I am rather surprised with the negative reviews of this fourth game in the Driver series. It's not the best as far as the storyline is concerned (that must go to Driver 2), and it suffers by losing so many of the options that were available in the previous three instalments, namely replay modes and the fact only one city is available. The graphics (PS2 version) are rather good, a little better than Driv3r, and the way New York is incorporated into the game is so massive it will take hours to negotiate every single street and alleyway! Damage to vehicles is as realistic as Driv3r, but it's disappointing that the character TK cannot swim, a fact further weakened by the fact that no boats are available whatsoever. Tanner could do this in Driv3r, so why wasn't this carried over into Parallel Lines? I like the idea of one part of the story being set in 1978 and the other half in 2006, along with some rather fancy music for both eras ('78 in particular), while police chases are rather fun, even if the AI is a little weak. Watch out for the SWAT team and the police helicopter too! Being able to repair, modify or complete change the vehicle the player is driving at Roy's garage is an interesting concept, while side-jobs and objectives scattered around the city allow you to prove your prowess behind the wheel, even if some of these objectives are exactly the same as others.
I like this game despite some disappointing aspects being left out and the rather lame storyline (the main highlight being the era change), but the realistic damage and wide variety of vehicles to drive and streets to drive on kind of makes up for it. 7/10
