Video games have taken players on globe-tripping shoot-a-thons, cross-country road races, and adventures as a dragon-killing magician-swordsman.  But Driver: San Francisco takes place in a world so far untapped by the media: the mind of a coma patient.  An original premise, to be sure, that somehow fails to be the main draw of the game.

To be clear, Driver is not the surreal dream world one might imagine of someone in suspended animation.  Instead, it is pretty much a perfect picture of present-day San Francisco, which the player can drive around in using a variety of cars.  That is the game in a nutshell, but one feature serves to put Driver in a class of its own.

That feature is the ability to “shift.” No, not to change gears, but to change entire cars on the fly.  Since the game’s protagonist is off in la-la land, the rules are different than in a typical racing game.  Sure cars handle realistically, although they tend to spin out very easily, but since the hero is not driving in the “real life” of the game (or is he?) his disembodied spirit can float above the proceedings and possess any car on the road.

The possibilities are endless.  One type of game mission is, of course, a straight-up point-to-point race, which the player begins in a car of his or her choosing.  However, with the race underway the player can choose to magically float away from their car, which will continue to drive as if on autopilot, and take control of another vehicle driving down the opposite lane.  A quick twist of this new steering wheel, and suddenly the opposition finds a semi blocking half the road.  Victory.

Driver’s unique shifting mechanic begs the question: can one gimmick make a game fun?  Yes it can.  With solid, if touchy, driving mechanics coupled with the unique circumstances of the game’s plot that are taken advantage of in gameplay, the game shows that one simple innovation can go a long way in setting a game off from its contemporaries.  Driver: San Francisco is worth a look.