Driver Parallel Lines review

We'd love to write a book about what happened to Driv3r. It's an amazing story. Full of intrigue, mystery and misunderstanding. Where nail-biting, gun-point pressure meant that in-game promises could not be met and what at one stage looked like the world's ultimate game instead appeared as the most amazing technical demo ever to sell for £40.

And right now we'd love to write the "Driver is back!" story. About how the new game destroys all memories of the flawed third. But while this would make compulsive reading it would be a work of fiction.

All the ingredients are there (we lost count of the ways in which DPL fixes the irritating game-crimes of D3) we're left with a game that while 'good' simply can't be considered in the same breath as GTA: San Andreas. Or Vice City. Or GTA3. Hmm.

What DPL does, and does very well, is concentrate on what it knows. Gone are ambitious three-city jaunts. Likewise gone are plots that make no sense, populated by characters that look identical (ie, like a potato).

And gone are most of the on-foot bits, replaced with gameplay and difficulty so driving-centric that you're an idiot if you ever get out of the car. Here we have one city, one likeable hero and a story that (while a total rip off of Kill Bill) at least keeps you playing.

So we've 30-odd missions and a vast (and we mean almost too big) constantly streaming gameworld in which to 'do' them.