“Grid Legends’ Driven to Glory story misses more than it hits, but this is an otherwise solid, if unambitious, racing game.”
Pros
Adequate visuals
Smart Nemesis system
Fun elimination mode
Cons
Unambitious gameplay
Lack of participant affect in Driven to Glory
Grid Legends is just like the form of automotive one buys out of necessity. It’s not a fantastic sports activities automotive to flaunt to others like a Gran Turismo recreation or a sturdy and strong automobile that may deal with something off-roading throws at you want a Forza Horizon recreation. It’s that automotive that may get you to work on daily basis, however not be one thing you showcase to family and friends.
From graphics to sound to gameplay, Grid Legends is completely sufficient. The builders know the sport is suitable in these areas, so it tries to face out with a singular method to its narrative. Developer Codemasters has at all times cared extra in regards to the story in its racing video games than its opponents. Grid Legends is the end result of that as its story mode is a live-action documentary about an underdog racing workforce.
While utilizing this framing gadget for its narrative is progressive, the Driven to Glory storyline in the end falls flat. Grid Legends is solely an gratifying, if underwhelming racing recreation overshadowed by the brand new Forza Horizon and Gran Turismo video games it’s being launched between.
Driven to win
Grid Legends options the whole lot gamers have come to count on from a racing recreation. There are over 100 tracks unfold internationally and greater than 100 automobiles of each sort throughout notable manufacturers to drive on them. These aren’t the highest-fidelity automotive fashions and there isn’t an enormous open world to discover, nevertheless it isn’t ugly. Players searching for an ordinary racing recreation gained’t have a foul time.
There are a number of completely different race varieties that gamers will expertise over the Driven to Glory story marketing campaign and the Career mode, the place gamers full races and sponsor challenges to earn foreign money and acquire new skills, stat boosts, and automobiles. The standout race sort is Elimination, a mode the place the drivers in final place are disqualified at sure intervals, so gamers battle to be on the entrance of the pack for so long as potential.
It sounds good and performs positive, however there are only a few issues Grid Legends does higher than every other racing recreation.
Grid Legends will not be as arcade-like as Forza Horizon, and it’s not an excessively punishing simulation that may doom the participant in the event that they brake too laborious on the flawed time. And even when the participant does mess up, there’s a helpful flashbacks function to rewind time as much as 3 times in a race. It sounds good and performs positive, however there are only a few issues Grid Legends does higher than every other racing recreation.
Bitter rivals
Grid Legends’ ace within the gap is that it does a implausible job at making gamers really feel like they earn their victories. It contains a Nemesis system (not that one) that tracks whether or not the participant will get slightly too aggressive and is consistently bumping into and slicing off different drivers. If they’re significantly aggressive towards an A.I. driver, that driver will keep in mind and get revenge by slicing the participant off and being aggressive later within the race.
This makes the participant must account for aggressive driver tendencies from A.I., regardless that that’s an expertise typically reserved for multiplayer in racing video games. And for these , Grid Legends options strong cross-platform multiplayer that gamers can drop out and in of at any time.
The greatest moments within the marketing campaign and the profession mode had been once I began in the back of the pack and needed to battle my technique to the entrance, coping with the Nemesis system and commanding my teammate driver alongside the best way.
Grid Legends’ ace within the gap is that it does a implausible job at making gamers really feel like they earn their victories.
Grid Legends will make gamers keep in mind particular person drivers with this technique, even when they’re faceless A.I. characters, so it’s not too shocking that Codemasters wished to go one step additional and put faces and personalities to these names. Unfortunately, Codemasters doesn’t totally pull that off.
Documentary Now
The concept of a sports activities or racing recreation’s narrative presenting itself as a documentary appears very promising. The documentary format is exclusive from most video games and permits the gameplay and interviews to not get in one another’s method regardless that they’re tied collectively. I might see video games like Madden or FIFA efficiently implementing a narrative mode like this.
Unfortunately, Grid Legends wouldn’t make for an excellent documentary.
Driven to Glory follows the story of Seneca, a workforce within the fictional Grid World Series making a last-ditch effort to win a championship and preserve the lights on. To achieve this, Seneca should depend on a brand new, unproven driver and overtake Ravenwest, a scummy workforce with cocky drivers and homeowners. Unfortunately, Grid Legends by no means digs deeper than that.
The largest disservice to the narrative is that the participant is a nonfactor.
This is an easy underdog story that may by no means shock the participant with plot developments or twists, even when the featured performances are strong. Codemasters additionally boasted filming utilizing the identical prolonged actuality tech used on The Mandalorian, however there are just a few areas, so it doesn’t really feel a lot completely different than if the studio simply used sensible units.
The largest disservice to the narrative is that the participant is a nonfactor. Despite how necessary “Driver 22” is to the story, the fictional documentarians by no means thought it’d be a good suggestion to interview that particular person. It’d be like if the documentary Val barely featured Val Kilmer and referred to him as “Batman 2” the entire time.
Thankfully, the documentary format does make a few of the different drivers memorable. It additionally pairs effectively with the Nemesis system, as drivers like Ravenwest’s Nate McKane can be aggressive in races after trashing the participant in an interview. Ncuti Gatwa from Netflix’s Sex Education is having lots of enjoyable as driver Valentin Manzi, however he’s severely underused and never related to the plot in any respect.
This story most likely might have been higher served had he taken the mantle of Driver 22 and breathed life into the pretend doc’s narrative core, or if it was extra reactive to the participant’s actions. Ultimately, using live-action right here limits the adventures simply as a lot because it provides realism. The ending does teases a sequel, so I hope Codemasters learns from the shortcomings of Grid Legends as a result of the documentary framing is a wonderful concept.
Our take
Grid Legends doesn’t have the prettiest graphics or most expansive worlds within the racing recreation style. Its documentary-framed story additionally isn’t as a lot of a revolution for the collection as Codemasters seemingly had hoped. Still, strong mechanics just like the Nemesis system be certain that racing recreation followers will benefit from the recreation, regardless that there undoubtedly isn’t an absence of choices proper now. This is a commuter automobile, not a luxurious sports activities automotive.
Is there a greater different?
Forza Horizon 5 is accessible on Xbox Game Pass and provides gamers an enormous open world to discover. As for these searching for a hardcore simulation, Grid Legends will solely be the brand new hotness for per week earlier than Gran Turismo 7 launches on March 4.
How lengthy will it final?
Overall, the Driven to Glory story mode took six-and-a-half hours to beat, although I did must retry a few ranges. Beyond that, a prolonged profession mode with plenty of challenges and a fleshed-out on-line expertise might preserve gamers hooked for a number of extra hours in the event that they don’t transfer on to different racing video games.
Should you purchase it?
Yes, however these nonetheless enjoying Forza Horizon 5 or ready for Gran Turismo 7 shouldn’t really feel dangerous about skipping it.
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