Driver: San Francisco. Shifting Makes Me Feel Good

Get behind several wheels...

It's weird to think that a gameplay mechanic as good as Diver: San Francisco's shift ability hasn't been adopted or further explored in the 14 years since its release. when it launched in 2011, the game was met by plenty of praise for the concept, and after having recently played the game, I'm pretty stunned that the enjoyable mechanic hasn't seen more love in the industry.

To be fair, the mechanic is hard to implement with Driver having to set the game within lead hero, John Tanner's head, and living the story through his coma-induced mind. That's not to say there aren't other ways to adapt the mechanic, but it's certainly not as easy as other popular gameplay systems.

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Shift It

If you're unaware, the Shift ability allows John to leave his body, giving him a bird's eye view of the city before dropping into the driving seat of any vehicle on the road, which opens up a plethora of options to play with and adapt into the game's varied missions.

The mechanic is at the centre of Driver: San Francisco, whether you're using it to explore the open world, see the available missions, side quests and dares, or pick a nice car to cruise around in, mopping up collectables. The ability develops the more you progress through the story, allowing you to shunt and boost in every vehicle, drift out for even wider views of the map and eventually a quick return button to sling you back behind your current car's wheel after unleashing chaos around you.

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Full Throttle Fun

It's an incredibly fun mechanic to mess around with, and despite it sounding like a short-lived gimmick, it never loses its appeal and remains a constant joy to use throughout your entire playtime. It presents a lot of options to the usual driving game missions, one mission might see you shift into oncoming traffic and take out one of the escaping drivers whereas another mission might see you ahead in a race only for you to shift into a bus and park it at the centre of the highway blocking off large portions of the road for your fellow racers.

There's a lot of potential in how you tackle your missions, and it never stops being fun to hop into oncoming traffic and hurtle headfirst at full speed into an opponent. So much so, the game even sets you defence missions later on that see you protect a vehicle from waves of reckless goons hoping to destroy evidence, so for the next 3 minutes, you're put on an all-out warpath to wreck any incoming assailants.

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It's a shame the shift ability hasn't made a comeback, but I'm also more disappointed that the Driver series seems to have stalled following the release of Driver: San Francisco, with a 3DS spin-off title released at the same time, only to be followed by the final entry in the series in 2014, a free-to-play mobile game Driver: Speedboat Paradise, which sees you racing speedboats.

If you haven't experienced the joy of Driver: San Francisco yet, I'd wholeheartedly recommend taking the plunge, even 14 years on; the shift mechanic is still a blast to mess around with, cementing Driver: San Francisco as a great driving game that proves its worth a trip, even if we're two generations on since it's PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 launch.

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Have you played Driver: San Francisco? How did you find the Shift ability? Let me know in the comments below.

As usual, have a great day, and catch you in the next post.