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Driver: Parallel Lines comes to
UK
shores on
17th March, 2006
, and has caused a rather sensational storm throughout its path to
release. After the rather mediocre Driv3r and amidst fears
and rumours of liquidation, ATARI hold their heads-high with one of
this year’s
highest profile releases.
With the PlayStation2 Preview Code we received being
ridiculously limited, it’s hard to judge exactly how the
Mission Structure will proceed, however what is apparently obvious
is that Driver: Parallel Lines certainly contains the essence
of one of its big tag-lines: big, hard, fast
Hollywood
car chases.
Playing as T.K., aka The Kid, in 1978 Harlem, a speeding
getaway from an unfortunate incident with a Police Officer and a
donut cart sees you flying down back-streets and hurtling round
corners in an order to evade the blue’s pursuit. The cars handle
with great variation and each is as responsive as the top-tier of
PlayStation2 releases. It’s clear that, as you would hope, a lot
of attention has been spent on refining the driving element of the
title.
Done away with is much of the need for on-foot play. An
element will still be played, but the emphasis is squared firmly
back on the driving simulation and, as such, the detail on each of
the car models is remarkable. The title boasts  a
large variety of vehicle models available in each time period –
1978 and 2006; when T.K. leaves prison after having been set-up –
and each one reflects light and adjusts itself to the roads’
surface with grace. The character animation is reliable and the draw
distance surpasses the title’s artificially-dealt rival Grand
Theft Auto: San Andreas.
Driver: Parallel Lines makes its entrance into the
arena with a bang, but whether or not the franchise pulls in the
crowd it once did remains to be seen. Driv3r is all but a
distant memory for developers Reflections, but it’s the public
that will decide the fate of Driver and, ultimately, ATARI.
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