Throughout the years, many series of racing games have seen the light of day. At first, they were only focused on racing, such as Gran Turismo and Ridge Racer. Need for Speed added a new tweak with the addition of tuning cars, although in later years, they seem to have dropped this to favour urban racing. The Driver series instead followed a different style. You impersonate a policeman on his quest to catch delinquents all over the world. As an added twist, Driver included the ability Shift, so you could enter any car that was driving around and impersonate the driver for your own agenda.

In Driver San Francisco, the background is the city and the bay of San Francisco. Using Shift, you're able to enter any car driving by, and as you keep progressing through the game, more tweaks are added to your power. There is a huge car pool to select from, although, as happens with Gran Turismo, seems to favour local cars instead of imported ones. Let's get into business and see what this game can offer.

Graphics: The design of the cars is very accurate, very close to reality. The effects are also very realistic, like the smoke created when drifting. The animations in the Story mode maybe are the flaw of this game. Even though the characters are well designed, for some reason I feel like the animations aren't as realistic as the car design. I would also say something about the streets, but well, I've never been in San Francisco, so as long as there are uphills and downhills everywhere, cable cars and long and wide pure American streets and highways, including the Golden Gate, of course, in my opinion makes a good vision of the city for the outsiders like me. Graphics earn a 9.

Sound: I have to admit I haven't listened much to the background music, because there's an even greater sound, obviously the engines. I prefer listening to my Lambo's V12 or my GTR's turbo rather than listening to music, and that could also be applied to drifting. Even then, for what I've listened and what the tracklist looks like, I would say that there aren't any fast songs, just a selection of what you could listen to without going berserk with your supercar. For the engine sound, well, that's the true music of this game, and it's very well done, specially for rally cars. I still think that the music spoils the sound a little bit, but nonetheless, sound gets an 8.

Addictiveness: Very few times I've found a game so addictive. First off, because you start from the bottom, barely moving forward, and you end up very soon speeding through the streets. The car roster also makes you want to play more and more, as you keep discovering amazing cars to unlock. Even when you've finished the Story mode, the Multiplayer still awaits, and it's as addictive as the first. The Free Roam, where you can go berserk for the best jump, drift and highest top speed with the cars that appear in the map and that change everytime you enter the game (that's at least my theory), is a very good place for newcomers to see what they can do in this game. Then, you can go to Cooperative, where things get very addictive as you must complete certain events which are for sure not easy, either for the car you're given or for the rivals. And there are more modes on multiplayer, so the fun doesn't end here. Pretty much justified why addictiveness earns a 10.

Story: The policeman you're impersonating suffers a very big accident and left into a coma, meanwhile the delinquent he wanted to arrest keeps up with his evil plans. As the story goes on inside the knocked-out policeman's head, in which you can Shift to other cars for spying your delinquent's actions, our hero finally wakes up. Having heard everything from the TV news, all that happened in his head becomes real, and his theory of where the delinquent is and what is he planning ends up being certain. The final showdown happens in the real world, where the delinquent is finally arrested successfully. This is the summary, but you have to pass through a lot of missions and challenges that range from a race, either between the streets or off-road, to impersonating the minions of your delinquent to gain access to his machinations. As you keep progressing, more zones of the map, as well as cars and garages are unlocked, and your powers strengthen a bit. I have to admit that the very last part, where either you and the delinquent can launch cars away to knock each other out, isn't only difficult, but also out of place. It isn't the best way to finish such a good racing game as this is. I would rate story higher if it wasn't for this, but even then, story gets an 8.

Depth: The game has a lot to offer. First off, the car pool, which goes up to, if I remember well, 140 cars. As I said before, American cars are dominant, and outside of America they aren't that much welcome. I have to admit that the selection of imported cars is also good, not the best one, but good either way. I miss a bunch of cars, but that will be explained later. Second is the Story mode, which isn't as long as you could think because of the summary written above. Finally, there is the Multiplayer mode, in which you can earn medals depending on your progress. There are many reasons to continue playing this game after completing the story, but not because it's addictive, another good reason, but because you still have things to do. Justified 9 for depth.

Difficulty: Overall, the game isn't that difficult, mainly because in open races you can enter the car you want, meaning you can easily overpower your rivals (cheap, but effective). The missions aren't that hard to complete, they don't put you much at disadvantage, although you can think otherwise when starting the mission. I have to say that some missions are hard to do, but the average difficulty isn't high, but the difficult missions, which are needed to progress and can't be left behind as the challenges can, raise the rating a little bit. The final rating for difficulty is 8.

Overall: Being the first game of the Driver series I've played, although I heard of them since the PSX, the impression is quite good, and I'm waiting to see a new game very soon. For future games, it would be better to not focus that much on national cars, or at least include the best ones. It's really bad to not see the Plymouth Firebird, for example, in exchange of other American cars which aren't that famous, impressive and good. I would also like to see the brand Shelby Supercars, because they were the ones which made Bugatti design the Veyron Supersport, as the normal Veyron wasn't the fastest production car anymore thanks to SSC's Aero. For the imported ones, pleased to see so many Lamborghini, they are my true weakness when it comes to supercars. McLaren was also a good addition, as was Pagani or Porsche-tuner RUF. Nissan also had a good presence, except for the fact that the Skyline wasn't the latest model to see the light, the impressive R34. I'm not saying Ferrari should be added, I personally don't like Ferrari at all, but a little bit more of imported cars would be good. If Audi can have its RS models added, maybe the Mercedes AMG or the BMW M, the German Trio, could be added in further games. For Asian cars, well, maybe Mazda's RX7 or RX8, Mitsubishi's Eclipse or Lancer Evo, Subaru's Impreza and some Honda Type R, as well as the NSX would be the best additions. But maybe the most important question is: what continent will be next? Europe, Asia, Australia or again America?