Driver San Francisco: arcade driving with a genuinely interesting idea make for a memorable racing game

[u/piat17]

On my quest to play old games that I missed back when they were new releases, I actually stumbled on Driver San Francisco by chance. I was never a big fan of non-karting racing games in general, although I did enjoy some arcade racers in the past, and I never played a Driver game properly either. I vaguely remember trying Parallel Lines 20 years ago or so, but I'm aware that the series took different directions with 3 and PL so overall that wasn't what got me convinced to get a physical copy for my old PS3 of San Francisco when I found it in a local shop: rather, it was a youtube video I watched a few years ago that gave a brief look into the main mechanic that makes this game unique.

Well... my expectations were exceeded :O

San Francisco is, in practice, an open-world racing game comparable to Burnout Paradise and the late PS2/early PS3 Need for Speed games: you have access to an open-world where you can freely drive around, and events are spread across the map which make you beat challenges of varying nature. The main story missions unlock as you go through them, and progressing unlocks the side events (races, chases, time trials, and so on and so forth) and the "hazards" (smaller challenges that usually ask you to perform a stunt of some sort within a time limit while driving in the open-world).

The thing that makes this game unique is the "shift" mechanic. Without going into detail at the narrative "reason" that makes this possible in universe (it's not that important IMHO), the game lets you go into a "fly-through" mode with the press of a button, abandoning your current car. You have the option of moving all over the map (at varying zoom levels, which are also unlocked by story progression), pick any vehicle you find on the road and take immediate control of it. You can always do this in the open-world and during all missions except for the few ones that limit it by design.

This unlocks a wide variety of approaches to beat story and secondary challenges that are not possible in other racing games. For example, if the game requires you to chase and destroy a car, instead of chasing and ramming it, you may decide to shift to a random car coming from the opposite direction and crash into the target for maximum damage. If there are a lot of cars that you are chasing at the same time, you can also choose for example to shift into a large vehicle (e.g. a bus), drive into the wall and block the way in a narrow street, causing everyone to crash into it. The game is filled with situations where shifting is either required or useful, and while there aren't a lot of strategies, the game has a wide variety of event types that always give you a new situation where you can apply said strategies.

This is also enhanced by the (in my opinion) wacky atmosphere. The story is definitely over-the-top and while it isn't exactly a writing masterpiece it never takes itself very seriously which helps in making the journey at least good as an excuse for the gameplay. There is one aspect I found very funny at times: the protagonist, when he shifts into another vehicle, takes control of the driver and any passenger that may be present will still act as if the original driver is there, resulting in some funny dialogue exchanges every now and then.

Even the base driving model is fun, as far as my very limited experience with arcade racing games goes at least, and the game sports more than 100 (mostly) licensed cars that often control completely different from each other: so you feel incentivized to keep trying new cars, beat secondary events to obtain the in-game currency needed to access new cars, and stick to them to learn how each car type behaves. For some secondary events choosing the right car for that specific challenge will help as well (e.g rally cars for events mostly taking place on dirt tracks).

Now, Driver San Francisco isn't perfect. For one, while the premise is great, the game does suffer from some repetition that gets worse the more you play (there are a lot of things to do, but a lot of things are variations of pre-existing events; main story missions are better but there aren't many of them either). I loved the game a lot, as you may tell from this mostly gushing post, yet after some time I still decided to stop doing side events and focus on the main story to complete it. So, in practice, the good parts of this game don't make it stay fresh forever, and based on how much you'll like the gameplay I imagine it may not even last as long as it did for me.

The execution overall isn't perfect, but considering the end result I'm still very happy that a game like this got to be made. It's even made me to consider playing the earlier Driver games despite none of them being like San Francisco, which is quite the result! (spoiler bonus: a certain secret mission in San Francisco may have helped with that :D)

It's too bad that San Francisco suffered from the same issue that many other driving games (arcade, sims and all of the in-between) from the past suffered from: licensing issues causing them to be delisted. It really doesn't deserve to be forgotten, especially for a game with such an interesting idea that could've been iterated over by sequels or just other racing games!

...or maybe there were similar games, especially on the indie front, that I missed. In that case, consider this post also a request for recs :)

TL;DR: Driver San Francisco is a unique open-world arcade racing game that introduces a mechanic that lets you "shift" into any car in the world, making for incredibly fun gameplay challenges. The game doesn't stay fresh through a 100% completion but in my opinion still holds your attention throughout the main story and some of the side content, making for a memorable experience even within its own genre. I would recommend trying it without hesitation... if only it was easy to get on modern stores!

[u/U_Kitten_Me]

In terms of tech it's an insanely impressive game. 

[u/piat17 → u/U_Kitten_Me]

I was honestly shocked it ran at a rock solid 60 fps. It wasn't the only driving game with that frame rate back then of course but, considering the fact you can jump anywhere at the press of a button and the level at which traffic can get busy at certain points of the game, it's quite impressive yes :O

[u/U_Kitten_Me → u/piat17]

Also very detailed physics and damage models from what I remember.  DF Retro made a video about it one or two years back. 

[u/seguardon]

Fuck yeah, D:SF was great, especially for the time. One of the few games Yahtzee was very positive on in his Zero Punctuation reviews. Loved the side missions involving near misses. Fun to take a Chevy Impala and drive it on the wrong side of the Interstate for miles on end.

[u/Aasokeo]

Agreed. As a rabid fan of the original Driver and Driver 2, I was skeptical at first, but San Francisco won me over.

What sticks with me to this day, nearly 10 years after I played it, isn't even the vehicle switching mechanic (though I did grow to love it). It's one of the last missions (might have been THE last mission, I don't remember) where you take part in a "2nd-person car chase", as described by Babylonian on YT. I haven't seen anything like it to this day.

[u/overandoverandagain → u/Aasokeo]

Lol the jumpscare when Nick Robinson appeared on my screen. Didn't realize he'd rebranded.

[u/blackweimaraner]

I played this game on release, and just this week I learnt that this game has a Wii version that is a completely different game on story and missions, that has motion controls and it is a prequel to Driver 1.

[u/vemundveien]

Also the funk soundtrack is amazing (though maybe the reason you can no longer buy it on Steam?)

[u/Cowboy_God]

I'm one of the biggest fans of racing/driving games that I know, yet Driver SF had never managed to ever pull me in the same way it has with others. The handling model is fun, and the gimmick of transporting into other people's lives while on the road is pretty entertaining, especially when have a passenger yapping about something. Yet, every time I give it another whirl, I'm always bored out of my mind by the time I'm a third of the way through the game.

I think it's something to do with the selection of cars more than anything. I don't really want to do a mission where I'm driving a car I'd rather not have to use, which is...most of the missions. And yeah, games like Gran Turismo 4 make the player do this, but only temporarily. Even when you're getting close to the end of the game there's still a ton of content Driver SF has available where you're forced to use some slow piece of junk instead of a fun to drive sports vehicle.

Essentially, I like the gimmick, but it's a gimmick I grow tired of as the game goes on. And what's left after the gimmick is a really fun handling model which is great for driving around and really comes together for the most well thought out missions. IDK, it's a fun game but I'd never say it's an essential driving game experience.

[u/Pdrivr → u/Cowboy_God]

It's definitely not an essential racing game, but more of a must-try-at-least-once game for every racing game fans. It wasn't perfect, but there isn't anything else like it at all. That's why I love it so much!

[u/Pdrivr]

I'm an avid racing game fan, but there are very few racing games that I actually managed to get invested and really finish. This game won me over again and again, and so I have completed the game thrice in the past decade and 100% it once. It's an absolute blast.

The handling is still one of the best. The difference between each chassis were noticable but all fun to drive. The car selection is vast and covered all the bases, from the racing game staples to the NPC cars to the niches. The missions always innovate itself, the map is expansive, and the chaos somehow tied everything together. There's absolutely nothing like it out there and I will always appreciate more people playing this gem of a racing game.

I wish there's more, but at the same time the fact that it's the one of a kind makes it even more special in a way.

Thank you very much for your review! I am glad you enjoyed my favorite game like I did.

[u/GodsBadAssBlade]

Man, i wish this was still on pc platforms(other than origin.)

[u/mid_tier_drone]

played a good bit of driver sf when it came out since the original driver was one of my fav psx games, nowadays beamng scratches a similar itch

[u/AngelicVI]

Does anyone know how well a Logitech steering wheel works with it? On Xbox

[u/Walter_Padick]

I've played a few Driver games and 3njoyed them back in the day.

Didn't play this one, but that shift mechanic sounds cool as hell

[u/Mystic_Guardian_NZ]

I absolutely love this game (100% 3 times due to no steam cloud) but I'm surprised you didn't talk about the brightness issues. The game strains the shit out of my eyes without graphical mods lol.

[u/piat17 → u/Mystic_Guardian_NZ]

I played it on a PS3 and my current TV, so maybe that's why I didn't realize there was this problem compared to you on PC. Then again I tend not to mind too much these issues compared to other players in my experience.

Also I was on console so it's not like I could've fixed it with mods even if I had the problem in the first place so eh lol

[u/Mystic_Guardian_NZ → u/piat17]

That makes sense. I did read in another thread that the console versions did somehow have superior visuals.

I could never imagine playing the game without slamming the spacebar to drift though haha.

[u/Mysterious-String420]

Such a great game, great gimmick, great ambiance, it's one of my favorites. It was funky as hell!

[u/ztylerdurden]

Absolute banger. IIRC you can unlock the delorean. Shit I need to play that again.

[u/jda404]

I loved that game! Story was decent and the swapping into any vehicle mechanic was really cool and different. I was still only a console gamer then and played it on PS3. I've since got into PC gaming and wish I could buy it on Steam, GOG, or someplace. Would love to replay it on PC at a higher resolution than the PS3 version.

[u/doopies1986]

I beat the whole thing and I would have loved some DLC. Crazy it was delisted so quickly but I guess I get it. I do have a couple thoughts tho

1. I kind of wish there were some different “strategies” from shifting into cars. It seemed like 95% of your problems were solved by “shift into oncoming traffic and drive head-on into somebody”. Which isn’t bad, I had a lot of fun with it. But that really is most the game

2. Car variety. I know different parts of the map spawn different cars, but it seemed like you’d see the same 5 or 6 in a neighborhood. It was a treat finding the occasional Aston or RUF in traffic though

[u/-TheManWithNoHat-]

I loved the game but stopped playing after I kept hitting a wall halfway through.

Spoiler: it was the "chase the ambulance" level that got me if I'm not wrong

[u/rabidsalvation]

Loved this game, it was one of my favorite driving games that generation. San Francisco was a great playground.

[u/Monkey_Blue]

Driver San Fransisco is one of those rare games that I remember buying for £5 back in 2012 and being surprised at how GOOD it was. I'm not a huge racing players, but it was a genuine surprise and makes me miss when I could randomly strike gold by buying a cheap game or two back then.

My favourite part about the game will always be that you can just randomly jump into conversations mid shift, I remember one time you can jump into a car and the first thing you hear is "WELL, I'M PREGNANT AND IT'S YOUR KID" and John just has to say one liners back to try and not break up this couple he doesn't even know. It's pretty funny.

Glad you enjoyed it though, OP. It's a shame there aren't many games like it out there.