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Driver 2 (Also known as Driver 2: Back on the Streets and Driver 2: The Wheelman is Back in North America) is the sequel to Driver (video game).

Overview

Driver 2 expands on predecessor's 3-D, free-roam structure, as well as adding the ability of the character, Tanner, to step out of his car to explore on foot and commandeer other vehicles. The story missions are played separately from the "Take-a-Ride", mode where the player can explore the cities in their 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 two-player split-screen play, the Game Boy Advance version introduced a four-player link option.

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 hidden areas where each car is located and approaches the respective vehicle to unlock it. 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.

Undercover Mode

See: Driver 2/Undercover Mode

Tanner and his partner Jones track a man named Pink Lenny, a former money man for a gang leader named Solomon Caine, who has since betrayed him for Alvaro Vasquez. After seemingly surviving a shootout instigated by Jericho, Tanner and Jones track down a witness of the shooting, sending them down into a rabbit hole of gang-related activities across northern and southern America.

Missions

Chicago

• Surveillance Tip Off
• Chase the Witness
• Train Pursuit
• Tailing the Drop
• Escape to the Safe House
• Chase the Intruder
• Caine's Compound
• Leaving Chicago

Havana

• Follow Up the Lead
• Hijack the Truck
• Stop the Truck
• Find the Clue
• Escape to Ferry
• To the Docks
• Back to Jones
• Tail Jericho
• Pursue Jericho
• Escape the Brazilians

Las Vegas

• Casino Getaway
• Beat the Train
• Car Bomb
• Car Bomb Getaway
• Bank Job
• Steal the Ambulance
• Stake Out
• Steal the Keys
• C4 Deal
• Destroy the Yard

Rio de Janeiro

• Bus Crash
• Steal the Cop Car
• Caine's Cash
• Save Jones
• Boat Jump
• Jones in Trouble
• Chase the Gunman
• Lenny Escaping
• Pink Lenny Gets Caught

The GameBoy Advance port only had missions from Chicago and Rio de Janeiro due to the limitations compared to the PlayStation.

List of GameBoy Advance Missions

Chicago

• Surveillance Tip-off
• Chase the Witness
• Stop the Witness
• Tailing the Drop
• Escape to the Safe House
• Chase the Intruder
• Chauffeur the Wise Guys
• Return to Sender
• Stop the Van
• Take out the Escort
• Damage Control
• Find the Clue
• Escape from the Cops
• Caine's Cash
• To the Docks

Rio de Janeiro

• Van Crash
• Locate the Stash
• C4 Deal
• Destroy the Weapons
• Botched Hit
• Steal the Ambulance
• Save Jones
• Steal a Cop Car
• Car Bomb
• Jones in Trouble
• Chase the Gunman
• Get Jones to the Hospital
• Tail the Limo
• Apprehend Lenny
• Get out of Town

Development & port

The game was first released on the PlayStation video game console and was later ported to Nintendo's Game Boy Advance, branded as Driver 2: Advance. Because the game was so long and the cutscenes animations were somewhat advanced for that of the PlayStation era, the game was released on two discs. Each of the discs contain data such as game-cutscenes, maps and vehicles for two of the cities (Chicago and Havana, and Las Vegas and Rio, respectively). An Sega Dreamcast version was announced, according to the official Sega Dreamcast magazine Issue 16, but nothing ever materialized after the announcement.

Improvements

Driver 2 contains various similarities to its predecessor, with the major difference being that the player is now able to exit their vehicle. The player must be at a complete stop to do so, and cannot leave the current vehicle while taking part in a police pursuit. Once on-foot, the player can navigate the city or commandeer other civilian vehicles and parked cop cars (it is not possible to enter police cruisers driving around the cities) if they feel their current vehicle is too damaged, or want to reset the felony bar.

Handling was also revised. The player no longer has the option to turn off/on the auto-handbrake feature, and cars no longer take continuous damage by being constantly rammed, now each individual hit counts towards the damage bar (there are some exceptions).

The maps in Driver 2 were greatly improved in comparison to the first game: not only are they substantially larger, but the design of the cities' grids are more realistic, with more changes in elevation, curved roads and complex highway layouts. For the first time in the series, two of the maps available take place outside the United States: Havana, and Rio de Janeiro. As its predecessor, there are various landmarks around each of the four cities, most of which are accessible to the player either by foot or in a vehicle.

Driver 2 expands on Driver's 3-D free roam structure both technically (allowing more cars to be generated at a certain time) and gameplay-related features, such as points of interest and collectables in the form of vehicles and cheat codes.

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 bossa nova.

In the first game, when you lose the cops, the chase music continues playing. In Driver 2, when you lose the cops, the music changes back to the usual background music.

It has also been noted that one of the background themes for the Chicago missions has a striking similarity to that of Tekken 3's Paul Phoenix theme, but that's mostly due to the fact both songs use samples from the same source (for instance, the guitar sample comes from the Zero-G - Funk Guitar library).

Cars in the levels themselves have approximately 5 or 6 seconds of looped music, in Chicago it is Rock/Electro Beat style and in Vegas it is Drum & Bass.

The licensed 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.
• "Requiem" (the Lacrimosa part) 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.

A member of the Driver Madness community has created a lossless unofficial soundtrack, available for download.

Reception

PlayStation 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". 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.

Gallery

Video