Since its first incarnation on the PlayStation, the Driver series has seen its fair share of ups and downs across several different platforms. Unfortunately, Driver: Renegade 3DS isn’t one of the series’ stronger entries. Its lousy attitude, poor production values, and dearth of interesting content make it a half-baked game that isn’t worth your time.
You play as series mainstay John Tanner, an ex-cop who’s hired by one of New York’s big political figures to rid the city’s streets of crime. Doing so requires you to mercilessly drive your car around like a lunatic and bash into any enemy vehicles that try to stop you–and that’s pretty much the extent of what Driver: Renegade 3DS has to offer. For the most part, the driving is solid but completely unremarkable. Individual cars (which are unlocked after completing missions) handle according to their relative stats, and also make use of a “rage bar.” The bar recharges during drifts and stunts, giving you access to a temporary speed boost and the ability to destroy assailants using shunts.
Not only do the game’s run-of-the-mill racing objectives fail to capitalize on the solid driving mechanics, but it also makes it easy to cheat the system and truncate the running time of an otherwise prolonged mission to much shorter periods. For instance, instead of becoming embroiled in a captivating car chase through the city streets, merely trapping an opposing car against a nearby wall and then ramming into it a few times is more than enough to meet the requirements of your objective. Boxing in an opponent may sound like a valid tactic to some, but in reality, it’s just not fun; and you may even find yourself causing such incidents to happen without even trying. Even worse, similar frustrations can also befall you. Spinning out and knocking against other cars or parts of the environment rapidly drains the stability of your car, meaning that deaths are often unfair and unpredictable.
