The framerate on the PS1 is borderline criminal I mean, this game is great, but I can't believe how we ate that up as kids. Framerate drop could be very frustrating.
I'm currently playing on my hacked PS Classic via retroarch and it slows down at some points that it's nearly unplayable. Was the framerate that bad on native ps1 hardware or is it just the emulation?
Chase the gunman is actually sort of easy once you realize that the missions are just a bunch of scripted replays in which the player participates. You can look at the timer at the start of the mission to see which replay you got and memorize the route accordingly. Also the car that is further away from the player is a lot faster, which atleast for me was a lot easier. The closer car only works for a couple of the longest timers.
Both cars actually have the same speed in that mission. The pink one is usually slower but thanks to a special script when there’s a car to chase (when it has unlimited mass) the speed of the player vehicle is set to match that of the car you chase. The only exception is if the players vehicle doesn’t exceed a certain speed. This is why it doesn’t work on the van on Chase the Intruder and the Bus on Pursue Jericho. It also works the other way around. On Steal the ambulance the player car is actually slightly slower to match the speed of the ambulance but it’s not easy to tell as the ambulance isn’t much slower then the normal speed the challenger is.
There was also stuff restored on REDRIVER 2. Such as the ability to use turn signals, one color pallet that normally didn’t show up in traffic and the monorail in Vegas. Cops/gangsters were made a little easier as well by adding a cool down timer before they ram your vehicle at full speed on easy and medium difficulty. For originality you can play on hard and it will be like how it originally was with no cool down timer. Mind you they only do this when your above 50% felony. Which speaking of they now reset on REDRIVER 2 if you switch vehicles unlike the original. Also for those reading I would recommend the Appveyor version because at the time of me typing this the GitHub version is over a year old. While Appveyor gets updated frequently.
Great review, love the frustration coming through, it seems completely warranted. That clip of the train mission where your objective car gets smashed into by your previous car, but apparently since direct contact isn't made and the old car was a perfect 'bumper', that's a win? Good stuff. Keep it up!
Man, many years, nearly 500 videos and all of what I’ve watched is great stuff. Which is why I’m surprised you’re not at 50k subs yet. Come on guys, spread the word, let’s get this guy to 50k!
Chase and the gunman is the hardest mission I ever played in a videogame. But I was able to beat it two times in my life after looooots of frustration and tries. Despite its flaws, Driver 2 is my all time favourite videogame from my childhood! I have spent hundreds of hours in Take a Ride mode.
I played the shit out of this game when I was a kid. Crazy to think kids today play games with amazing graphics. But there's something about old games that make you play them again.
I do still like this game to the point that I replay it every few years like the first game, but Chase The Gun Man is still awful to this day. Still takes me several tries to beat it.
I remember playing this back in the day thinking how bad the graphics were compared to the first game - much more lag and pop up. Still, after spending a bit of time getting into the game, ultimately I enjoyed it. The infinite mass thing though really annoyed me as well on some enemy cars, also this happened in the first game I believe. Good game, but wouldn't say it was better than the first. (Edit 6:46 I remember the replays going out of sync as well, first game did this also I believe, definitely a glitch/bug)
Replays also break if you use cheats like no cops and no damage. And when the replay happens, it's like they get put back on even though they don't and the car goes haywire. I rarely had it break without cheats on...thankfully.
9:45: I remember this one, had to restart countless number of time (and the very last one as well). Sad because a chase in the mountain road sounded great on paper.
I could only beat chase the gunman if the timer started at 1:23, It was only on this start time that I could get in front of the car to let him ram my arse and destroy his car.
6:50: I think the replay works by recording your input using some samplings, and recreating the action. I guess it is very prone to bugs, and this was not the only game suffering from that.
I played this like crazy as a kid on the PS1, but funny story, I didn't even know there was a story or goal. We just started the game and goofed off until we died and did it again. Very fun times.
I starting playing this again and have probably hit rety at least 500 times easily and i think im almost done with Havana. One the most frustrating games ever yet i cant put it down. I just love the era, setting, 70s movie vibe, and driving physics/mechanics. I really think it was made so difficult to up the sales for gamesharks.
Interesting to note how the damage works here - while in the first game you can just ram slowly another car and get full damages, here you don't have that, you have to knock it with some speed to get that damage. On that note, those coppers are moar kamikaze here, which annoys me as well. Though to me, time limits are not an issue, perhaps I know the great routes or something. Also the game frame drops a lot less if played with a PlayStation 2. Shitemulators usually emulate PS1 behaviours with games, for better and worse, so the result is usually the same as having a legit PS1 anyway. If there's annoying missions, I find Find The Clue and Chase The Gun Man to be them. And the final mission. Did observe one time while playing the game through in all Cop Difficulty levels that final mission took ages on Easy, somewhat less tries on Medium and first try win in Hard. That was due to chasers being stronger and more annoying so way less of them appeared and ruined the day (especially them spawning to the front facing you can be annoying). Have to say that while the game has two revisions and that page seen in the video at the beginning tells users half truths with that, the later revision (at least in the PAL land) is also available as a Black Label disc set (English version later revision for example is SLES-02993#/SLES-12993# as seen in disc labels, German, French, Italian and Spanish ones have different numbers in that product catalogue code).
The main problem with Driver 2 is that so much work was put into the story and characters with awesome moments and set pieces, only for 90% of players to just choose Take a Ride because of the game's absolutely punishing difficulty.
When I played the first two Driver games, I played them on the DuckStation emulator. I was only able to beat these games because I abused the quick save and quick load feature.
Hahaha that mission with the tail always pissed me off as a kid not sure but probably tossed a controller or two. I ordered a ps2 and driver 1 and 2 a couple weeks ago! Work too much that I'm stuck watching this video on break instead of breaking a controller at the moment.
try in survival mode havanna, drive 30s strait up to plaza de revolution, park on the middle of the monument before the piaza and watch what the cops do at that ramps LOL
I played so damn much of this game. It's kind of a mess but at the time I was too young to really be able to tell, plus that was during the age where I didn't play a single game without popping in a game shark first I already loved the first one, just being able to pick a map and drive around anywhere I wanted was so much fun and the car chases were just top notch. This one however blew my mind with the ability to actually exit your vehicle, I believe you could also do stupid stuff like sit down in chairs Ultimately my love for this franchise would fade away with PlayStation 2 and Grand theft Auto. But before that was around this was eating up a lot of my time
Should mic up so we can hear your frustration playing these types of games. I just picture in my head something similar to James from AVGN yelling and swearing at the TV
My first introduction to Driver was with Driver Paid Leaves (yes, that’s a bad pun), and it was a.. decent game, but San Francisco was my favourite. I played some Driver 2 and 3, but didn’t really have fun with them. Looking forward to see what you say about Paid Leaves and Silly Files.
If they made it for PS2 and added more stuff you could do on foot (guns etc) and released it in 2000 or early 2001, they could've taken the wind out of the sails for GTA III for sure. DRIV3R (minus the horrible bugs and other problems that game had) is essentially what Driver 2 should've been, but was just far too late, coming out after GTA VC was a major hit and with San Andreas just around the corner.
I usually dont complain about difficult games but this game is just unfair, the slightest wrong turn or error makes you fail. I cant imagine beating this game without save states through emulation.
This is such a bad review, the main gameplay feature of this game is the chase scenes and driving, if it was easy it would not be exciting or feel like there is a sense of urgency and importance to each mission, this is not a hand holding game like many modern titles, many games during this era were a challenge but with perseverance and skill you can finish them, if 12 year old me could beat this and tomb raider 3 i am sure a grown adult could do it, the game also had longevity due to the challenge unlike many modern games which can be completed in a session, if you want an easy game go and play mario kart.
Hahaha very true.. These games were hard back in the day, and today. My only criticism of Driver 2 is 'Chase the gunman' mission, that one suucckkeedd! Let alone President mission in Driver 1.. Those are borderline beatable, and take many restarts...
I don't get the need to play this game with stock settings even for review purposes, screw the purists, last time i played it it was emulated at higher resolution and with overclock so i could get constant 30 fps.
This came out three years before Vice City and three years in the gaming space back then was a long time. Everything was moving at a break neck pace back then.
The framerate on the PS1 is borderline criminal
I mean, this game is great, but I can't believe how we ate that up as kids. Framerate drop could be very frustrating.
This is why ReDriver 2 is excellent and the only way I would replay Driver 2 today!
over 2 decades ago the standards were much lower, actually driver 2 on the PS back then looked pretty good in comparison to other games.
I'm currently playing on my hacked PS Classic via retroarch and it slows down at some points that it's nearly unplayable. Was the framerate that bad on native ps1 hardware or is it just the emulation?
I play it in 2024 and I don't care.
"what's your name?"
...
"Mr. Drive 2." i loved that part in the game where he said that
Chase the gunman is actually sort of easy once you realize that the missions are just a bunch of scripted replays in which the player participates. You can look at the timer at the start of the mission to see which replay you got and memorize the route accordingly. Also the car that is further away from the player is a lot faster, which atleast for me was a lot easier. The closer car only works for a couple of the longest timers.
Both cars actually have the same speed in that mission. The pink one is usually slower but thanks to a special script when there’s a car to chase (when it has unlimited mass) the speed of the player vehicle is set to match that of the car you chase. The only exception is if the players vehicle doesn’t exceed a certain speed. This is why it doesn’t work on the van on Chase the Intruder and the Bus on Pursue Jericho. It also works the other way around. On Steal the ambulance the player car is actually slightly slower to match the speed of the ambulance but it’s not easy to tell as the ambulance isn’t much slower then the normal speed the challenger is.
An expletive laden review. I love you!
There was also stuff restored on REDRIVER 2. Such as the ability to use turn signals, one color pallet that normally didn’t show up in traffic and the monorail in Vegas. Cops/gangsters were made a little easier as well by adding a cool down timer before they ram your vehicle at full speed on easy and medium difficulty. For originality you can play on hard and it will be like how it originally was with no cool down timer. Mind you they only do this when your above 50% felony. Which speaking of they now reset on REDRIVER 2 if you switch vehicles unlike the original. Also for those reading I would recommend the Appveyor version because at the time of me typing this the GitHub version is over a year old. While Appveyor gets updated frequently.
That intro, as it played at the start of the video I recited it word for word
Still can’t believe I beat this and Driver 1 as a kid
definitely going to finish the game on the PC again, childhood memories.
The “on-foot” segments were maddening to control
Great review, love the frustration coming through, it seems completely warranted. That clip of the train mission where your objective car gets smashed into by your previous car, but apparently since direct contact isn't made and the old car was a perfect 'bumper', that's a win? Good stuff.
Keep it up!
Driver 2? Why not better late than never 😂
Man, many years, nearly 500 videos and all of what I’ve watched is great stuff. Which is why I’m surprised you’re not at 50k subs yet. Come on guys, spread the word, let’s get this guy to 50k!
Chase and the gunman is the hardest mission I ever played in a videogame. But I was able to beat it two times in my life after looooots of frustration and tries.
Despite its flaws, Driver 2 is my all time favourite videogame from my childhood! I have spent hundreds of hours in Take a Ride mode.
This game was my shit!
So it weren't just me who struggled with Chase the Gunman? I have seen it done, but by fluke. And whenever I tried? Forget it. Drove me fucking mad
I played the shit out of this game when I was a kid. Crazy to think kids today play games with amazing graphics. But there's something about old games that make you play them again.
I do still like this game to the point that I replay it every few years like the first game, but Chase The Gun Man is still awful to this day. Still takes me several tries to beat it.
Took me and my friend a week playing religiously every day when we were kids
I remember playing this back in the day thinking how bad the graphics were compared to the first game - much more lag and pop up. Still, after spending a bit of time getting into the game, ultimately I enjoyed it. The infinite mass thing though really annoyed me as well on some enemy cars, also this happened in the first game I believe. Good game, but wouldn't say it was better than the first. (Edit 6:46 I remember the replays going out of sync as well, first game did this also I believe, definitely a glitch/bug)
Replays also break if you use cheats like no cops and no damage. And when the replay happens, it's like they get put back on even though they don't and the car goes haywire. I rarely had it break without cheats on...thankfully.
9:45: I remember this one, had to restart countless number of time (and the very last one as well). Sad because a chase in the mountain road sounded great on paper.
I could only beat chase the gunman if the timer started at 1:23, It was only on this start time that I could get in front of the car to let him ram my arse and destroy his car.
6:50: I think the replay works by recording your input using some samplings, and recreating the action. I guess it is very prone to bugs, and this was not the only game suffering from that.
I played this like crazy as a kid on the PS1, but funny story, I didn't even know there was a story or goal. We just started the game and goofed off until we died and did it again. Very fun times.
9:45 your not alone 😂😂😂😂
I starting playing this again and have probably hit rety at least 500 times easily and i think im almost done with Havana. One the most frustrating games ever yet i cant put it down. I just love the era, setting, 70s movie vibe, and driving physics/mechanics. I really think it was made so difficult to up the sales for gamesharks.
The final mission where you chase the helicopter was real bullshit as well
The memories 🥲
thank god redriver 2 is a thing, otherwise, i would not have stomached revisiting it.
The game should have had a proper PC release like the first game did. Oh well, better late than never even if it is unofficial.
We need more reverse engineered PC ports of PlayStation games, that's for damn sure!
Interesting to note how the damage works here - while in the first game you can just ram slowly another car and get full damages, here you don't have that, you have to knock it with some speed to get that damage. On that note, those coppers are moar kamikaze here, which annoys me as well. Though to me, time limits are not an issue, perhaps I know the great routes or something. Also the game frame drops a lot less if played with a PlayStation 2. Shitemulators usually emulate PS1 behaviours with games, for better and worse, so the result is usually the same as having a legit PS1 anyway.
If there's annoying missions, I find Find The Clue and Chase The Gun Man to be them. And the final mission. Did observe one time while playing the game through in all Cop Difficulty levels that final mission took ages on Easy, somewhat less tries on Medium and first try win in Hard. That was due to chasers being stronger and more annoying so way less of them appeared and ruined the day (especially them spawning to the front facing you can be annoying).
Have to say that while the game has two revisions and that page seen in the video at the beginning tells users half truths with that, the later revision (at least in the PAL land) is also available as a Black Label disc set (English version later revision for example is SLES-02993#/SLES-12993# as seen in disc labels, German, French, Italian and Spanish ones have different numbers in that product catalogue code).
The main problem with Driver 2 is that so much work was put into the story and characters with awesome moments and set pieces, only for 90% of players to just choose Take a Ride because of the game's absolutely punishing difficulty.
When I played the first two Driver games, I played them on the DuckStation emulator. I was only able to beat these games because I abused the quick save and quick load feature.
Hahaha that mission with the tail always pissed me off as a kid not sure but probably tossed a controller or two. I ordered a ps2 and driver 1 and 2 a couple weeks ago! Work too much that I'm stuck watching this video on break instead of breaking a controller at the moment.
try in survival mode havanna, drive 30s strait up to plaza de revolution, park on the middle of the monument before the piaza and watch what the cops do at that ramps LOL
@2:15 tanner is missing his left ear. lol
Most swear-a-rific Gaming Pastime review yet? 🤣
I played so damn much of this game. It's kind of a mess but at the time I was too young to really be able to tell, plus that was during the age where I didn't play a single game without popping in a game shark first
I already loved the first one, just being able to pick a map and drive around anywhere I wanted was so much fun and the car chases were just top notch. This one however blew my mind with the ability to actually exit your vehicle, I believe you could also do stupid stuff like sit down in chairs
Ultimately my love for this franchise would fade away with PlayStation 2 and Grand theft Auto. But before that was around this was eating up a lot of my time
Love this game and the multiplayer as a kid
Should mic up so we can hear your frustration playing these types of games. I just picture in my head something similar to James from AVGN yelling and swearing at the TV
My first introduction to Driver was with Driver Paid Leaves (yes, that’s a bad pun), and it was a.. decent game, but San Francisco was my favourite.
I played some Driver 2 and 3, but didn’t really have fun with them.
Looking forward to see what you say about Paid Leaves and Silly Files.
If only this game was made for OG Xbox, PS2, GC, PC, and even Dreamcast.
If they made it for PS2 and added more stuff you could do on foot (guns etc) and released it in 2000 or early 2001, they could've taken the wind out of the sails for GTA III for sure.
DRIV3R (minus the horrible bugs and other problems that game had) is essentially what Driver 2 should've been, but was just far too late, coming out after GTA VC was a major hit and with San Andreas just around the corner.
Beating Driver 2 as a Kid was a bitch. But I was in aw with how massive and impressive the game was
This game is a must have for the ps1. It satisfies that Gta urge
Did U Know
Devs wanted to release this game as a launch title for PS2
if Soapy didn't reverse the game for PC i wouldn't be available to finish it because plays so horrible on PSX mainly the framerate is bad
I play a lot of retro, even handhelds on my 55 inch screen. PS1 did not age well.
I usually dont complain about difficult games but this game is just unfair, the slightest wrong turn or error makes you fail. I cant imagine beating this game without save states through emulation.
This is such a bad review, the main gameplay feature of this game is the chase scenes and driving, if it was easy it would not be exciting or feel like there is a sense of urgency and importance to each mission, this is not a hand holding game like many modern titles, many games during this era were a challenge but with perseverance and skill you can finish them, if 12 year old me could beat this and tomb raider 3 i am sure a grown adult could do it, the game also had longevity due to the challenge unlike many modern games which can be completed in a session, if you want an easy game go and play mario kart.
Hahaha very true.. These games were hard back in the day, and today. My only criticism of Driver 2 is 'Chase the gunman' mission, that one suucckkeedd! Let alone President mission in Driver 1.. Those are borderline beatable, and take many restarts...
This was another game that should have been amazing, but had so many frustrating parts it made it bad.
Makes one wonder why there wasn't a PC port like the first game.
Just bought this game for $10 to play on my ps3 haha
I don't get the need to play this game with stock settings even for review purposes, screw the purists, last time i played it it was emulated at higher resolution and with overclock so i could get constant 30 fps.
Imagine IF LIMITED RUN GAMES were to release a remastered & enhanced version of DRIVER 1&2 for current consoles!!
That would be Beyond AWESOME!!!!
First!! Yea boi
Second!! Yeah Boi
“We have vice city at home”
This came out three years before Vice City and three years in the gaming space back then was a long time. Everything was moving at a break neck pace back then.
Do you think that maybe you could remove the screensaver thingy for the next video? I think it's a bit irritating and distracting