How ‘Driver San Francisco’ Best Exemplifies What a Second Person Video Game Might Look Like

In a highly informative video essay, gaming vlogger Nick Robinson denotes the difference between first person perspective games and third person perspective games before launching into an explanation of second-person perspective.

Most 3D, character-driven video games can be pretty easily placed into one of two categories: either first person or third person. In a first-person game, you see the game world through the actual eyes of the player character as though you were that character, and in a third-person game, you see the player character from the outside… But the existence of these two perspectives begs a question: …what exactly would second-person look like?

To elaborate his point, Robinson uses a mission within the game Driver San Francisco to best exemplify how this perspective can be put to use.

Strangely enough, I actually found the answer to this before I even came up with the question,
and, believe it or not, it came to me courtesy of a game …and that game is Driver: San Francisco. See, for all the interesting missions in Driver: San Francisco – and there are plenty of them – there’s one mission in particular…I think about all the time. The mission in question is called “The Target” and it’s the final mission of chapter six of the game.

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.