Driver: Parallel Lines review by SilentRay. Driver: Parallel Lines review by SilentRay Driver parallel lines game review

Autumn New York. Crowded streets and hundreds of stupid extras. Maneuvering in traffic jams, cutting corners on lawns, scaring respectable citizens, the best driver of the city rushes to the "arrow". All cars and trucks are obedient to him, he shoots accurately and always leaves donut eaters with his nose. Parallels with Grand Theft Auto 3 appropriate - her clone came to visit us, late for the five-year period.

In the footsteps of someone else's glory

Driver: Parallel Lines- the second beginning, life from scratch. Officer Tanner, flashed on cell phones in Driver Vegas sent to stock. Now sitting behind the wheel is The Kid, an 18-year-old mutt with a girly haircut and hefty “I am a dragonfly” glasses. The saga of his misadventures has nothing to do with previous parts. The graffiti "Tanner Lives" and a trash can full of boxes remind of past failures Driv3r .

Burned in the desire to surpass GTA in scale, the authors have become more modest. Instead of several large locations, they offer five neatly "compressed" areas of New York, a kind of quintessence of the "Big Apple", retaining, however, all the important sights. She's closer to Liberty City than True Crime: New York City, where avenues and freeways are recreated from GPS satellite data. This time, Reflections goes not in breadth, but in depth, showing the same areas in two guises - a sample of 1978 and 2006.

old old fairy tale

Of course, there is a plot "excuse" for that. Having played a lot of tricks in the disco era and having worked as a small fry for the criminal elite of New York, The Kid goes to jail. Powerful patrons framed the young man, making him extreme. Having blown the due date, "The Kid" goes free, and the sluggish copy of The Italian Job turns into a dull semblance of thrillers Tarantino. The avenger's arithmetic is elementary: 5 traitors = 5 corpses. Means and methods sometimes eat logical holes in the scenario the size of the Grand Canyon (blow up police Department in 2006 and not drag a million FBI agents on their tail?!), but this hitch of modern Monte Cristo does not bother.

In general - "I do not believe!". Be at Driver: Parallel Lines at least some sense of humor, it would embellish her boring doodles, whose fate the viewer doesn’t give a damn about, and predictable “surprises”. You can’t serve with a harsh mine a bike trampled to death in class “B” militants. Just as you can’t sculpt pathos videos using sloppy motion capture, otherwise you will have to look at the nervous gait and convulsive gestures of (anti) heroes all the way. I will keep silent about the nightmarish video compression. Cheap, gentlemen from Reflections. Did all the money again flow away for an excellent (I say this without any sarcasm) soundtrack?

Battle Without Honor or Humanity

Assorted music, which absorbed the hits of the 1970s and 2000s, is the little that comes to mind when you hear the words “Parallel Lines” a couple of days after the demolition of the game from the hard drive. For the rest, she GTA 3 on weak amphetamines. Sharper textures than Rockstar's (ugly trees and explosions don't count), islands of bump mapping on angular objects and people, a good damage system, shader effects that hide the vampire pallor of graphics (the scourge of past generation consoles) and... depressing secondary gameplay.

Five fingers are enough to list innovations. Poor opportunities for paid tuning of cars are needed only for street racing or races on a GP track. The danger indicator has split into two: one scale keeps records of violations and is "tied" to a specific car, the other is responsible for "pedestrian" crimes. This approach makes life easier in a world where driving in the opposite direction, exceeding the speed limit (70 km / h, which you would not know ahead of time, because in DPL there are no signs at all) and indifference to traffic signals infuriate lawmen. Getting away from the annoying "retinue" that accompanies us with unhealthy obstinacy is a mere trifle: a sharp turn into an alley, a jump onto the asphalt ... If the second lane is clear, no one will bother you. Otherwise, dodge and get out, confusing pursuers (fortunately, the worst weapon in their arsenal is a flimsy helicopter). As soon as the narrow-minded AI lags behind, open the map and ...

This is where the “Relocate” function comes in handy, eliminating the need to wind kilometers for nothing. The green wrench is a garage, the red dot is a bonus “kalym” for earning money for upgrades (the duty set: “steal in N seconds”, destroy several “wheelbarrows”, shake out debts, finish off the indicated victim ...), yellow one - story missions. It also shows all the police "cruisers" within a radius of one hundred meters. A good help, however, in particularly tense moments, the game "gives birth" to the guardians of order with monstrous speed.

"Respawn" suffer and "shooter" episodes. Fortunately, scenes where endless crowds of stupid "meat" are multiplied by an idiotic way of aiming (if you please hold down the right mouse button!), Come across not as often as in Driv3r. Most of the missions are the most unprepossessing tasks from

The full name of the game in the original: Driver: Parallel Lines
Developer: Reflections Interactive
Publisher: Ubisoft
Number of disks in original version: 1 DVD
Similar games: GTA series
Minimum requirements: Windows XP SP1, Pentium 4 2GHz, 256MB RAM, 64MB video
Recommended requirements: Windows XP SP1, Pentium 4 3.4 GHz, 512 MB memory, 256 MB video

Over the years, we have seen the degradation of the famous Driver game series. Brilliant first part, the peak of glory, and then a long fall into the abyss. In Driver 2, of course, there were already more features, but it lost the spirit of the game, the atmosphere of the original. Driv3r turned out to be so terrible that only the lazy did not kick Reflections for this mockery of gamers. In 2006, the fourth part called Driver: Parallel Lines was released on the last generation consoles, which unexpectedly reminded everyone of its famous parent with its atmosphere, but turned out to be full of annoying bugs. In June 2007, Ubisoft, which bought the rights to the series from Activision, released Driver: Parallel lines on PC as well.

Get rich or die trying

The plot of the game begins in 1978. A young provincial guy nicknamed Kid leaves his home and moves to New York with the dream of becoming someone significant, getting rich and gaining respect. But in order to achieve the cherished goal, Kid will have to strain his "fifth point" well, because he came to the "Big Apple" with empty pockets: no money, no connections, nothing that could cling to and rise in society. It should be noted that our guy is also not a bastard: he is an excellent driver, easily approaches the underworld and, despite his 18 years, is able to benefit from absolutely any event. Kid is not a squeamish person and without hesitation takes on the dirtiest work - nothing will stand in his way to a good life.

Two New Yorks

As I said, the game starts in the late 70s - during an active dawn organized crime. Heroin, rock and roll, unique style (long hair, wide pants and big sunglasses) - everything is in place. Reflections showed the New York of the 70s in all its unique and attractive beauty.

But after a series of events, the action of the game is transferred to another time, on the calendar of the 2006th year - and modern New York appears before us. I must say that the "city that never sleeps" sample of 2006 was also a success for the developers to the fullest - an almost perfect transfer of the atmosphere of a city crowded with people: crowds of darting pedestrians, traffic jams, a huge amount of dirt and debris, the total predominance of boring gray.

The city is divided into three islands: Manhattan, Queens and New Jersey - and is available for exploration from the very beginning. Go where you want, do what you want. Except story missions, Kid can look for money "on the side": work as a taxi driver or take part in races. Hacks above the roof, but one problem - most of the non-story missions are not displayed on global map. To search for them, you will have to personally climb all the gateways and dead ends, which is sheer absurdity.

Cars

The main business card of the series is the excellent study of vehicles. In the fourth part, unlike Driv3r, this is in order. The fleet is represented by more than eighty models, including cars from two eras (70s and today), including motorcycles, and different kind garbage trucks and cranes. There are no waterfowl vehicles, which is a pity - I would very much like to ride a boat on the Hudson. Driving wheelbarrows does not require special skills - everything is simple and unpretentious. The damage system looks a bit ambiguous - of course, it is well developed, but sometimes it turns very strange tricks, like square dents.

All cars for more attractiveness and enhance their specifications are subject to immediate tuning (if the necessary amount is available), which, by the way, is implemented here much better than in GTA: San Andreas(at least in some ways Reflections bypassed Rockstar). Your "wheels" can be upgraded technically ( new engine, nitrous oxide, etc.) and visually. And you can add something "exotic" - for example, armored tires and a body. Yes, and do not be afraid for the money invested in a wheelbarrow - if you break the car or lose it, for a small fee it will be found, towed to the garage and repaired.

First steps and first falls

It's not the first time when porting a game from a previous generation of consoles, the developers are transferring terrible graphics to the PC ... but so what?! In Driver: Parallel Lines, everything except vehicles looks extremely bad: very low resolution textures, some kind of cardboard boxes instead of houses, a general lack of polygons, "wooden" character animation. A strange move by Ubisoft - to release this squalor in mid-2007 without finalizing it properly. Next on the blacklist of "original platform problems" is the stupid "checkpoint" save system. It is worth making a mistake once - and half an hour of the game will go down the drain. I would like to emphasize the total stupidity of the local artificial intelligence- both ordinary citizens and police officers. For example, instead of chasing you, the brave patrolmen will hammer the fence next to them with a manic fury.

Although not everything is as bad as it seems - playing Driver: Parallel lines, you will most likely go through it to the end. You will endure with courage all the "vybryki" of the game, just to find out how Kid's story ends. An interesting plot, excellent directing of local videos and their excellent voice acting create the impression of watching a real Hollywood movie "AAA" class. The closest associations are "Gone in 60 seconds" and " Mad Dogs"And also the music - it's just magical. Incendiary compositions of the 70s and the present - everything is chosen solidly and tastefully.

Joy

Well directed videos
Cars
Atmosphere of the first part
awesome music

nasty things

Terrible graphics
Dumb AI
Stupid save system
Strange damage system

Rating: 5.5

Conclusion:

A completely ambiguous project that is simply boring to play. Reflections again, instead of the good old Driver, gave us another half-thought-out GTA clone, which in all respects does not reach the brainchild of Rockstar.

The former hero of the series - Tanner, who did not find even a third of the popularity of Tommy Verchetti, went on a well-deserved rest. Instead, a certain T.K. appeared on the stage - a New York hooligan with a pretty crazy brain. The young man is fluent in obscene slang, loves alcohol and women, and earns a living by driving criminal elements, and therefore regularly gets into the thick of gangster showdowns. In a word, a real macho.
New York yesterday, today, tomorrow
Outside the window, meanwhile, 1979. From the writers main character goes to jail, winds up the term and is released only in 2006, in order to immediately embark on the path of revenge, continuing to drive fast and shoot a lot in the already transformed New York. The list of bad habits of the “leaning back” T.K. is headed by shooting on the go. If in GTA we scribbled at pedestrians from the window, now, without hesitation, we lean out of the car with a machine gun in our hands and an expression of genuine happiness on our faces. Say it's unbelievable? In Driver: Parallel Lines you should not look for realism at all. The behavior of the machines from the first part has not changed one iota - the rattlers glide and fly like fluffs (well, at least they beat spectacularly). And the dull New York of 2006 hangs over this bacchanalia with gloomy skyscrapers - the melancholy takes such that you don’t even want to travel.

Stop Reflections on these innovations, we would have already carried the box with the game to the landfill. But, fortunately, the developers did not forget to eliminate the main scourge of all previous series - the stupid splitting of the game into modes. Any part grand theft Auto captivates with the illusion of freedom: if you want to get a task, go to the customer, if you just want to relax, all the streets and courtyards of a hypothetical metropolis are at your disposal. By the same analogy, all types of activities of "Carrier" were combined.

Bulls in caps
Now we're roaming the city, completing missions, participating in optional competitions, or just unnerving the cops. The behavioral algorithm of the latter still copies the habits of breeding bulls: the player is a red rag that must be "gored" at any cost. In principle, they do not know how to take the offender "in a box" or press him to the side of the road; driving like crazy into a criminal is their only tactic. In this scenario, even a one-year-old child can escape from the chase.

A little later, when the New York gopnik gets a heaped "motor", the police fleet is also expanding with new cars. True, it is better to drive while they do not start - maneuvering remains a problem of local "intelligence" until the very end. Departure into the oncoming lane, a dashing turn on slippery grass, slalom between poles - all this confuses the pursuers. You, with a little practice, will perform such tricks while yawning. Troubles in your life will be added only by tasks of criminal cones, severely limited in time. T.K., like his predecessor Tanner, does not know how to plan a day at all, starting work at the very last minute.

A special "thank you" deserves perfect shooting. If you feel like a fish out of water with a gamepad in your hands, feel free to aim manually. For everyone else, it's best to let the alter ego handle the scope on its own right away. However, you should not overdo it with the street execution of passers-by in both cases - the policemen who have run down to shoot will immediately force you to change your occupation. If at the same time your inner executioner remains unsatisfied, it is enough to break away from the pursuers and change the vehicle, continuing the execution in the neighboring microdistrict. Considering how often you have to leave damaged or "highlighted" cars, it's completely unclear why Reflections added "steel horses" upgrades to Parallel Lines.
Come yesterday
Equally unobvious is the answer to the question of whether it is worth spending time on this when there is GTA: San Andreas. For example, in the Rockstar project there is no such wonderful music that T.K. enjoys - the compositions of David Bowie, Marvin Gaye and other American pop legends sound from the speakers everywhere. But the unfortunate gangster will never take to the skies on a plane, will not run into a "coffee with a continuation" to a girlfriend, and even more so will not jump with a parachute. Despite the obvious changes for the better, Reflections is hopelessly late. Driver: Parallel Lines, no doubt - best project series, but it is still too early for him to compete with the masterpieces of California brawlers.

Publication date: 31.10.2013 11:10:29

A huge number of crime-themed games come out every year, but one moment is missed in all of them, no matter how well the crime is thought out, in the end, the success or failure of the whole thing depends on only one person - the driver. It is the role of this most important element that invites us to experience for ourselves, throughout our existence.

Waste Banner

Awesome toy! Passed it three times, two of which were in a row. Cars, with individual sound and control! Considering that year, it's just amazing! The plot itself is also interesting and quite logical. play, pass, enjoy!

gaming guru

game mind

Post edited by user 03.11.2013 22:25:27

Yes, the game was good at the time
Especially some kind of retro style and a long-haired hippie with a pump-action to the advantage, cool + Driver. Passed without regret. Hood review

PS By the way, I found cool art)
and a cool sound, of course, I remembered from the game)

In the world of show business, déjà vu is the industry standard. You used to watch another western, an action movie or a stupid comedy and think: “Oh, I’ve already seen this somewhere, more than once or twice ...” To our great regret, this malicious deja vu successfully migrated from movie screens to computer screens and is not going to get off them!

Today we will talk about a representative of such a hackneyed and boring genre as “a movie about bandits”, which, with the advent of Grand Theft Auto, received a rebirth in the "game about bandits." The plot of such products is quite trivial: good guy, working for the "good" mafia, confronts the rest of the mafia - "bad", along the way running away from the cops and arranging shootouts with them. It would seem that it is high time for film producers and igrodelam to stop raping the gangster-mafia corpse and switch to something more original. But no, the thirst for easy money attracts the sharks of show business, and intercourse with half-rotten relics does not frighten them at all. So we have to watch in this world miserable crafts like Driver: Parallel Lines.

About cinema and other boredom.

Perhaps, video inserts are the most high-quality part of the game. Everything is filmed and edited on a solid four - sometimes it even seems that this is not a game, but another movie about bandits. It seems that the developers decided to put a special emphasis on cinematic: the entire game, from the main menu to the final subtitles, is made in a "widescreen format" - a picture that was distributed in breadth and black bars at the top and bottom. Moreover, you can’t get rid of this chip, you can only stretch the image even more.
The story is divided into two approximately equal parts. The first of them tells about the turbulent youth of the protagonist, who did everything possible to make friends with the mafia: he robbed, killed, cut grandmothers from brothels, built horns for rival mafias and the like. And then one day the guy was taken on a real case. Everything went well, but only our ward could not enjoy the fruits of his labors: his brothers threw him! So much so that the poor fellow ended up in prison for as much as 28 years. There he had a lot of time to inflame with a fierce hatred for fellow traitors, and in general he suddenly realized that being a criminal is bad. So in the second part we will create revenge, simultaneously clearing New York of any criminal infection.
The scriptwriters carefully collected notes and stamps from everything that was in the genre before and mixed them no less carefully - apparently deciding that this would make the plot more interesting. The only thing that somehow diversifies the action is a little time travel: from a retro-style action movie we are transferred to a modern-style action movie. But otherwise, everything is as usual: cops-shootouts-showdowns-cops-shootouts ... In general, the vicissitudes of the plot are more likely to drive you to sleep than intrigue.

About the gameplay and other jambs.

The standard in this genre is the GTA series. Therefore, everything related to the topic of cars, shootings and the mafia should at least correspond to the model, and ideally, surpass it at least in some way. Driver: Parallel Lines does not meet the standard, and that says it all. But suppose there is a certain gamer who has never, ever played GTA in his life. And I didn’t even look at her because of someone’s shoulder, I didn’t read articles about her and didn’t hear admiring responses about her from my friends. In this case (and even then only theoretically), this fictional character will probably be able to get at least some pleasure from playing the new Driver. But we did not find a single person in our ranks who fit these criteria, so we could not test this hypothesis.
The ghost of GTA hovers over the game: there is a city, cars, cops and bandits. You can drive in wheelbarrows, run away from cops, and shoot with bandits. This is where the similarity ends. Any car consists of two parts: wheels that can be perforated and everything else. If you shoot at everything else for a long time, the car will explode sooner or later. How fast - the computer decides, the player can only stupidly press the trigger. In general, the game's physics engine is very selective, especially noticeable when you have to chase someone in narrow alleys filled with all sorts of rubbish. The behavior of the car is calculated always and under any circumstances: crashed into an obstacle - get a deviation from the course and a slowdown in speed. But the adversaries rush through all the obstacles in a straight line, fit perfectly into the turns and do not even slow down! It’s good at least that they can be shot or rammed - then the physical motor wakes up for a minute and starts working. But racing on ring tracks is generally a masochist's dream: guns are prohibited, computer-guided opponents are invulnerable and do not deviate from the course in collisions. At this celebration of computer life, the player - a reasonable person and the crown of creation - like the last rabbit is forced to drape from all four wheels from everything that moves. For anyone can ram and cut it, and with absolutely impunity ...
The cops are behaving no less strangely. They turn a blind eye to overtaking in the opposite direction and speeding, but they consider hitting a pole to be the crime of the century - the minimap starts flashing, and a magnet is turned on in the trunk of the player's car, attracting all the cops in the area. Here the “respected computer” shows even greater ingenuity: while the police car is not visible, it follows the player as if glued, again ignoring all obstacles and other cars. But as soon as we look at it, it immediately begins to break down and lose control, and often without our help.
However, we will not list all the minuses of the game and all its inconsistencies with the GTA standard. Let's just say a few words about graphics and sound. The engine, in general, is not bad: there is a change of day and night with sunrises and sunsets, as well as with dynamic light sources ... But you are unlikely to wait for rains, fogs and other natural phenomena - except perhaps in some scripted scene.
As befits a GTA clone, different machines different music plays - but there are not so many compositions, so they get bored pretty quickly. As for the sound, only one thing can be said about it: it is, but not in such quantity as we would like. If the car starts to break down, then the motor snorts a little differently - this is all of the pluses. But the sounds of breaking glass and other damage are either absent or lost in the roar of the engine and music. It is almost impossible to determine by ear that they are shooting at you, or somehow assess the degree of damage.

So let's summarize all of the above. If you are a GTA fan, never play Parallel Lines. For fans of the Driver series, we new part We also do not recommend it - except to admire the jambs of developers out of idle interest, but it's better to buy a Rockstar creation and not deprive yourself of pleasure.