Driver 2

Driver 2
Developer(s)	Reflections Interactive
Publisher(s)	Infogrames
Designer(s)	Martin Edmondson[1]
Released	Sony PlayStation: November 13 2000 November 17, 2000 Nintendo Game Boy Advance: October 22 2002 October 4 2002
Genre	Driving, Action
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer
Ratings	ESRB: T (Teen) PEGI: 12+
Platform(s)	Sony PlayStation, Game Boy Advance
Media	CD-ROM

Driver 2: The Wheelman is Back (named Driver 2: Back on the Streets in Europe) is the second installment of the Driver video game series.

Contents 1 Gameplay 2 Synopsis 2.1 Setting 2.2 Characters 2.3 Cities 3 Soundtrack 3.1 Background music 4 Development 5 Reception 6 Glitches 7 References 8 External links

Gameplay

Driver 2 expands on Driver's 3-D, free-roam structure, as well as adding the ability of the character, Officer Tanner, to step out of his car to explore on foot and commandeer other vehicles.^[2] The story missions are played separately from the take-a-ride mode where the player can explore the cities on his own time. Missions in the game are generally vehicle-oriented, and involve trailing witnesses, ramming cars and escaping from gangsters or cops. A cutscene is shown prior to almost every mission to help advance the storyline, and thus the game plays rather like a Hollywood-style car chase movie. Although Tanner can leave his car and interact with certain elements of the environment, all violence takes place during pre-rendered scenes. While the original PlayStation version offered a two-player split screen play, the Game Boy Advance version introduced a four player link option.^[2]

Synopsis

Setting

The story in Driver 2 follows Tanner, an undercover police officer, and his partner, Tobias Jones, as they track a man named Pink Lenny. Lenny is portrayed as a weasel in the intro, where he is in the Red River Bar bragging to a Brazilian about scaring somebody with his handgun. 'You shoulda seen the look on this guy's face', Lenny tells the Brazilian. Then a couple of real hoods walk in and shoot everyone in the bar, while Lenny cowers and prays in the back by the pool table. Lenny escapes out the back door and the chase is on. Lenny is a former money man for a gang lord named Solomon Caine, but has sided with Caine's rival, a Brazilian gangster dubbed Alvaro Vasquez. Gang wars are erupting in Chicago, and Tanner must find Lenny before the violence boils over. The game features a cold blooded hood named Jericho, with his twin sawed-offs.

Characters

• Tanner - An undercover cop and the protagonist of the game.
• Tobias Jones - Tanner's partner and another undercover cop.
• Pink Lenny - the main criminal focus, and the man whom every other character in the story wants to find. He is also a former henchman of Solomon Caine and is rumored to work for Vasquez.
• Solomon Caine - a gangster with a nationwide criminal empire.
• Jericho - Caine's main hitman, lieutenant and bodyguard. He is most noted for his twin sawed-off shotguns and black trench coat. Most of those folks unlucky enough to face him usually don't live to tell the tale. Jericho is a minor character in Driver 2 but becomes the main antagonist in the sequel, DRIV3R.
• Alvaro Vasquez - A mysterious Brazilian mobster and Caine's rival.

Cities

Driver 2 includes four cities which are notably larger than the original game. The cities are Chicago and Havana, which are both immediately open for 'TAKE A RIDE' mode, Las Vegas, which can only be accessed once missions are complete for the first two cities, and Rio de Janeiro, only accessible after completing the Las Vegas missions. The cities all have secret cars hidden within them, which become available once the player finds the buttons to unlock the entries to where the cars are located and then approaches the cars to unlock them. The cities include many of their respective landmarks, such as the Navy Pier and Wrigley Field in Chicago, the Havana's Plaza de la Revolución and El Capitolio, recreations of the hotels on the Las Vegas Strip, and the Corcovado and some other known landmarks of Rio.

Soundtrack

In a move similar to the first game, Driver 2 featured a soundtrack reminiscent of typical 1970s car movies, containing instrumental funk and boogie tracks as well as more popular songs by artists and composers, to further emphasize the retro feel of the game. The songs featured in the game are given below:

• Sitting Here Alone by Hound Dog Taylor- The opening scene of the game at the Red River bar.
• Help Me by Sonny Boy Williamson- Tanner arrives back at his apartment and confronts Jericho.
• Fever by The Dust Junkies- The first cutscene in Las Vegas with the trucks pulling into the gas station.
• In the Basement by Etta James- in a bar in Las Vegas where Tanner and Jones shoot pool.
• Lacrimosa (Requiem) by Mozart- The climactic scene in Rio at the base of the statue of Christ the Redeemer.
• Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) by Kenny Rogers & The First Edition)- Plays over the end credits of the game

Background music

Background music for each city seems to match both with the car-chasing movie music and the predominant music styles of each city, for example, Havana BGM seems to be influenced by the Son cubano, Vegas BGM sounds with influences of North America's Western music and Rio BGM is influenced by samba and bossanova. It has also been noted that one of the background themes for the Chicago missions is a note-for-note copy of Tekken 3's Paul Phoenix theme. Cars in the levels themselves have approximatly 5 or 6 seconds of looped music, in Chicago it is Rock/Electro Beat style and in Vegas it is Drum & Bass.

Development

The game was first released on the PlayStation video game console and was later ported to Nintendo's Game Boy Advance.^[2] Because the game was so long, and cutscene graphics were somewhat advanced for that of the PlayStation era, the game was released on two discs. The first disc contained data for the first two cities, and the second disc contained data for the last two cities.

Reception

Reception of the game was mixed. Some felt it expanded on the original Driver and contained enough fresh content to be a worthy sequel, with GameSpot concluding "Driver 2 is an extraordinary game".^[3] IGN described it as "one of the most disappointing games, if not the most disappointing game, of 2000."^[4] Others felt this was not enough of an upgrade, or lambasted the graphics (particularly the framerate) and almost constant slowdown whenever the action on the screen got too busy.^[4]

Glitches

In some places, striking a car stopped in front of a wall hard enough can make it completely disappear, as if it went through the wall. This is best accomplished driving a bus with police cars chasing/pushing you. Many areas are fenced off. Using a carefully timed skid/jump out of the car, it is possible to enter these areas. If done correctly, the car will be embedded in the wall, and Tanner can reenter it and drive into the fenced off area. There is nothing to be gained from this except for the novelty. Gameplay is glitchy, and re-entry to the playing area is difficult. In Chicago, it is possible to get out of the freeway system, and drive around on the grassy areas below it. This is also possible in Rio and Las Vegas. The only city that has no such areas is Havana. It is also possible to bail out of the car (while the car is in the air after taking it off a jump), but only when no police are chasing you. However, it basically just looks like Tanner is getting out of the car as if he were still on the ground, and the camera stays in the place the car was when Up+Triangle was pressed. In the city with a drawbridge, if Tanner gets out of the car in the center of the drawbridge and allows it to sink when the drawbridge rises, futher down the road the car can be seen falling through the air and through the pavement. Vehicles 6 to 9 in the "Choose a ride" menu (6 to 8 in Chicago) only appears in certain regions of the cities unless you're driving any of these cars (this way the game will not show any other of the cars 6 to 8/9). It's noted that the limits of the "car 6-to-9" regions are the zones where the game slows down. If you play "Take A Ride" for long periods, gameplay will become glitchy and parts of the roadway will apper to be gone. Driving into such areas will result in "game over." This happens most often in Havana.

References

External links

• Driver 2 at GameFAQs
• Driver 2 at MobyGames

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Driver: You Are the Wheelman · Driver 2 · Driv3r · Driver: Vegas · Driver: Parallel Lines · Driver: Working Title · Driver 76 · Driver: LA Undercover