Is Driver (PS1) Still Worth Playing in 2024?

"Driver was a technical achievement for PS1, a pioneer in cinematic gaming, and an often brutal challenge - TechStomper asks if its brand of 70s car chase antics still holds up."

[Terry_B]

No.

[PrimeVinister]

The driving holds up, most of everything else does not.

[Shane Kim]

What else could you do?

[PrimeVinister]

@Shane Kim

Well, I mean the driving physics hold up. The draw distance, police AI, visuals in general etc do not

[Cacabunga]

One of my all time favorites on PS1. I spent a summer vacation playing this was so good

[isarai]

Sadly youd be hard pressed to find any driving game with better physics these days. But the draw distance really kills it for me

[PrimeVinister]

The physics hold up ridiculously well. And the draw distance is a real hurdle at first.

[__y2jb]

Nonsense. The physics in any modern game or any 360 game is light years beyond Driver.

[isarai]

Nope

[Dandizzle]

This game is hard, you will fail and quit

[PrimeVinister]

But you will get there eventually... maybe

[MatrixxGT]

All in the first two minutes.

[jznrpg]

Stop with is it worth it articles. If you want to play a game play the damn game!

[anast]

I loved this game awhile back.

[Barlos]

Yeah but is it worth reading pointless articles?

[__y2jb]

It wasn’t worth playing in the 90’s.

[Espangerish]

My thoughts exactly. I bought it at release for full price and got frustrated and bored with it very quickly.

[babadivad]

Exactly.

[Dirty_Lemons]

The tutorial for this game broke the then-8 year old me.

[PrimeVinister]

It wasn't the tutorial. The tutorial was in a separate menu.

The first level is to prove you are good at driving, like the main character is.

[SimpleSlave]

If you can get past that tutorial? Yeah. Sure. The physics are actually pretty fun.

But that tutorial...

[PrimeVinister]

It's not the tutorial though 😕

[SimpleSlave]

But it is though 😕

[PrimeVinister]

There is not a single piece of tutelage in the first mission in the garage, they tell you to do XYZ without any instruction.

That's not what a tutorial is. There is a very literal tutorial in a separate menu. There is even an image of the actual tutorial in the article.

[SimpleSlave]

"There is not a single piece of tutelage" Yeah, no shet my guy. Hence why it sucks.

The mode you're referring to is called 'Training' which starts with a 'Demonstration Movie' of what each of the moves look like and how their supposed to be done by showing you way too fast prompts on a small 3D Controller. Then you proceed to try to emulate each move in a Garage with a List of Tricks that you have to finish in a certain amount of time.

Then you start the game and...wait, what's this? The same Garage with the same List of Tricks that you have to finish in the same Amount of Time? Yup, completely different thing... 😐

Some of you are just too disturbingly pedantic.

[DOMination-]

Tune in tomorrow for Is Adidas Predator Soccer (PS1) still worth playing in 2024?

[PrimeVinister]

Adding it to the list :-P

[DOMination-]

haha.

In all seriousness though, if it's racing games you're looking at, you should do Destruction Derby and Wipeout 2097. The way Sony handled those IP and SCE Liverpool after the PS1 is one of the great travesties.

[Chocoburger]

Yes, but also no.
The game's main flaw is that it can be too hard. Every mission can be beaten if you try enough times, except for the final mission!

The final mission is one of the worst missions in Gaming history! It is insanely stupidly hard and cheap.

I never beat it when I owned the disc, and I recently relayed it again on my Vita, and the only way I was able to beat the final mission was with using a couple of save states.

So if you're going to play Driver, make sure you have access to save states for the final mission, otherwise you'll rage quit.

If you want to play on original hardware, however? Its not worth the frustration, the game could have been an all time classic if it wasn't so damn hard at points.

[PrimeVinister]

The last mission is pure luck whether you pass it. I have passed it several times, not once did I feel any sense of accomplishment cos I knew I had no hand in it. May as well have rolled a dice.

[FPS_D3TH]

I beat it eventually but yes it’s mostly luck with traffic and being able to use them to take out the attacking vehicles

[Profchaos]

If you can pass the garage opening

[banger88]

This game had such a strict time limit. Way too strict. I'd often beat missions with one or 2 seconds left on the clock, never actually managed to beat the game from what I recall, but it's been over 2 decades since I played it.

[FPS_D3TH]

Only ones to hate this game suffered from skill issue. It was a tough first mission but if 9 year old me could do it idk what else to say. Wish they’d remake the first 3 games

[isarai]

Honestly it's super satisfying, forces you to git gud, but the payoff are some of the most engaging car chase mechanics/physics

[FPS_D3TH]

Right?! Truly felt like you were in Hollywood chase scenes.

[gold_drake]

huh? whats up with these articles lately haha

[MaximusPrime_]

"You have 2 messages"

[Barlos]

Forget Driver 1, it's all about Driv3r!

Also, is it worth approving these articles?

[MrBaskerville]

I always hated this game. Cool setting and good physics but a horrible campaign. Like all the worst parts of GTA condensed into a game.

[BlaqMagiq1]

One of my all time favorite games. Wish it could get a remake.