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The Last Driver Review

The Last Driver
Developer: Cristiano Bartel
Publisher: Chillingo
Platforms: iPhone (reviewed), iTouch, iPad
Release Date: August 30, 2012
Price: $0.99

Overview

The game, The Last Driver is an action arcade title that plays like Temple Run. You are the last person who is able to drive and you have to fight your way through horde after hordes of zombies while  you have to deal with a UFO and a T-Rex to top it all off.

Story

While there is no ‘official’ story for the game, it is quite easy to tell what the whole game is about in general. You are the last driver and you have to fight your way through aliens, dinosaurs, and zombies. This is one of the big parts of the game that just isn’t right.  They could have added an actual story to the game through short cinematic or animated scenes showing how these events unfolded to provide a bit of backstory, but that kind of content just isn’t here.Overall, The Last Driver fails at delivering plot and that truly does hurt the game.

Gameplay

The gameplay is very similar to the hit iOS title, Temple Run. You will go around driving your car and your goal is to just drive for as long as you can. The controls are pretty easy to get used to as you have four standard controls which are maneuver left, maneuver right, jump, and shoot. Now jump and shoot are quite interesting actually because you only get a certain amount of jumps and ammo before you run out. That being said, there are crates that will appear when you reach a certain distance and they will give you two of the power ups to choose from. These can range anywhere from extra health to additional bullets.

There is also an upgrade shop in the game where you can customize and enhance your car. The upgrades consist of armor, ammo, jumping, tires, and last but not least, power ups. These upgrades are easy to achieve for the first few levels of each of them but you will have to begin to put in a serious amount of the coins you collect while playing as you progress through customizing your car. You can also upgrade your gun, which will allow for more zombie kills and other cars flying past your car. Speaking of which, if you are interested in some dramatic changes in your car performance then you can purchase one of the other two car options that are available to you.

Yes, all of these different upgrades are available to you and may sound very cool – but sadly, it feels too much like the upgrading from Temple Run.You might be asking yourself, why is this a bad thing? Well, there are too many games like Temple Run as it is so this just takes away the original feel from the game that the player truly wants to have.

Visuals

The graphics the game has aren’t the best but they do get the job done. With the environmental effects used in the game like flowing lava or the alien spaceship that flies over your head every once in a while, they successfully make you feel like you are actually experiencing the aftermath of an apocalypse.

There are some difficulties though. I had some lag issues when I first loaded up the game after the thirty minute mark/ The textures could have also been done better because when you look closely at the zombies or the car, you can tell that not much detail was put into them.

Audio

The audio is just what any person should expect. The sound effects are very fuzzy and the sounds that you are supposed to hear the car make are covered up by the loud rock music that plays in the background while you ‘keep on trucking.’ Sadly there is no way to set the sounds to a preferred level so you have no choice but to suffer through the loud rock n’ roll.

Overall

The Last Driver does have the potential to be good but as of right now, the game has a lot of issues. With no story, crummy visuals, and some overpowering sound issues, the game has many updates ahead of it before it will be listed on the top 25 in the app market place. The other problem is that it feels too much like Temple Run. Hopefully, Chillingo will make some revisions and some more enhancements if they do decide to make a sequel.

5-5-capsules-out-of-10

David Partin
David Partinhttp://www.capsulecomputers.com
I have been a gamer all of my life. I am also into movies, comics, manga, anime, and more! PLAY HARD OR DON'T PLAY AT ALL