Side missions are a perfect example of how the game falls short. They can be done at any time to obtain cash, which can then be used to purchase weapons, car parts, ammo, and the like, however, everything you buy has little-to-no effect on the game. The biggest offender of this are the car upgrades; not only is it superfluous to get the upgrades (you can easily outdrive the stupid AI with default cars) but after getting better equipment the cars drive exactly the same as they did prior to the upgrades. Since everything feels the same as before the purchase of such parts are unnecessary and to a larger extent this makes the side missions equally pointless.

Speaking of missions, a lot of what you're tasked with in Driver '76 is pretty basic. Hell, it is downright cookie-cutter. The game's main quest line is essentially comprised of three (familiar) mission types - escorting, time-limited speed runs, and deliveries. While you have the ability to freely exit/enter vehicles, traveling around on foot is pretty boring. It's not that the setting - 70s era New York - is dull, but there's no reason for walking when vehicles are so much faster. The game's story doesn't last all that long either, as it can be raced through in about 5 hours.

Targeting is another area the Driver '76 suffers, but for a different reason than you might expect. One of the biggest gripes about the GTA series thus far is that Rockstar have not managed to fix the enigmatic auto-targeting. In Driver '76 the auto-aim actually works in targeting the correct enemy, but the weapons themselves pack hardly any punch. Even the strongest weapons are about as lethal as GoldenEye's Scorpion - you'll be emptying entire clips before an enemy goes down. At times I thought it would be easier to kill someone with a salt shaker.

While it won't win any beauty contests, Driver '76 wasn't beaten with the ugly-stick either. Again the problem here is that there have been quite a few other games in the same vein (racing and open-world/sandbox games) that are clearly superior visually that Driver '76's graphics seem mundane by comparison. LCS and VCS are obvious examples, but even launch games like Ridge Racer and WipEout Pure show off the PSP's capabilities better. The mediocre graphics by themselves wouldn't be enough to completely dislike the game, but when coupled with the major issues already discussed they're just another gripe in a long list of problems.

And the lack of polish doesn't end there either; Driver '76 falls victim to bad loading as well. The loading isn't just bad in duration, but also frequency. Just to get into the game there are two different initial load screens that last about a minute. Than on top of that it's not abnormal to have the game pause for a few seconds to load while you're flying down the street. I don't know what it's loading either, because the streets are pretty desolate to begin with and the textures/geometry are considerably low-res, bland, and washed out.

Needless to say Driver '76 is quite a bit of a letdown, so unless you really love the Driver franchise or absolutely must play every GTA clone out there it's safe to say that you won't be missing much if you avoid this game. Straightforward and incredibly short story mode, repetitive and eventually boring missions, meaningless extras and customization, and no real innovation make Driver '76 a mildly unsatisfying experience.. The bottom line is that, despite the funktastic soundtrack and groovy comic book cut scenes, the game is marred by major problems and ultimately feels pretty lifeless.