Driver (subtitled "You Are the Wheelman" in North America) is an action driving video game and the first installment in the Driver series. Developed by Reflections Interactive and published by GT Interactive, it was released on the PlayStation on 25 June 1999, and was ported to Microsoft Windows on 1 October 1999, and to Classic Mac OS on 12 December 2000 by Abersoft Limited. The game's success led to further sequels, including Driver 2 in November 2000 and Driver 3 in June 2004.
Gameplay
The game is played out in four cities: Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, each of which remain only partially faithful to the actual city layouts. A fifth bonus city, Newcastle (where Reflections Interactive is based), is unlockable in the PC version through gameplay and in the PlayStation version using a cheat device, but no missions are available and the playable area is small. The game was notable at the time of its original release insofar as the player was able to explore each city as an open world environment. Driver has often been compared to the Grand Theft Auto series. It also bears significant thematic resemblances to the 20th Century Fox movie The Driver (1978).
Plot
NYPD detective and former racing driver John Tanner is sent undercover by Lieutenant McKenzie to investigate a crime syndicate; McKenzie instructs Tanner to go to Miami and meet a pimp named Rufus. After arriving in Miami, Tanner uses his driving skills to prove himself to some gangsters in a parking garage, and becomes their getaway driver.
Tanner carries out jobs for various criminals before meeting Rufus, who tasks Tanner with rescuing Jean-Paul, one of his associates. Rufus is later shot dead by his girlfriend Jesse, whom Tanner apprehends, and she reveals that Jean-Paul is now in San Francisco.
Tanner goes to San Francisco, where he meets Castaldi, the head of the syndicate, and begins working directly for him. He also meets Rusty Slater, his former racing rival, who also works for Castaldi. Tanner later learns from local informant Mojo that Castaldi is working with a man named Don Hancock, who is running for president. He comes to suspect that Slater has been spying on him and wrecks Slater's car during a chase, resulting in Slater being arrested.
Castaldi's syndicate moves to Los Angeles, where Castaldi plans to assassinate FBI agent Bill Maddox. Tanner instructs Lech, a police associate, to ensure Maddox turns up; otherwise, his cover may be blown. The assassination fails and the police ambush the gangsters, forcing Tanner to take them to safety. Tanner convinces the suspicious gangsters that Slater told the police about the planned assassination. Lech later tells Tanner that McKenzie recently met with Marcus Vaughn, an FBI agent whom Tanner realizes is working with Castaldi and Hancock.
The syndicate then moves to New York, where Castaldi plans a high-profile assassination. Lech tells Tanner that Hancock has bribed several people in the FBI and that McKenzie wants him to pull out of the operation, as he worries for Tanner's cover. Tanner insists on staying undercover and keeps working for Castaldi, intent on uncovering his plan.
Tanner eventually learns that Castaldi plans to assassinate the President of the United States, and Tanner is tasked with driving the President's car. However, he ignores all instructions and takes the President to safety. McKenzie then arrives and tells Tanner that Castaldi and all of his associates, including Hancock and Vaughn, have been arrested, then offers Tanner his badge back. However, Tanner suspects that the police and FBI were involved with Castaldi, so he leaves, ignoring McKenzie completely.
Development
Series creator Martin Edmonson was inspired by the very first film he saw at the cinema, 1978 crime thriller The Driver, with the tutorial level being directly lifted from a scene in the film. The destruction of vehicles in-game was inspired by Edmonson watching "real destruction derbies and banger racing" as a child and observing the "twisted metal and the battered cars" afterwards. To achieve the "sound effects of the crunching metal sound" of car crashes during development, the team "went to a wrecker's yard and hired a big JCB, and we were picking up cars and dropping them on top of other cars".
According to Spanish video game magazine Magazine 64, in 1999, GT Interactive were conducting development tests for a port to the Nintendo 64, although no such release ever materialized. In 2009, a remastered version of the game was released on the App Store. Developed and published by Gameloft, the original plot and structure were left intact, but the graphics were enhanced, the music was re-done, and voice acting was re-recorded for the cutscenes.
For the iOS version of the game, the game's original soundtrack was replaced with an entirely original soundtrack, including music from three different radio stations. The game was later delisted from the App Store.