Driver 76 is something of a prequel to Driver: Parallel Lines, featuring a few supporting characters from the last major release. Of course, since hardly anyone actually played the last Driver game, it’s unlikely these characters carry any sort of narrative weight. The main protagonist is Ray, a rather generic looking 70s tough guy, who tends to think with the head in his pants, rather than the one on his shoulders – basically, he wants to shag a hot Asian girl, and lo and behold, she turns out to be the Triad boss’ daughter. You’d think that there are no other Asian gangs in the world with the way these games predictably use the same gangs over and over again. Ray is unsurprisingly teamed up with a walking stereotype of the 70s African American male named Slick, who with his jive talk and large afro is likely to make you roll your eyes back into your head to look at your brain and wonder why the heck you were inspired to pay for such rubbish. Throw in a bunch of unimaginative underworld storylines and you’ve got the basis for a new cure for insomnia.
Slick turned to a life of crime after an unsuccessful career as a Q-Tip
A comic book style presentation in combination with some voiceovers is used to further the game’s plot, and is probably the only thing that seems remotely impressive about Driver 76 – even if such a method has been used more effectively in other games, Sumo Digital managed to get the look and style of 70s comic books right. The problem is that the game forces the player to sit through ridiculously long loading sequences (many of which extend past the minute mark) just to see these bits – in some cases, there are load screens stacked on top of different types of load screens, which is really quite irritating. Given Sumo Digital’s considerably impressive technical record, one would think that they’d have been capable of minimising the down time between missions.
It’s a pity the flashy presentation of Driver 76’s story sequences couldn’t have made it into the main game. New York looks really dreary due mainly to a serious influx of brown and grey textures, and a distinct lack of major pedestrian life – even the busiest of streets will have a mere half-dozen Knickerbockers roaming at any one time. It’s more like a ghost town than a major metropolitan area. A number of famous boroughs in the city have been reproduced – Brooklyn, the Bronx, Harlem and such; yet they all seem relatively generic in appearance, and a certainly not to scale on any level of the imagination. The draw distance is fairly impressive, but comes at a price – namely an erratic frame rate and boxy buildings and cars. Ray seems to be best off staying in the car – notice that when he gets out of the car, he runs around like he’s got a pole stuck in his coight. As a whole, the game can’t even hold a candle to the 6 year old Grand Theft Auto III, let alone Rockstar Leeds’ recent portable efforts. The funk-centric 70s soundtrack is a plus, but most of it appeared in Parallel Lines. Voice work for the main characters seems to be just as unimaginative and uninspiring as the characters involved in the game.
This utter lack of imagination runs rampant throughout Driver 76’s gameplay. Many of the tasks Ray is required to do are mundane – drive to point X before the time expires, escort this person/car, lose the police while carrying person X to safety and so on. The game does allow you to take missions out of order from time to time, but this has no effect on the story, which continues to operate in a completely linear fashion regardless of your actions. There’s an offering of equally generic side missions – a billion different types of races, taxi missions and more wheelman jobs, but nothing that really generates any significant interest in the package. Side jobs earn cash, which the player can use to beef up Ray’s armoury, but given the distinct lack of challenge in the story missions, one can play through the game without touching side missions, and be no worse off.
Ray took exception at being served "doggy bag" at the local Chinese restaurant
As always, Driver is best enjoyed in the vehicle – there are 50 different types of vehicles available for usage; cars, trucks and bikes, with varying advantages and disadvantages. Handling in the cars is generally workable, but the PSP’s analogue nub does not do the player any favours, nor does the janky camera. There’s very little incentive to actually get out of the car, other than the fact that some missions force you to do so. We already mentioned that Ray walks around like a moron, but he also does it in an incredibly slow manner – there is no sprint or jump buttons to move things along. The lock-on targeting system for the weapons is satisfactory, but the guns themselves lack any sort of conceivable power – it’s like you’re firing a NERF gun at your adversaries, as it takes a full clip to take down the majority of enemies in the game. The police in the game are largely bumbling and incompetent, kind of like the Shaun Micallef-Glenn Butcher duo from the old Full Frontal days – it’s incredibly easy to lose the fuzz should you commit a crime, but going on a homicidal rampage still fails to wring any joy out of the product. Driver 76 is not exactly a long lived experience either, with only enough content to keep players busy for about a maximum of eight hours.
Sumo Digital has failed to give Driver 76 any sort of standout features that could inspire players to give it a legitimate try. While the comic book-style narrative is a nice touch, many other features of the game are derivative, poorly executed or just outright boring, and the game’s poor graphics and frustrating load times really do little to plead Driver 76’s case. Like many other recent efforts in the franchise, Driver 76 seems too much like a “me too” product, rather than anything daring or outstanding like the original game. There are many other far more exciting free-roaming action games available on the PSP, so we recommend that you leave Driver 76 on the shelf.
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