Driv3r

Overview

Driv3r is an action game developed by Reflections Interactive and published by Atari SA. The game focuses around undercover detective John Tanner, who joins forces with Tobias Jones to bring down the South Beach gang - who plan to transport stolen luxury cars all across Europe to be collected by an illusive buyer.

Plot

The story mode in Driv3r (called "Undercover") consists of short missions which will usually consist of a simple task such as a chase, escaping from the police or taking down a group of people. Pre-Rendered cutscenes are used to tell the story as well as brief in-game segments. When the player continues the story mode, a movie will play catching the player up with previous segments in the story mode.

Undercover officers John Tanner and Tobias Jones are sent to Miami to investigate the South Beach gang headed by Calita Martinez, and her associates Lomaz and Bad Hand. When the agents notice the gang's recent acquisition of stolen cars, they suspect that they are working for someone else to fulfill a major order. To determine where the deal for the cars will take place, Tanner poses as a wheelman and infiltrates the gang by recovering a car from a rival cartel. After impressing Calita and earning her trust with a series of tasks, Tanner is assigned to assassinate "The Gator" for betraying the gang.

South Beach relocate to Nice, France, after The Gator's presumed demise, to secure the remaining cars on their list. Tanner makes contact with Interpol agents Vauban and Dubois, who insist on arresting the gang while in possession of the stolen cars. Tanner refuses, and Vauban orders Dubois to conduct surveillance on the cartel. Meanwhile, Tanner focuses on acquiring the cars for Calita while fending off attacks by a rival syndicate, eventually leading to a confrontation wherein he eliminates the gang's leader. Upon discovering that Dubois was captured by the gang during his investigation, Tanner rushes to rescue him before he is executed. Following the rescue attempt, Tanner and Dubois break into a cartel boathouse to find out the location of the deal, which will take place in Istanbul, Turkey.

Shortly after, the two are captured by the gang, and meet their employer, Charles Jericho. After revealing Tanner's identity, Jericho takes Tanner's gun and uses it to murder Dubois, intending to frame him for the crime. Tanner manages to escape, and makes contact with Vauban about where the cars are being shipped to, but releases little detail on Dubois' death. They travel to Istanbul, where Tanner tails Jericho to a meeting with the Bagman, a middleman arranging the sale of the cars to Russian criminals. Overhearing that The Gator survived his assassination, Tanner asks Jones to collect him before he is killed by Jericho's people, and The Gator offers information on the deal in exchange for his safety.

After reuniting with Jones, Tanner is accused of murder by Vauban, after he receives word of Dubois’ death. Despite the threat of an Internal Affairs investigation, Tanner and Jones go rogue to continue investigating, and focus on tracking down Lomaz. In exchange for protection, Lomaz reveals that Calita and the Bagman are set to meet soon to exchange money for the stolen cars. Tanner and Jones monitor the meeting until Calita calls it off. While Jones attempts to pursue the Bagman, he is ambushed and forced to pull back; meanwhile, Tanner chases after Calita and captures her. After bringing her to Vauban to regain his trust, Tanner convinces Calita that Jericho is too dangerous to trust. Calita reveals that the cars have already been shipped to Russia, and that Jericho will not leave the city until he is paid.

With assistance from Istanbul's police, Tanner, Jones and Vauban stake out the arranged location of the exchange between Jericho and the Bagman. When the meeting takes place, Jericho murders the Bagman for providing him only half of the agreed money and fools police by using Bad Hand as a decoy, eventually leading to his death. Upon learning that Jericho will likely leave by train, Tanner cuts him off, forcing him to disembark and flee through the streets. When Jericho is cornered in an alleyway, Tanner critically wounds him, but eventually decides to have him arrested, only for Jericho to gun him down when he turns his back on him. Both men are taken to the hospital in critical condition, leaving their fate uncertain.

Characters

John Tanner

John Tanner (voiced by Michael Madsen) is the main character of Driv3r. He is an undercover detective who has to infiltrate South Beach to find out who their secret buyer is before it is too late.

Tobias Jones

Tobias Jones (voiced by Ving Rhames) is a police detective and Tanner's long-time partner. Instead of the risky, brutal methods that Tanner prefers, Tobias is very calm, cool and confident. Although not as risky as Tanner, he is just as dedicated to his job. Players briefly play as Tobias during the Alleyway mission.

Charles Jericho

Charles Jericho (voiced by Mickey Rourke) is Tanner's long time enemy. He is ruthless and unpredictable, as well as very dangerous. His recklessness is only matches by Tanner; the man trying to stop him.

Calita Martinez

Calita Martinez (voiced by Michelle Rodriguez) is a professional car thief and boss of the South Beach gang. She has a notorious reputation in the criminal underworld, and is both feared and revered.

Baccus

Baccus (voiced by Iggy Pop) a ruthlessly violent gangster operating in Miami.

Story Missions

Miami, Florida

• Mission 1: Police HQ
• Mission 2: Lead On Baccus
• Mission 3: The Siege
• Mission 4: Rooftops
• Mission 5: Impress Lomaz
• Mission 6: Gator's Yacht
• Mission 7: Trapped
• Mission 8: Dodge Island
• Mission 9: Retribution

Nice, France

• Mission 1: Welcome To Nice
• Mission 2: Smash & Run
• Mission 3: 18-Wheeler
• Mission 4: Hijack
• Mission 5: Arms Deal
• Mission 6: Booby Trap
• Mission 7: Calita In Trouble
• Mission 8: Rescue Dubois
• Mission 9: Hunted

Istanbul, Turkey

• Mission 1: Surveillance
• Mission 2: Tanner Escapes
• Mission 3: Another Lead
• Mission 4: Alleyway
• Mission 5: The Chase
• Mission 6: Bomb Truck
• Mission 7: Chase The Train

Take A Ride (Free Roam)

Take A Ride is a free roam mode that can take place in any of the three cities from the story mode. Miami and Nice are unlocked at the start, while you have to unlock Istanbul through Undercover (or using a cheat code to unlock all missions). The player is able to choose a vehicle (secret vehicles can be unlocked by discovering them in Take A Ride) and one of four spawn points, along with the time of day and weather options.

Game Features

• 3 true to life cities - Miami, Nice and Istanbul
• Over 150 Miles of city streets to explore including many alleyways and dirt ways
• "Film Director" mode to record every move made in the game. With a Edit feature to change camera positions and create a Hollywood style movie
• More than 50 Vehicles including Motorcycles, Boats, Police cars, Vans, Muscle Cars and Fully articulated 18 Wheelers.
• A deep narrative story line with over 1 hour of CGI video to plot out the dramatic scenes.

Development

Development on Driv3r began soon after the completion of Driver 2. The development process was slowed down during the late development period and subsequent release of the PlayStation 2 game Stuntman.

Reception

Upon release, Driv3r aggregated low review scores from audiences, primarily due to lackluster content and game-breaking bugs. In retrospect, many publications noted that the game was rushed in order to see sales before the release of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Driv3rgate

Some publications, such as PlayStation Magazine and Xbox World, gave Driv3r extremely positive reviews. This was because Atari gave these magazine companies early copies of the game in return for near perfect game scores. The backlash caused by these review scores on online forums led to posts being deleted by an unknown party.

Atari would go on to blame Martin Edmondson for Driv3r's rushed development, he would successfully sue Atari SA and was awarded $2 million in cash. Edmondson would soon leave Reflections Interactive, and would later return to oversee development on Driver: San Francisco.

Trivia

• Close to the game's release, the developers announced that 90,000 real life photographs were taken in order to have sense for the graphics.