The Shift Mechanic of Driver San Francisco
Hey there! Lately, I've been finishing up games I started when I was a wee little lad. One of those is Driver San Francisco, an open world racing game. Thing is, this game has something really special: the shift mechanic.
What is the shift mechanic, you might ask. Well, at almost any point in the game, you can eject out of a car and go to an overhead view of the city of San Francisco, look around for any car you might want to drive, and take control of it. Just like that, no loading screens, just two button presses. Believe me, you can have a lot of fun with this mechanic.
Now, the mechanic itself is pretty damn amazing and unique, but they spice it up even more with the level of detail sprinkled around it. From a narrative standpoint, and this is a mild spoiler, the main character is in a coma and the game itself is inside his head. So, when you zoom out in the overhead view, the sound of the game itself fades away and it's place is taken by the beeps of a heart monitor. Also, some cars do not have just a driver (name drop),but also a passenger, who is talking to the driver you are possessing ad reacting to your driving, and there are a lot of conversations, like a woman who tells the driver she poisoned him, or a driving instructor which is not pleased with the driver's performance.
The mechanic isn't just for show, though, as it has many uses, like, when in a race, possessing a random traffic car and ramming it into your opponents, or, during a cop chase, quickly switching between different police units to keep the chase strong on the ass of the perpetrator. Actually, you can do a lot of crazier stuff, but that is down to your imagination.
All in all, I am baffled how nobody tried to copy this amazing concept, because I could think of a load of other genres which could benefit from the strategic advantage of taking direct control of something else than the main character.
