The emulator of GTA
The adventure, with the classic “3-D guide / exploration” scheme, is divided into six chapters, each of which is introduced by very well-chosen films and which take up the theme of American comics. Within each of them the gamer is called to carry out a whole series of unlawful missions ranging from the stalking of an individual hated by the mafia to robberies complete with car chase against vans, from the theft of car to escort some boss. Nothing that has not already been seen before, in short. In some cases, then, a time limit will establish the period within which to complete a "job", making the game session a little more difficult. What has been said so far could lead one to believe that this Driver 76 it is all "roses and flowers", but in reality it is not so, unfortunately. In fact, due to some programming and development errors, the gameplay itself turns out to be below expectations. If on the one hand we have a differentiated and realistic driving model of the cars depending on the vehicle available (motorcycles, trucks, cars), on the other hand there are limitations that partly ruin the videogame experience. The walking sessions and the free exploration of the neighborhoods, for example, are rather limited: the characters cannot jump or run, moreover during the firefights we will see moments of absolute panic when we discover that to take down an enemy it will be necessary to empty the entire magazine of a weapon, not even the enemies were Terminators ... Even the police AI often leaves something to be desired. The agents, in fact, seem to have a double personality between a crazy indifference and excessive severity, given that sometimes they will intervene in a decisive way for the simple and brief exceeding of the speed limit of an area, others will be beautifully calm even if the videogamer destroys half a neighborhood ...
Multiplayer
The situation is different for multiplayer, which includes different game modes such as Street Racing, Destruction Derby, Pink Slip Racing and Swap Meet in which to compete locally with friends. This element significantly raises the final judgment on the Ubisoft title in a positive way. It will also be possible to download new decals for your cars. Graphically Driver '76 turns out to be a fairly good product, despite everything. The neighborhoods of the city, although not very rich in details and with few people on the streets, are well reconstructed and the car models faithfully reflect those of the time, even managing to enhance the most fanatic gamer with careful customizable details as you go. unlock new items and accessories. Instead, the polygonal models of the characters are ugly, a little rough, with some drops in frame rate rather evident during the more chaotic phases. On the other hand, the sound is splendid, certainly one of the best ever in the sector, with the beautiful music of the 70s (from David Bowie to Iggy Pop, other songs can be downloaded) to act as a soundtrack to the actions of the protagonists, and a dubbing entirely in Spanish with lots of well-curated dialogues worthy of a film.
Conclusions
The imposing shadow of Grand Theft Auto inevitably stretches across all the titles inspired by it. And they are almost always pains for others. Driver 76 he does not escape the "law" (just to stay on the underworld) of the Rock Star Games title and while defending himself at times with honor, he must give way to the most illustrious rival. The Ubisoft game, in fact, is not too bad, apart from imperfections, and indeed in the driving phases alone it manages to be pleasant and satisfying. However, a certain repetition of the action and some technical limitations mean that Driver 76 is one of those hybrid titles, halfway between the "beautiful" and "the could have been done better".
- Pro:
- Good reconstruction of the different driving systems of the vehicles.
- Gorgeous soundtrack.
- Great variety of means.
- Against:
- Limited foot section.
- A little too repetitive side missions.
- Level design not always inspired.
- Police AI to be reviewed.
A few years ago, at the end of the "mythical" 90s, when GTA was still a title with two-dimensional graphics, a software house proposed to the general public of Psx a game that took its cue from the RockStar Games production, but with some slight changes and above all, a three-dimensional engine that gamers liked so much. His name? Driver. In the following years, however, while Grand Theft Auto made giant steps turning into a real saga, the Atari and Reflections Interactive title could not repeat itself, evolve, consequently becoming a second-rate product for most. Now, a year after Driver: Parallel Lines (Playstation 2, Xbox, Wii), the series, passed into the hands of Ubisoft who acquired the rights, attempts to relaunch and makes its debut on the PSP with this prequel / sequel entitled Driver ' 76. Also this time, therefore, the protagonists of the story will be the nice Slink and Ray, in the New York of the 70s, busy as always between beautiful women and roaring cars. The passion of the two friends for the first ones will create some problems for them. Ray, in fact, falls in love with the daughter of a boss of the Chinese Triad, Chen-Chi, and to win the sympathies of his ferocious father, a certain Zhou, he decides to enter the big crime scene with his usual friend.
