The promotional slogan for reviving the GRID motoring series is #LikeNoOther and this is somewhat true of the new game. GRID is really not like other titles in the genre. But this is not a compliment to him because others are better. Not necessarily better as racing games, but better at offering content, which has been a growing issue of Codemasters gaming lately.
Earlier this year, Dirt Rally 2.0 raised dust by locking a good deal of content, including winter driving, behind a gate called DLC subscription packages. It is similar to this Grid, which has a rather tight supply of mods, cars and tracks. It's dark on the loose edge - delivering just so much content that we can't say there is no diversity, but no real racing fan will quench hunger the way Forza Motorsport, Gran Turismo and even Project CARS can. This game is priced at € 60, and already sells you an option in the main menu with new cars, competitions and tracks for an additional € 30.
What is available is some sort of minimum of minimums. You have two types of competition: racing with other drivers and racing against time. That's it - for both single-player and multiplayer. No drifting, no demolition derby - you know, the disciplines that were present earlier in the series. There are several categories for racing: touring, tuner, prototype, but the only difference in them is the type of vehicles used.
The campaign brings a series of cups that you have to play to unlock Showdown competitions and then open the door to the final GRID World Series competition. There is no story in all this, nothing at all. No search for a teammate, no fight for sponsors. They threw it all out. At the start of each race, there is only one expert commentator who represents the drivers, and you always interrupt her in the middle of that presentation because it is completely unnecessary.
The idea is that the game has about 400 unique drivers with a first and last name, each with a distinct driving style, #LikeNoOther. This may be true in theory, but in practice, only one parameter matters - how aggressive the driver is. Maybe the driver's level affects his skill, the type to start braking twenty hundredths sooner or later before the turn, but these are tiny shades you rarely see. No matter what the driver, it is everyone's interest to be as close as possible to the first place; however different they are from each other, the goal is the same.
I admit I came across several AI drivers who were just viciously trying to get me off track, they were literally going to hit me when they saw me bypassing them. I also knew how to see some collisions in which artificial driver intelligence behaves naturally in the sense that it is not robotically perfect and that nothing can knock it out of tact. There are situations in which GRID acts like it is on the lookout for something great. But it never develops into something concrete.
The biggest trump card of the game should be the Nemesis system, something similar to the Shadow of Mordor / War games, only with cars. So you have an opponent who remembers you if you hit him and then the rest of the race / cup lives only to have his revenge. It's an interesting concept on paper, but it's almost completely missed in the game itself. You see, your goal is to win the race, and if you hit someone on the way to the first place, he usually stays behind you afterwards. You try to keep the lead for as long as possible - that's the point of everything, so you're trying to keep your opponent behind. Sanctifying him therefore makes no sense, because what can he ever do to you if he is constantly behind you? To cast curses from afar?
Come on, at least the game has great tension when your opponents are behind your neck. This was especially exciting for me in night racing with the use of a camera from the cabin, when my opponents would blind me with their lights in the rearview mirror. Just the appearance of light in a dark cabin is a sign that your position is in jeopardy. The good news is that the camera from the cabin is now finally as it was 11 years ago. The interior of the car has all the details, and you can adjust the level of visibility with the FOV slider.
The driving model is also great, of course, for the concepts of a game that is neither a driving simulation nor a pure arcade. No steering was too sensitive or too slow for me, and it suited me that the steering, stabilization and ABS assistance can be adjusted at any time during the race. The game is very flexible in terms of weight and leaves you to tailor your challenge. You can make progress without winning; slower but can.
Although it all comes down to the same type of racing, the track offer helps the game maintain a healthy variety. There are real racetracks like Brands Hatch, the street sections of Havana and Shanghai to the mountain straits in Japan. It is possible to ride on each track at several times of the day and night, and it has a great time and rainy weather. So, there are enough factors here to break the monotony and cover up poverty over the previous parts of the series.
However, the fact remains that this is a significantly more scarce game than any other. While the previous parts have had something specific through conjuring up team rivalries and sponsorship finance contracts, this GRID cultivates minimalism with novelties and systems that sometimes make no sense at all. For example, with each new level you unlock other AI drivers that can then race with you. So rewarding you is something that is not a reward at all but closer to a punishment.
It's an attractive game in terms of graphics and sound. And it's fun while it lasts. But I think that by the end of 2019, no one should be satisfied with this mediocre product. If the DLC content was subsequently shared for free, I would still have my eye fixed. This full version of the game costs € 75 at launch or 90 if you upgrade. And even with all the extras, she's still missing the stuff that the first Race Driver Grid had 11 years ago.
Check some of the older GRID posts ->>
https://www.gamingnewsunited.com/2019/10/the-race-at-grid-has-begun.html
https://www.gamingnewsunited.com/2019/09/grid-boasted-convincing-camera-from.html
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