Driv3r appeared with the smell of burning rubber and the bellow of exhausts, yet it was quickly and quietly forgotten about and left in the bargain bin. Was it really that bad?
Driv3r, the third installment in the popular Driver series, was the first game to progress from the PSX onto the sixth generation consoles. Early screenshots showed the game to be open world – a mix of car chases with realistic damage, intense gun battles and detailed environments. The game was in development for just over three and a half years and had awaited with anticipation.
WTMG's Leo Faria: "Was Driv3r one of the first truly overhyped games in history? One of the first games incessantly covered by press pre-launch, only to end up being the complete opposite of what it promised once it finally arrived onto store shelves? It’s worth discussing. Then again, hindsight is 20-20; it’s easy to laugh at the fact it was once touted to be a GTA killer, but there were just half a dozen GTA clones back then, and we didn’t have YouTube or other reliable video players to properly check how a game played before actually buying it. Maybe Driv3r was a victim of its own hype, a troubled project made by people who didn’t want it to be too similar to Grand Theft Auto itself. But it sucked then, and it still sucks now. Not even the rosiest of nostalgia goggles can save this one."
It's a shame they tried to copy GTA, they were terrible at it. If they'd doubled down on making the driving the star they could still be going now.
Every era is recognised as much for its failures as its successes, from the ones which deliver on their promises perfectly, to the likes of Ride to Hell: Retribution. The sad thing about video games is that the vast majority of such let-downs are the disappointing kind. Even when it’s so dire the developers might as well be mocking your very existence, you can realise how they might have succeeded. Put in enough hours or look far enough into the behind the scenes work, and you can just about see the great game developers were trying to bring to life, even in the absolute worst of games. The shovelware tie-in for Batman Begins might have been dreck of the worst kind but you could at least see the beginnings of ideas which would make it into Arkham Asylum.
Wez and Larry have a slightly NSFW look at some of the most overhyped games of all time, that made you think they’d be the best thing EVARRR, but turned out to be total trash.
