Racing games that feature movie-based action are hard to come by. On the Play Station 2, this is one of the first instances where an action packed movie that centers around driving is brought to the PS2 platform, but the innovation that is shown in the game is just overshadowed by the lack of reality and insane difficulty! Featuring some of the most impressive racing ideas that I’ve seen since Gran Turismo, the lack of cars at your disposal as well as some the most un-realistic racing mechanics that are found here make this a slightly average racing title that is just barely worth the disc that its printed on. You take the role of a down and out racer who is looking to help further the career of a new driver in several different races and make a comeback to regain what he’s lost. Interesting story behind the game, and although I’ve never seen the movie, I’d have to say that action featured here in the game is probably featured in the movie itself, as is the lack of realism! While I may be hovering on that point, I’ll tell you why I say it so many times and maybe you’ll understand just what I mean by the end of the review.
The game play features arcade style racing through several different tracks that are supposedly inspired by the action movie Driven. While the game stages are all very well put together, you’ll find that the in-game action of Driven revolves more around tactics during the races in order to help out your team and overall get yourself to the goal line ahead of the pack. The tactics that you use are pretty much boxing your opponents and cutting other ones off while trying to keep your car on the road and not smashing into the different obstacles that are all around the track. Through your efforts, you’ll be able to enter a zone of sorts that gives you extremely improved handling and speed for your car, but getting yourself to that point takes exceptional skill and patience!
The fact that a small smash into something takes your vehicle out of control and places you behind the pack with no real way to get back to first place is the first thing that most gamers will find. While the challenge of the game in this respect is admirable, you’ll find that the game has little or nothing in it that allows you to get a real handle on the learning curve of the game, and fighting your way to the head of the pack takes more effort than its worth. The overall handling of your vehicle is something that makes this whole goal nearly impossible and with the control setup on the Dual Shock 2 controller, you’ll find that the title of the game is the action you do when you throw this game into the nearest wall!
The control of Driven is loose and hard to handle. With no real ties to any sort of racing physics, the game requires you to avoid collisions and otherwise, but you’ll find that the game forces you into strange collisions as you run through the tracks. These collisions end up spinning you around in an uncontrollable way, and more often than not, you’ll be facing the wrong way, which causes you to struggle to put yourself in the right direction! With that aside, you’ll also find that doing some of the game’s tactics to keep yourself at the front of the pack requires you to use some pretty slick skills in terms of drifting turns around corners and the like. The problem here is that the Dual Shock doesn’t compensate for the drifts, and you’ll need to really be sensitive with the analog stick and the handbrake in order to get through the heavier twists and turns to keep yourself on the road.
Visually, the game suffers from lack of detail on the vehicles that you’re driving against. The stages that you drive through are all nice to look at, and offer some pretty impressive design, but considering that your eyes have to be on the road, you’ll find that the lack of car detail is the biggest threat here. Unlike Gran Turismo 3, you’ll find that lighting effects and even finer detail and car movement isn’t fluid but rather a forced exercise that looks as though it was merely thrown together in a rush! Through all of this though, you’ll find that the different tracks will catch your eye, and if you’ve seen the movie, there is a chance that you’ll recognize some of the different race locations that you’re playing through.
The audio here in Driven is less that acceptable, with most of the music being forced into the game and not really catching the theme and mood of speed or competition. It’s been said that racing games need to have some impressive music or something to really put it ahead of the pack and keep your interest, and you’ll find that the game has absolutely no clue what that means! The sound effects are pretty standard in which you have squealing tires and racing engines, but nothing else that really jumps out at you from this stand point. Something that does come up and sounds pretty cool, is the voice effects that the game features and you’ll hear Sylvester Stallone quite a few times throughout your races which is actually something that redeems the audio selection, but not enough to save it.
Driven is a game that tries hard to give you a good racing game based on a movie, but seems to fall flat in some of the key areas. With tough to use control, and a very high learning curve, most racing fans would do well to stick with Gran Turismo 3 for their fun racing! The lack of realism and physics in the game is what really throws this down into the dredges of mediocrity and you’ll find that if there is a saving grace in the game, its listening to Rambo tell you to start your engines and get ready to race. If you’re into games that take more skill and effort than humanly needed, then you’re really looking in the right place. However, if you’re looking for some fun racing and realistic handling over your vehicle of choice, then drive Gran Turismo 3 and leave this one parked in the garage.
5/10
