Driver Parallel Lines
by Atari Inc.
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Category: Video Games
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Product Summary
Brand: AtariRelease Date: 2006-03-14
Platform: Xbox
Model: 26687
Publisher: Atari Inc.
Product features:
- Authentic Hollywood-style action-racing in over 35 missions
- Race in open environments, with multiple paths to completion
- Control 80 drivable, customizable vehicles, with an unmatched vehicle damage system - Cars, bikes, and trucks
- Experience 2 distinct time periods in a photorealistic NYC
- Open mission structure as well as online play features
Video Game Reviews of Driver Parallel Lines
Customer Review: They'll likely never get it right again
Summary: 3 Stars
After the opening missions of Driver Parallel Lines, I was ready to pronounce it as a return to form, a replay of what made the original Driver: You Are The Wheelman so legendary. Unfortunately, I kept playing. And the game deteriorated into Driv3r all over again.
The game stars a protagonist equally as detestable as Tanner from the previous games (what is with Reflections' obsession with weird haircuts?). The story is thin, cliched, and dumb, and I really despised TK after only a few missions. It's hard to buy into the trite "revenge" motivation of act 2, when I can't stand the sight of our main character. At any rate, the on-foot missions are as poorly balanced and silly as they were in previous games. TK moves a little more fluidly than Tanner, but I strongly suspect that Reflections just has no clue how to balance difficulty or design compelling missions.
The cool 70's vibe of the first third of Parallel Lines should have been applied to the entirety. It was the big, heavy, understeering Starsky & Hutch feel to the original game that made it great. So what that it didn't have any on-foot missions, and the city streets weren't completely realistic? The driving was a blast. And Reflections have managed again, just as they did in Driv3r, to wreck the fun. While the basic car physics are fine, particularly the 70's model cars, Reflections made terrible errors in artificial intelligence that kills most of the joy of driving. For example, they increased vehicle density, which looks neat, but the cars are spaced too closely together, drive too slowly, and sometimes come to a stop in the middle of the road for no reason. Traffic jams on bridges may be realistic, but they're miserable during a chase mission. Police behavior also is still squirrelly, as they'll sometimes turn directly into a building at high speed. Even the traffic signal system is buggy and contributes to the traffic flow problem. In short, troubles abound.
Visually, the game is stunning. While it's not HD, this is the best looking open-world game rendered in 480p I've ever seen. While the art style is less inspired than GTA, the graphics are cleaner and the cars are more detailed and reflective. The game runs at a steady frame rate on the Xbox, even at high speed with all the visual effects like light bloom and motion blur. Pretty impressive. The modern-day New York City rendering isn't as stylistic as the 70's version, however, and just looks like a duller GTA III. The music also takes a dive when it switches from the great 70's soundtrack to the Euro-disco nonsense chosen for the modern day story. It's the same bland house music that made Driv3r so miserable. Yuck.
There are a few strong points of the game. First, the new car customization shop is great, with a full color paint pallette, adjustable (and track testable) engine and suspension mods, and the ability to save and recall your vehicle at any of the four save points. The friendly autosave system is a blessing, too. Reflections built a new police awareness model that's dependant on the vehicle you drive. It's borderline brilliant in its execution, and should be used as a template for other driving games. Well, at least it's great until it flat-out stops working halfway through the game. Uggh. The analog gas and brake triggers are perfectly calibrated, and make peelouts and 180's a joy. Unfortunately, the steering sensitivity is goofed with a dead off-center and twitchy turn-in, making the already cumbersome traffic navigation even tougher.
In conclusion, the developers did just enough wrong with Parallel Lines to botch it up again. I fear at this point that they'll never find that sweet spot of challenging mission structure and powersliding, screeching driving that made the original such a classic.
Description of Driver Parallel Lines
Driver: Parallel Lines brings back action-driving games, and gives you the chance to live out Hollywood-style car chases! Discover TK, a driver for hire and free from conscience. Take part in an adrenaline-pumping story line of double-cross and revenge set in the New York underworld. Experience one of the first action and driving games to incorporate online play. All-new storyline of double-crossing and revenge, with new effects and weapons selectionAll Games
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