CityDriver Review (PlayStation 5)

by Jim Smale · Published December 14, 2023 · Updated December 13, 2023

For our CityDriver Review, we get the opportunity to explore the streets of Munich with various cars. Master diverse missions and challenges, enjoy the fun of driving your vehicle comfortably or sporty, and train your driving behavior in traffic with other road users – all with authentic vehicle physics.

CityDriver Review Pros:

Decent graphics.
36.02GB download size.
Platinum trophy.
Driving simulator gameplay.
Ten cars to use, each are unlocked at the beginning and have different specs and range from sports cars to transit vans.
Gameplay settings – automatic clutch, restart engine after stalling, engine start requires brake, engine start requires correct gear, gear lever requires brake, increase the field of view with speed, show points of interest, the icon above player vehicle, show Hud, speedometer visibility, mini-map, war ING element, task messages, static Crosshair, speed indicator, and pedals visibility.
Invert axis and sensitivity sliders including dead zone tweaking.
Tutorial menu which is optional and here you get all the basics and rules of the road.
The manual is used for reference.
Photo mode.
Four driving views.
Create session has you picking a car and selecting a start point on the map.
Tasks will pop up as you play and you can choose when or if you do them.
1 to 1 scale of Munich.
Charge stations are about for your electric car to use.
Four driving views including in-car and overhead.
Objectives will pop up and give an optional navigation reference.
Objectives randomize.
You can switch cars from the menu at any time.
Cars have a back camera to help with reversing and parking.
The game has all the rules of the road implemented like traffic lights, give way, speed limits, etc.
The radio can be turned on and off and the station changed along with allowing it to work outside of the car.
The map fills in points of interest and you can select anywhere to set a route.
You can get in and out of the car.
The city is a sandbox and you can do what you want.
33 locations to start from on the map.
Force feedback settings – force, centering force, velocity factor, engine vibration strength, speed effect strength, skid and slip effect, and road unevenness strength.

CityDriver Review Cons:

Cannot remap controls.
After a violation, I get a black screen where I can press buttons hear the music, and even move but I see nothing.
Not the fastest loading time.
The steering doesn’t feel great, it’s very light.
The controls are plentiful but also overwhelming and awkward.
You cannot Invert the axis.
No way to just look at the controls.
The music choices are not great.
No official car manufacturers.
Roads will have xs on them and it’s where they are not there so you get teleported back.
Only a handful of cars so you see the same ones over and over.
The AI are terrible drivers and don’t react to you at all and I would argue they don’t even acknowledge you.
The navigation markers can be broken and not show the correct way.
A lot of stuttering, freezing, and slowing down no matter the performance setting.
No repercussions for running a red light, hitting a car, or speeding.
The physics is set to over the top, I’ve hit a curb and flown miles, and I’ve seen cars in front of me just jump up for no reason.
Cars will just disappear and reappear at random.
Hitting pedestrians give a white screen saying about it and you apologize and vow not to do it again then you respawn.
You don’t get anything not for doing the objectives and tasks.
Got stuck in a loop whereby I would “accidentally” hit a pedestrian and then on every respawn I would have a pedestrian on top of me and that counts so I just kept vowing not to do it again and then immediately doing it again.
So many pop-ins happen all the time.
Anything from curbs to a light breeze can cause your car to somersault down the road.
Unrealistic crash mechanics.
Any activities or tasks are pointless and serve no reason other than something to do.
Cars start to get an annoying sound after too long.
No car damage.

CityDriver:

Official website.

Developer: ViewApp

Publisher: Aerosoft

Store Links –

Steam

7/10
Graphics - 7/10
6/10
Sound - 6/10
6/10
Accessibility - 6/10
7/10
Length - 7/10
6/10
Fun Factor - 6/10

6.4/10

Summary

City driver is going for a faithful recreation of Munich which looks like it was achieved except for the many roads that don’t exist and just end. The driving is terrible, floaty, and skittish it’s a challenge in itself to handle any of the cars. Speed is a big deal as you need to adhere to the rules of the road but you get no repercussions for being a menace and also the cars are impossible to maintain at a set speed as it’s a case of foot down or nothing. I just couldn’t get into the game, the random objectives popping up are a nice touch but they don’t serve any purpose except giving you a brief goal in an otherwise empty world. So in conclusion this is a driving game where driving is bad, a world that is empty and devoid of purpose, and the performance is so bad that it actively stops you from being able to play it in any meaningful way. It is also not great to see the power of the PlayStation 5 not being utilized with the same issues from the earlier PC version still being present here and in same cases worse.