The story mode, while being cheesier than my feet, is a nice addition and it brings a bit more flavour and character to the cars you’re racing alongside. Is GRID Legends still worth a look, even if it does feel like more of the same? Definitely. Personally, I get hammered enough by the computer, so I don’t need to go online to know I’m worthless, thank you very much. There’s also a race builder if you fancy crafting your own bespoke experiences, and there is online if the robust, albeit at times clumsy, AI isn’t pushing you far enough. You can unlock cars – old familiars and new arrivals alike – and race more to your own tune. For me, this is how racers have always been, so naturally, I enjoyed this a lot more than the we-tell-you-what-to-do story mode. The Career Mode – separate from the story – has a whole roster of events and championships to play through and unlock it’s a more standard progression system of play more, win more, get more. That’s not to say there isn’t plenty to get stuck into, and there’s still a fair challenge for those who want it. A lighter, easier, more forgiving and for the casual racing fan, more fun experience. It’s more what the DiRT series is to the WRC Championship games. It’s far away from the simulations of Forza Motorsport or Gran Turismo. It still felt familiar, which in this case isn’t a bad thing to be carrying over.
Roaring around corners and shimmying through some tight chicanes is still a thrill, and the arcade handling doesn’t disappoint. On the tracks, GRID Legends plays the part to near perfection. But until publishers start putting out a PSA that says “don’t play our previous game if you don’t want the new one to feel familiar,” I’ll continue my tradition of playing originals just before the release of their sequel. Perhaps my recent re-binge of GRID in preparation for GRID Legends may not have helped. A lot of tracks and cars have been lifted from the previous game, which I suppose is fair play as many of them are damn good tracks and bloody good cars, but I couldn’t shake the feeling I’d done it all before. It’s not bad by any means and it was a nice change of pace rather than just going race to race with menus separating the action.īut elsewhere, it’s all a bit familiar. You’re getting a story mode that, depending on if you want the backstory, too, will give you a six-to-seven hour experience. I suppose that’s a credit to the fine acting? And of course, there’s an arsehole to hate, which I found very easy to do. The story is itself by the numbers – you start off as a nobody who gets their big shot on a racing team. Not that the story would have been better had it been served up by digital characters, but the shift from arcade racing to super-real people threw me off every time. The on-track racing is good fun and while it looks superb (I played on Xbox Series X) it’s at odds with the yank back to reality for the mini-story episodes. Real actors sitting in front of real cameras while they read their pretend stories. I get it and I love the idea of giving cars on the track some personality by having their names attached to a face and a person you can sort of get to know via the between race cutscenes.īut… Those cutscenes are fully live-action. Who knew it was possible? Codemasters has been playing this game with the F1 series for a couple of years now, so the experience and know-how is there, but the execution is, at times, questionable. This latest instalment comes with something that’s new to GRID, but not new to Codemasters: a narrative. I still remember when FIFA had a decent Career Mode and Fifa Ultimate Team was still an exec’s wet dream. Has the shift in gear to EA had a detrimental effect? No, thankfully, but who knows what the future holds. That was back before EA swooped in and put Codemasters on its payroll. I reviewed 2019’s GRID and really enjoyed it.
Availability: PSN, Microsoft Store, Steam, Retail ( Amazon UK/ Amazon USA)
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