Driver Renegade 3D (3DS) Review

There’s a rather alarming trend I’ve begun noticing with a lot of Nintendo 3DS – that some of them actually play rather well, but simply don’t last enough or run out of gas very quickly after first playing them. Then there’s games that simply aren’t good at all. Unfortunately, Driver Renegade 3D lies between both of these categories and despite some interesting and somewhat fun gameplay mechanics, the game really doesn’t feel like a substantial product, nor like something you should make an effort to own.

Players assume the role of John Tanner, an ex-cop who is tired of the crime that plagues New York City. Deciding to take matters into his own hands, John eventually saves a high ranking senator’s life. Seeing that the Senator needs someone to assist in the fight against crime in New York, Tanner begins working under the political leader in an attempt to eradicate all crime from New York City. Tanner thus forms a relationship between the senator to clean the streets, but only off the record. Thus Driver Renegade’s story begins – and while it is an interesting (but done to death) premise, it never really goes anywhere. There are multiple characters introduced but none of them are well written and instead come across as being very try-hard types.

Driver Renegade falls flat on its face in depicting the city that never sleeps as a city devoid of all life and incredibly light on traffic load. It’s a bit unfortunate there just doesn’t seem to be all that much going on in the city, creating a really unbelievable setting. The jagged models of buildings and cars themselves are also quite devoid of detail, which makes the game feel quite hollow and lifeless. To be fair, sometimes when the player is speeding throughout the city, it looks somewhat passable, but unfortunately any time the player slows down, the lack of detail on the buildings rears it’s ugly head.

The 3D effect is used to good effect, although it does sometimes feel a little bit too strong and some players may see a need to turn down the slider to get a comfortable viewing experience. Menus themselves are well designed and jump out of the screen – it’s almost as if this component of the game received the most work. There are some nice motion comics that are used to advance the story between missions, but unfortunately these comics are brought down by the rather lacklustre story.

In terms of the game’s fundamental mechanics, Driver Renegade controls and handles quite well. All of the different cars control as their stats say, which is quite handy for players who choose their cars based on different factors. There are some gameplay mechanics, however, that are a little bit odd and don’t really make sense. A press of the shoulder buttons gives the player the chance to “ram” either to the left or the right – a great offensive move but one that really doesn’t make any sense on a physics level – although as this is a video game I am a little bit more forgiving. Additionally, players can save up their “rage” bar by performing drifts and stunts, which can then be used to gain an extra boost. Seeing flames erupt from a car does look rather juvenile, but the mechanic itself is good for catching up wherever necessary.

The game itself appears to be quite well structured for the first hour or so. Providing around twenty or so missions to plough through in Story Mode, Driver Renegade tells its story by putting the player through around three to four different kinds of missions. As you’d expect, there aren’t a whole bunch of memorable missions on show here, but instead a whole bunch of rather samey and monotonous missions instead. Most of the missions require the player to either destroy a car or reach a certain point of the map, which is usually indicated by the game’s GPS system. Despite the rather disappointing feel of the gameplay, the GPS does quite a good job at letting the player know where you want to go, but like all GPS units it doesn’t always give the best path which can be a bit off-putting in a videogame. There were also times when the GPS unit was very vague, offering a direction rather than a set path.

Besides the Story Mode, Driver Renegade also features a “Career” mode where the player can complete certain races and tasks to be ranked, earn cash and purchase other cars. It’s a nice touch that certain beefs up the package, but to be perfectly honest it doesn’t feel like anything substantial has been added – you’ve got your usual checkpoint races as well as modes that are a little different like Elimination, where the player who is last is eliminated from the race at certain intervals. Besides these two modes, there isn’t really much else offered in the Driver Renegade package – the “story” mode takes about three hours to complete, but you would definitely be way bored by the time that’s done, which means you’ll probably also be quite uninterested in the career mode too. StreetPass functionality is also included to trade stats such as your best scores and records, but it’s a bit odd to see not even local multiplayer included.

The game’s soundtrack could probably be the only thing in the game that I find consistently tolerable, featuring some rather upbeat tracks that complement the action rather perfectly. The voice work, however, is ridiculously bad. The actors deliver their juvenile lines with absolutely no subtlety nor finesse, and the hammy dialogue they’re spewing forth doesn’t really help either. Sometimes it’s just easier to ignore the cutscenes and reduce the volume slider – yes, it was that bad.

Driver Renegade 3D is a game where I really enjoyed my first hour, but the deeper I went into the experience, the more apparent it became just how lacking the package was. While the gameplay mechanics themselves are fine, the lack of content and a compelling story really bring this one down. It’s hard to recommend this kind of game on the Nintendo 3DS when there are thus far better alternatives in the launch line-up alone.

Graphics 5.5

While the graphics are passable, New York feels incredibly barren and empty. Models are okay but very jagged.

Gameplay 5.0

The gameplay itself is fine. However, the actual structure of the game and repetition of tasks multiple times is very noticeable.

Sound 6.0

A good upbeat soundtrack, but the voice work is not only terrible sounding but the hammy dialogue makes it even worse.

Tilt 3.0

Being a full priced game with only three hours of content and no multiplayer, Driver Renegade is hardly worth the asking price.

Value 5.0

I originally thought Driver Renegade was great, but then upon spending more and more time with it, I realised it was incredibly average.