Driver 2 : Back on the Streets

Driver 2: Back on the Streets for PlayStation is a 2000 action-driving sequel developed by Reflections Interactive and published by Infogrames. Returning undercover officer John Tanner, it builds on the car-chase focus of the first Driver while sending him through four large urban areas: Chicago, Havana, Las Vegas, and Rio de Janeiro. The campaign frames its missions with cinematic scenes and a criminal investigation involving rival organizations, giving the pursuit-heavy action a connected story rather than presenting the cities as unrelated driving courses.

Tanner's work is primarily done from behind the wheel. Missions can ask the player to tail a suspect without being noticed, shake a police pursuit, protect or intercept a vehicle, survive attacks, or reach a destination under pressure. Steering, acceleration, braking, reverse, and the handbrake are all central to controlling the weighty cars, while traffic, tight streets, obstacles, and the condition of Tanner's vehicle can turn a clean route into a desperate escape. The game rewards learning each city's roads, finding useful shortcuts, and judging when to drive cautiously or force a way through.

A defining addition for Driver 2: Back on the Streets PS1 is that Tanner can leave his current car on foot and take another vehicle. That change gives a damaged or trapped car less finality and makes the city streets feel more flexible during play. The on-foot feature is used to change vehicles, not to turn the game into a conventional combat adventure; the major action remains driving. Numerous traffic vehicles can be commandeered, and the resulting choice of cars matters when a mission calls for speed, maneuverability, or simply a fresh escape route.

The main Undercover story moves through the four locations as Tanner and fellow officer Tobias Jones investigate gang activity and pursue the elusive Pink Lenny. Chicago introduces the case before the operation spreads to Havana, Las Vegas, and Rio. Each location has its own road layout and atmosphere, and the PlayStation release uses two discs to accommodate the campaign's substantial cinematic material and city content. Progression unlocks further story missions and expands the places available to explore, so advancing the investigation also broadens the game's driving playground.

Outside the campaign, Take a Ride mode lets players cruise around unlocked cities without the immediate structure of a story assignment. Driving Games provide focused challenges based on familiar Driver skills, such as pursuits, checkpoint runs, evasion, and vehicle damage. The PlayStation version also supports two-player split-screen play, with competitive and co-operative-style variants including free driving, Cops 'n' Robbers, checkpoint events, and Capture the Flag. These options make the detailed street maps useful beyond a single pass through Tanner's investigation.

Driver 2 follows the original Driver as the series' second main game, preserving its cinematic, late-20th-century car-chase sensibility while making the move between vehicles part of normal play. It should not be confused with the later Game Boy Advance adaptation, Driver 2 Advance, which reworked and condensed the material for a different handheld system. For PlayStation players, this version is the full four-city sequel: a mission-driven driving game with a film-inspired police-undercover premise, open streets for free driving, and local multiplayer alongside Tanner's solo case.