My last post talks (the one in the topic about the previous Driver games' storylines' flaws) that there is a big issue surrounding freedom in video games. While players can have fun taking a break from the storyline, freedom should also be found in the storyline to make it more fun and then players can try to experiment with many different choices to see how the story moves on forward. The amount of freedom in video games has always been targeted to affecting only the player's character and the people and environments within the game, except for the story--the situations and the characters that are in it. It's been a problem for the GTA games, the Elder Scrolls games, the Fable games, the Sims games, and among many other games that offer a great degree of freedom.

Once again, this is to let you know that I'm not for Rockstar North's GTA franchise, unless it can employ all three cores of freedom (for the main character, for the things in the environment, and for the story). Driver 4/5 can really top the action-adventure genre if it finds a way to make use of all three core aspects of freedom, being rich in each of them. If Ubisoft Reflections does make this possible, I will definitely be happy enough to buy a copy of the Driver game that has achieved this because it'll be a way of changing the way games play and how the action-adventure genre plays, too.

Notice that I didn't make any negative comments about Driver. I just talked about how many games employing freedom don't use it in every possible way, meaning that the freedom in the story should also be deep, but this hasn't been the case yet, other than maybe for games that allow you to say whatever you want in a conversation (Mass Effect, KOTOR, etc.). The GTA franchise definitely needs to implement this feature if I am going to continue playing it for years and years. The same goes for the Driver franchise.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: FutureVenturer2,

Freedom to guide the story is nice, but not necessary for a solid storyline. True Crime LA allowed branching storylines, but decided a lot of missions were never played, just passed up for the alternate ending.

Too much freedom in story increases replay value, but only if the game's missions are worth replaying. And so far, I almost never replay Driver's frustrating, difficult missions (I'm all for free ride).

I'm sure that a solid storyline would fit very well with the use of things like branching dialogue (multiple answers and questions to NPCs in conversations, much like in Mass Effect, KOTOR) and multiple ways to get missions completed. Mass Effect and KOTOR had some very impressive storylines and they fared off very well with branching dialogues and multiple paths in their storylines. It may seem hard to make that possible for the first time, especially for a Driver game, but that is how it feels when you're doing it for the first time. I think that GTA IV was a great challenge in having impressive visuals and physics, but only because it was the first time that Rockstar North ever focused so hard on these two aspects.

And I don't think that we'll ever see such incredibly difficult missions for the Driver franchise in the future. The reasons why D1 and D2 were so difficult are because they had lots of glitches and they might've not necessarily been finished. D3 didn't seem so difficult, only because the AI was so bad that it seemed almost non-existent. DPL was a bigger improvement, but it wasn't that difficult either, so I guess this can tell us that there won't ever be times of extremely frustrating missions that we did see in D1 and D2 because there will be a lot more ways of improvements (in physics, controlling the main character, etc.) and the AI might be more realistic, but should feature a difficulty setting (to make sure that non-experienced players can play through the game without a lot of frustration). If these things are done, then I think that a storyline for a Driver game will do pretty well with freedom that goes into affecting the storyline portion of the game. And it shouldn't just be the branching dialogue because even things done when you're not on a mission can affect your respect and the situations/actions taken on in the storyline's missions.

Also, if Ubisoft Reflections doesn't take on such an approach like this, I don't see how the future Driver games will ever surpass the GTA games, or how they'll be called something besides just "GTA clones." And yes, I did play True Crime: Streets of LA, which I noticed had multiple ways of how missions could end up, but that was so repetitive because certain missions allowed for you to see what happened if you accomplished your mission or if you failed your mission. Instead of just this option, the player should be able to choose from multiple forms of dialogue in a conversation and he/she should be able to beat a mission in whatever ways suit them. This can allow for another approach to being a heroine, which is that you can be a good guy, a bad guy, or something in between. If the next Driver game is done in the way that I am suggesting, I'm pretty sure that it'll innovate the Driver franchise further and that it might be enough to move the great criticism found in D3 and DPL out, and add in a very positive reception for the game, both by critics and fans.

If you're worried that Ubisoft Reflections will make another storyline with missions that offer low replay value, then maybe it's time that its staff learned to make some very fun and original missions. By letting the game take around 2 years or more to be completed, I think that Reflections should be working on trying to make the story and its missions as entertaining as possible. This can happen with lots of freedom and rewards to go around, and with some of the best voice-acting as well as with a ton of really polished on-foot and driving abilities that help guide you in the game's missions. One of the biggest problems with the Driver franchise is that most of the abilities that were used in the missions didn't work out so well, except for the driving aspects, like the physics, handling, and damage modeling. Everything else was pretty much crap.

I prefer missions that are fun first, then challenging second, not in any way frustrating, like Driver's close to final missions are known for. Difficult is fine, but controller bashingly difficult, not good. They want the player to think, "Man I want to replay this mission cause it's fun", not "I have to play this next to impossible mission again just to get through the darn thing!"

But yeah, a stronger story always helps. More freedom in the story? As long as it blends back to one finale.

I do think that my idea of a storyline that is very non-linear wouldn't work for the next Driver game, and it probably won't properly work until after a game called The Outsider (no, it doesn't have anything to do with any of the books or movies, which carry the same exact name as this game) will come out. I know that I've mentioned this game before, but you guys might not remember enough. According to Wikipedia: "The Outsider is set in a crowded city based on present-day Washington DC and its environs, including the CIA HQ at Langley, Andrews Air Force Base and Newport News Naval Dockyard. The player controls a CIA operative named Jameson, who can use various combat styles and weapons. The game's opening sequence (as was seen in the first trailer of the game) depicts the character wrongly becoming public enemy number one in the eyes of the media and the public, and leaves the player to decide how to continue."

It is a game that was created by David Braben's developer Frontier Developments. David Braben is considered to be the one who co-created (with Ian Bell) the first-ever non-linear game/open-world game, which was entitled Elite, a sci-fi game that is a space trading and combat simulator, released in 1984. He also created Zarch (was released in 1987), which is widely considered to be the first true "solid" 3D game of all time. The promises that The Outsider makes will hopefully fulfill my wishes (and other's wishes) enough that we'll see future GTA and Driver games take such approaches to their story-lines, along with even games that are usually meant to be linear. The storyline will truly be take to a whole new level with The Outsider.

For now, I think that I can live without Driver being so full of freedom in its storyline, and the same goes for GTA, but with that said, I'm referring to the next games that will be worked on after the upcoming Driver 4/5 and GTA game (GTA V, or whatever else it will be called) are finished in these franchises, so I would appreciate later titles to take inspirations of The Outsider's story structure. I can't wait to play The Outsider (release date still To Be Announced, even though it is expected to be released by December 2009) and I'm counting on D4/D5 to be a big improvement in the Driver franchise.

If anyone is interested in knowing what Elite is like, here are some screenshots of it:






And for the upcoming game, The Outsider, here are some screenshots, too:

This message has been edited. Last edited by: FutureVenturer2,

Nice pics of the Outsider. I wonder if there's a day/night cycle and freedom to ignore all the missions and just goof around the map?

There hasn't been much information regarding The Outsider at this point, so I don't know if it'll also be aiming for an open-world experience. However, I did hear that its animation system will be a lot like the euphoria engine in GTA IV, as it'll allow for almost every single moment to offer a different animation for your character as well as the NPCs in the game. And you can use combat and weapons in the game, so I'm hoping that the game will be really good as an action-adventure game.

It's so interesting how both Splinter Cell: Conviction and The Outsider will be the first two Action-Adventure games to be based in a place like Washington D.C. (Midtown Madness 3 already had it). I can't wait to play around in places like those in Virginia. I went to Washington D.C. on my 8th grade trip, and it's been 4 years since, so I'm looking forward to see some of it and other cities of Virginia in both games.

DC is a unique place for an action/adventure game, so this is definitely something original in terms of location. I hope it is free roam/choose your path gameplay.