Missions in the game are generally vehicle-oriented, and involve trailing witnesses, ramming cars and escaping from gangsters or cops.

A cutscene is shown prior to almost every mission to help advance the storyline, and thus the game plays rather like a Hollywood-style car chase movie.

Although Tanner can leave his car and interact with certain elements of the environment, all violence takes place during pre-rendered scenes.

Two gangsters suddenly enter the bar and open fire on them; Lenny escapes, but the Brazilian man is killed.

Following this, Tanner and Jones are sent undercover to investigate Lenny's involvement in recent gang violence in Chicago.

They interrogate a witness to the bar shooting, who explains that Lenny used to work as a money launderer for Solomon Caine, a high-ranking mobster with operations based in Chicago and Las Vegas.

Tanner later learns that Vasquez has discovered Jones' true identity and that Lenny is attempting to leave Rio by helicopter.

After Tanner brings Lenny back to Chicago, it is revealed that Caine and Vasquez have been affiliated previously, and they reconcile in Rio.

In-game cinematics are replaced with slideshows that feature a text crawl for dialogue, with occasional sound clips (such as gunshots or police sirens) added for atmosphere.

Certain animations such as Tanner going in and out of vehicles are also omitted, and a number of AI scripts, such as roadblocks that appear when the police chase the player, are axed.

In 2020, fans decompiled the game and released an unofficial port for Windows named REDRIVER 2, featuring enhancements such as bugfixes, improved draw distance, and consistent 30 frame-per-second gameplay (not 60 frames-per-second as was widely reported).

Cars in the levels themselves have approximately 5 or 6 seconds of looped music, in Chicago it is Rock/Electro Beat style, Havana is Jazz-funk, Las Vegas is Funk/Soul and Rio is Drum & Bass.

"[22] Air Hendrix of GamePro said of the PlayStation version in its January 2001 issue, "All told, Driver 2 definitely isn't a bad game, but its flaws prevent it from living up to its predecessor's huge Fun Factor.

Alongside the Greatest Hits/Platinum release of Driver, Deer Hunter 4: World-Class Record Bucks and Unreal Tournament, the game was credited with an increased sale revenues for Infogrames North American Division during the Second Quarter of 2000-01 fiscal year.