you clear them due to the strict objectives and randomness of missions.

Play.tm

Possibly the second most disappointing title on the PS2 to "Angel of Darkness," and I'm sure that's not the last time you'll hear the two mentioned together.

Stuff

Hours to complete: That depends on how long you can deal with mediocrity.

Cincinnati Enquirer

The game's controls and animation also feel unresponsive and stiff.

Total Video Games

It hints at brilliance on occasions, but is ultimately flawed by poor execution, sloppy glitches and an overall unfinished feel.

TotalPlayStation

It’s the on-foot action that shows how busted the game really is. Aside from all the disgusting clipping issues (just about any part of any model’s body can poke through any wall with reckless abandon), the lack of animation tweening -- hell of any real animation at all, the on-foot game is just plain crap, plain and simple.

BonusStage

While the city is large in itself and fun to explore and the cinematic cutscenes are semi-inspiring, DRIV3R is a continuously frustrating and boring affair.

Australian GamePro

After creating such large cities, Reflections have failed to use this potential offering no incentive to utilise the surrounds. With no hidden extras or surprises Driver 3 is strictly what you see is what you get.

Game Informer

I suspect the developers might have been better off contstructing this as a pure racing title (as it does do the basics of racing well) and avoiding the shooting action altogether. [Aug 2004, p.94]

Cheat Code Central

It's really more of a de-evolution as the game is littered with problems from start to finish. If you were hoping for a solid gameplay experience considering the game has been often delayed over it's long development cycle, you will be very disappointed.

Game Over Online

Camera angles during gameplay, particularly those when Tanner is on foot, are horrible for lack of a better term. It’s possible to get the camera stuck in walls or other cars, blocking any view of onscreen action.

PSX Nation

The AI in Driv3r has to be some of the worst AI I have come across in along time, your enemy just stands still and shoots occasionally he will kneel down but it seems the enemy in driv3r are way too lazy to care for there lives.

GameZone

The character controls are pretty standard to both third person and FPS titles, but they are very stiff and slow. Not the kind of thing you want in a shoot-out or high-speed chase.

Gaming Age

Game play is where Driv3r really falls short. The controls are a bit fidgety and on the loose side. This is especially noticeable on foot, as it just plays so awkwardly. No matter what control scheme you choose, it just never feels comfortable.

Worth Playing

Solid vehicle controls, great physics, good graphics, not even Hollywood voice actors can save Driv3r. This game is mediocrity in every sense of the word, and it’s all the designers’ fault.

Game Power Australia

If you enjoyed the first two Driver titles, chances are you'll have some fun with Driv3r, but anyone looking for a solid, polished production should steer well clear.

WHAM! Gaming

It's not even as good as "True Crime: Streets of L.A.," and that game was mediocre at best.

GameSpot

While the PS2 version of Driver 3 doesn't have quite as many glitches and problems as the Xbox release, the game still feels like a buggy, unfinished product. What's more, much of the gameplay is uninspired, frequently frustrating, and boring.

IGN

On its own, it's troubled with unforgivably terrible AI, poor out-of-car controls, and some awfully designed levels...Compared to other games of its kind, DRIV3R falls on its face.

Warcry

A great idea gone horribly wrong. Unless you’re a masochist, then the cut scenes are about as entertained as you’re bound to be while playing.

Armchair Empire

A buggy driving game, mixed with a terrible "GTA" clone and bad "Max Payne" rip-off.

VideoGamesLife

Ultimately, despite being the solid and enjoyable game that Driv3r once promised to be, it’s buried far too deep under all the shite to rescue the game from being anything more than just a gaming folly.

GMR Magazine

Unlike "GTA's" open-ended gameplay, DRIV3R is both linear and confined. [Sept 2004, p.83]

Gamestyle

It isn't the technical worries that will disappoint fans of the series (after all, we're used to that sort of thing by now), rather the glaring gameplay inadequacies that utterly destroy most of the main game and cripple the extra modes.

Thunderbolt

Rockstar take three years to produce masterpieces, benchmarks of game design, but Reflections have taken almost double that time and give us an unfinished, unpolished mess.

GamePro

An intensely frustrating trial of patience that’s rewarded with only the most fleeting glimmers of fun. [Sept 2004, p.81]

Game Chronicles

About as much fun as playing in traffic. Avoid this game like a speed trap.

PSX Extreme

A buggy, unfinished and uninspired game.

netjak

Nice try, Atari...but the only thing you guys killed was your own credibility.

Gamezilla!

One of the most annoying games I’ve played in quite awhile. It’s not that it unequivocally reeks, it’s that it provides enough substance and possibilities to make you constantly realize that you should be having fun while you are playing it but aren’t.

PSM Magazine

DRIV3R is a mess, little more than an unfinished recycling of GTA cliches, both sterile and juvenile. [Sept 2004, p.25]

G4 TV

Driv3r tries to be more than just a driving game, but it looks like Tanner should get his butt back behind the wheel and stay there.

games(TM)

A game of two halves, neither of which is finished … It is so cursed by glitches and bugs, and so devoid of anything approaching AI, that it's really impossible to believe the code sitting in your local store is anywhere near complete. [Aug 2004, p.100]

GameSpot AU

In Driv3r's case, however, it's not so much a case of bugs creeping in as rushing in en masse, making playing Driv3r an exercise in frustration, not fun.

Games Radar (in-house)

The cities are huge and beautiful, with country-appropriate cars, and while the gameplay is muddy, it’s easy to see how it could have been better. But as it is, DRIV3R is all flash and little substance.

Game Revolution

It’s astonishing that a series with such unlimited potential has turned into such a farce, but I guess that’s what happens when you drive blindly without taking to the time to ask for directions. As is usually the case, that leads to a dead-end street.

Edge Magazine

This game did not need to be a bad one: the premise remains ripe with extraordinary possibilities. This, however, simply squanders them, showing a determination to prioritise style over substance which cripples the game and damages gaming as a whole. [Aug 2004, p.94]

GameCritics

Only a masochist would have the patience and stamina to finish it. I was on one of the game's final missions when, after what was at least my twenty-fifth re-start, I impulsively hit the OFF switch on my television. I'd had enough. I opened a beer, then sat in the darkness, enjoying the sudden silence and the fact that this game, which had been vexing me for days, was once and for all out of my life.