At the Ubisoft booth, we had the opportunity to go behind closed doors and get some actual hands-on time with Driver: San Francisco. As announced on the press conference, the game franchise returns to its roots, with under-cover agent Tanner and his arch enemy Jericho as lead characters. New to the series, though, are the 100+ licensed cars in the game, which will either unlock by progress, or by visiting specific areas of the world. The car collection is not supposed to be complete, but the developers focused on bringing a selection from both fast and famous cars. There even is a DeLorean that we spotted.

The single player demo we got to see first shows the downtown area of the game and some key gameplay features, of which the most important one is the Shift. By the push of a button, time slows down to about 10 percent, and the camera moves to an overhead view of the street you are in. Here, it is then possible to navigate to any other car in the immediate area and 'shift' to that driver’s position. It was confirmed to us that this will be even be possible during the missions, so stopping a moving car could become much more effective by shifting to a truck driving in the opposite direction and going heads-on. As the game progresses, this power will evolve, and you can zoom out to the entire San Francisco area. Fast transportation!

Now, how does Shift fit the storyline? Apparently, Tanner is in a coma after having been in a severe car accident, and the game we’re playing is more of a dream world to him. Not only switching cars happens via this mechanism, but it is also the way to activate missions. As you zoom out to the map, voice messages will pop up requesting for your assistance. If you select one of the missions, you will practically always jump directly into the ongoing action. As far as we can tell, there’s no need to drive around the city unless it is for messing with the Shift and creating your own highway of hell.

When on a mission the involved cars will draw taillights in the air, as if you have left the exposure open with a camera after a car passes by, and they last for about a second or two. The reason, we’re told, is that it helps the player to orientate, not necessarily in a regular pursuit, but especially after shifting, where it could become unclear what car you were following. Also, the colour of taillights has a meaning. Targets draw in red, while allies draw in blue. For example, were were shown a mission where you shifted into one of two police cars in pursuit of a vehicle.

From what we experienced, the game already handled very smoothly, at 50 fps we were told, but the goal by release is 60 fps because "this type of game really needs it". The Shift feature is awkward at first, but we really began to realize its importance during the multiplayer hands-on with the game. We had the ability to play one of many game type called Trailblazer, which has all players (in red overlays) follow a car in yellow. The player who gathers most points by staying in the tail of the leading car wins. There was no limit on how many times you shifted cars, at least none that we noticed, but it became apparent that there are two main strategies: either shift a lot, or shift to a fast car.

There is a lot of potential in this title and it could really put the Driver series on the right track. Now what else the game needs is a compelling story throughout the game, enough variation in gameplay and some incentive to prevent potential bullies from messing up the multiplayer. Other than that, this looks like a winner already.