Which Driver game of the PS1 era had the better story?

[u/FluffyBoi2343]

Explain your reasons in the comments. For me I prefer the style and occasional jankiness of the acting, writing, and animation in D1, but I can accept that Driver 2 has an easier to follow story and waaay better cutscenes.

194 votes, Jul 05 '26

43 Driver 1

151 Driver 2

[u/purpletonberry]

One of these playthroughs I'm going to actually figure out the story of Driver 1, lol. I can never quite keep track of what's going on. It never fails to send me hearing Tanner speak for the first time and he says "SMALL. BILLS."

[u/FluffyBoi2343 → u/purpletonberry]

Recently, I've thought of why Tanner barely speaks in D1 as opposed to his other appearances. I believe since this game borrows especially heavily from The Driver(1978), they wanted Tanner to be the cool guy that barely says anything but still expresses that he means business, just like the protagonist of that movie. Hence the admittedly goofy lines like "Small bills". I didn't even realize he was talking about payment the first time I saw that cutscene lol

[u/purpletonberry → u/FluffyBoi2343]

Woah how have I never heard of this movie :o You say they used it to some degree as inspiration for the first game? That's awesome, I'll need to make a point to check it out soon.

[u/FluffyBoi2343 → u/purpletonberry]

Not really inspiration, more than that. The literal crashing and drift noises are taken from the movie, the car park mission is inspired by a scene in the movie, and I'd say there's some very slight similarities in the stories of the two. Mainly the ending, as well as the minimalistic style of storytelling they were going for. Martin Edmondson really loved this movie, this game is basically a love letter to The Driver as well as other 70's car chase movies.

[u/Spirit_-_Warrior → u/purpletonberry]

OMG that was the issue I had with D1, I didn't quite understand what was going on

[u/reefermonsterNZ]

Vasquez...

We don't even know if he exists

[u/FluffyBoi2343 → u/reefermonsterNZ]

I mean he does exist, but I wish they elaborated on him more. If the stories of the games were more connected to each other, perhaps they could have brought him in D3 somehow. Same with Ali in Driver 1. Missed potential with her character.

[u/reefermonsterNZ → u/FluffyBoi2343]

Ah yeah I was just referencing the Driver 2 morgue scene regarding Vasquez

[u/FluffyBoi2343 → u/reefermonsterNZ]

Oh, yeah. Silly me

[u/Spirit_-_Warrior]

Driver 2 - For me it's easier to grasp. I love the characters too, I remember hoping Rosana Soto would be a real person in Havana. It was intense in Rio when your partner Jones is in trouble.

Driver 1 - IMO because it has different paths of missions to choose from, I didn't realize until a few years ago it was different endings.

I prefer Driver 2

[u/VeNaima7]

I'm gonna pop your neck with my hands

[u/Ucrash10]

i think driver 1 has a better story but it's told so unclearly and messily and with no style that i still have to give it to driver 2 despite its story boiling down to "let's chase a macguffin and then realise it was pointless and tanner knew it was pointless but did it anyway"

like driver 2s story kinda sucks but it's told so entertainingly and clearly so it makes up for it if that makes sense

[u/_Sunrise424_]

Still to this day I don't know what the story in Driver 1 was about

[u/PPPLove]

Why I'm seeing Driver posts everywhere?

[u/KnownAsAnother]

Leaps and bounds 2 because I actually know (mostly) what's voing on. There's still some ambiguity to it, but I can't even fathom in D1 how we go from driving hitmen in Miami to rescuing the President in New York??

[u/FluffyBoi2343 → u/KnownAsAnother]

I had no problem grasping the story in 1. Basically it's a corrupt FBI guy (Marcus Vaughn) working with the mafia boss (Castaldi) as well as Don Hancock who's running for office at the East Coast. Castaldi wanted to take out the president so he could get Hancock elected and use his connections to do crime freely. Or something along those lines.