Driver (series)

''Driver'' is a video game series consisting of a mixture of action-adventure and driving in open world environments. It is developed by Reflections Interactive (now Ubisoft Reflections), and originally published by GT Interactive, later by Infogrames/Atari and then Ubisoft. Since the series began with ''Driver'' in 1999, there have been five main installments released of which the latest is '' Driver: San Francisco'' in 2011, most of which are about a fictional police officer called John Tanner. As of August 2011, the series has sold more than 16 million units worldwide.

Games

''Driver''

The first game of the ''Driver'' series was released for the PlayStation on 25 June 1999 in Europe and 30 June in the U.S. It was later released in 2000 for Game Boy Color in April, Windows in September, Mac in December, and iOS in December 2009. In the game, the player controls a former racecar driver turned undercover police detective named John Tanner. It featured a storyline inspired by 1960s/70s car chase movies such as ''Bullitt'' (1968) and ''The Driver'' (1978) and based in four real-life cities; Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York City. It was the best selling game of the ''Driver'' series and an evolution of the freedom to explore a city as brought forth in the early ''Grand Theft Auto'' games.

''Driver 2''

The second installment in the ''Driver'' series was released for the PlayStation on 13 November 2000 in the U.S. by Infogrames (now known as Atari), and later ported to the Game Boy Advance on 4 October 2002 in the U.S. It featured detective John Tanner once more, along with a new partner, detective Tobias Jones, in four more real-life cities (Chicago, Havana, and Rio de Janeiro). It was the first game in the series to feature 2-player modes, curved roads, and the ability to get out of the car at any time (apart from while being in a pursuit from the police) in order to steal another car on the street.

''Driver 3''

The third installment in the ''Driver'' series was released for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox on 21 June 2004 in the U.S. to generally mixed or poor reviews (despite new features such as the ability to use firearms). The game takes place in Miami, Nice. It was subsequently followed by versions for Windows, and Game Boy Advance.

''Driver: Parallel Lines''

The fourth game in the series, '' Driver: Parallel Lines'', was released 14 March 2006 for PlayStation 2 and Xbox in the U.S., and 26 June 2007 for Windows and Wii in the U.S. Reflections intended ''Parallel Lines'' to "return the series to its roots" by focusing more on driving.

The game differs greatly in other aspects from its predecessors, though, as the story no longer follows undercover police officer Tanner and the game takes place in only one location, New York City. The new main player's name is TK, a criminal rather than a cop. The game includes two time periods, 1978 and 2006, when the main player is sentenced to prison for 28 years and returns in 2006. The game received better reviews, but unlike ''Driver 3'', did not sell particularly well.

''Driver 76''

''Driver 76'' is a PlayStation Portable game in the ''Driver'' series. Set in New York City in 1976, two years before the events in the first half of '' Driver: Parallel Lines'', the player takes the role of Ray, TK's friend and a supporting character from ''Parallel Lines''. The game was developed by Sumo Digital and Reflections, and was the first ''Driver'' game published by Ubisoft after they acquired Reflections. It was released on 8 May 2007 in the U.S.

''Driver: San Francisco''

The fifth ''Driver'' game was long rumored to be in production. After several years of speculation, Ubisoft unveiled ''Driver: San Francisco'' at E3 2010. After several delays, it was released in September 2011 along with ''Driver: Renegade 3D''.

The game takes place in one location, San Francisco, and follows the series protagonist, Tanner, being in a coma after suffering an accident. Thus, the player controls Tanner during his coma dream. The plot of the Wii version of ''Driver: San Francisco'' is completely different from the other versions, being a prequel to the events of the original '' Driver''.

For the game, developers decided to remove the ability to get out of a car in order to steal another car on the street. Instead, they created a new mechanic called "Shift", enabling the players to shift to any car at any time, aside from a few missions.

The game received generally positive reviews, getting the highest ratings in the whole series after ''Driver''. Like ''Driver 3'', it sold particularly well.

''Driver: Renegade 3D''

A Nintendo 3DS game, ''Driver: Renegade 3D'' follows John Tanner trying to take down the New York City crime mobs. It was released in September 2011 at the same time as ''Driver: San Francisco'' and takes place between the events of ''Driver'' and ''Driver 2''.

''Driver: Speedboat Paradise''

A free-to-play smartphone game was released on iOS and Android in December 2014. The game, which makes use of in-app purchases, revolves solely around missions on speedboats.

Novels

''Driver: Nemesis'', a novel written by Alex Sharp, was published in 2010 to coincide with the release of '' Driver: San Francisco''. The novel is a sequel to ''Driver 2'' and a prequel to the events of ''Driver: San Francisco'', taking place at some point before Hurricane Katrina. The story follows John Tanner's undercover infiltration to a crime network in New Orleans. It features several characters from the first two games and provides additional backstory for Tanner's life prior to becoming a member of law enforcement.

Related games

'' Driver: Vegas'' (released in 2006) and '' Driver: L.A. Undercover'' (released in 2007) are two mobile games featuring John Tanner. ''Vegas'' features his exploits in Las Vegas in an attempt to exact revenge on Charles Jericho after '' Driver 3'', while ''L.A. Undercover'', set two years later, features Tanner's exploits in Los Angeles to take down the Los Angeles Mafia by working his way up the ladder.

''C.O.P. The Recruit''

Ubisoft released '' C.O.P. The Recruit'' for Nintendo DS on November 3, 2009. It was originally registered under numerous names, one of which being "Driver: The Recruit".

''Watch Dogs''

Ubisoft Montreal had been working on its own sequel in the ''Driver'' series at the same time that Ubisoft Reflections had been developing ''Driver: San Francisco''. Ubisoft Montreal's game had included some elements of hacking the driving environment to the player advantage, such as triggering street lights, as well as being able to swap from driver to driver. When ''Driver: San Francisco'' released in 2011, it did not do well commercially, leading to the ''Driver'' title in development at Ubisoft Montreal to have portions reworked into the first '' Watch Dogs'' game. Ubisoft Reflections subsequently helped Ubisoft Montreal in building out ''Watch Dogs'' for release, handling most of the driving portions of the game while Ubisoft Montreal handled the details related to on-foot missions and hacking. The game's Disrupt engine was originally intended for this ''Driver'' game in development.

Film and television adaptations

In February 2002, Impact Pictures, the production team of Paul W. S. Anderson and Jeremy Bolt, had acquired the film and TV rights to adapt '' Driver''. Screenwriters James DeMonaco, Todd Jason Harthan, and James Roday Rodriguez were developing a script at the time. Impact Pictures had originally intended to produce the film ''Driver'' to coincide with the release of the video game '' Driver 3''. The following November, Impact Pictures announced its plans to produce a $50 million adaptation of ''Driver'' after wrapping up principal photography on '' Resident Evil: Apocalypse''. In April 2006, Rogue Pictures acquired the film rights to ''Driver'' from Impact Pictures and Constantin Films, the production companies responsible for the ''Resident Evil'' film franchise. Roger Avary replaced the original screenwriters in writing the script for ''Driver'', as well as directing the film.

Prior to January 2007, ''Driver'', having a budget of $48 million, was slated to shoot at Cinespace Studios' MT28 lot in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Due to a waterfront revitalization project, the studio was forced to move and the film was put on hold. In May 2009, the movie script was leaked on the internet.

On 14 September 2021, Ubisoft announced a live-action ''Driver'' series was coming to the new Binge streaming platform, to be produced by Allan Ungar, Vince Talenti and Ubisoft Film & Television. It was cancelled shortly after.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Driver (Series)
Action-adventure games

Open-world video games
Organized crime video games
Ubisoft franchises
Racing video games
Video game franchises
Video games developed in the United Kingdom
Video game franchises introduced in 1999