There’s something weird going on during our demo of the newest game set in the Driver universe. No, it’s not that Tanner, the series’ undercover cop hero, returns with longtime partner Tobias Jones. And it’s not that the game’s action plays out against the beautiful rolling hills and curvy streets of San Francisco for the first time.

It’s the moment during our demo in which creative director Martin Edmonson abruptly pauses the action, pops out of the Dodge Challenger GT’s dashboard view, and takes the camera to a bird’s-eye perspective of the surrounding streets. Spotting a sparkling Maserati, he clicks a button and voilà! He’s in the driver’s seat of the Italian wonder! After a minute behind the wheel, Edmonson teleports back up to the high view, cruises at low altitude over the streets of SF, and continues to hop in and out of other cars on the fly. As exhilarating as it all seems, we’re scratching our heads. What does this mechanic have to do with Tanner’s ongoing tussle with arch-nemesis Jericho — the one that spills over from Driv3r’s climactic cliffhanger ending, where Jericho shoots Tanner in Istanbul?

Edmonson explains to us that all this car-hopping is due to Tanner lying comatose in a hospital. We know this as players, since the start of the game fills in these story details — but poor Tanner hasn’t a clue. We’re seeing the world through his unconscious, bed-bound brain. Yes, it sounds a little strange — hokey, even — but when the world is your joyriding oyster, and it’s all running in a buttery-smooth 60 frames per second, who cares?

And this out-of-body free rein explains how missions work in Driver: SF. As you pull out to an overhead view of the city streets, you’ll be able to gain even greater distance until you can see the entire map of San Francisco and its surrounding cities. Choose to dive down to select any car on any street, and you’ll (in a roundabout way) “possess” the owner of the vehicle — and any errands or mission objectives they may have on their plates. It’s a wildly implausible premise, but from what we’ve seen of the game’s open-world style of gameplay thus far, it’s rubberneckingly irresistible. We look forward to seeing more of how all of this madness works, because we’re hopelessly intrigued already.