GRID Legends – Review
Grid Legends is the kind of game you get because you have to have one. Forza Horizon and Gran Turismo aren’t the best examples of off-roading vehicles, but this isn’t a vehicle that’s built to withstand the rigours of off-roading, either. To get to and from work every day, but not something you’ll show off to your friends and family, this is the car for you.
Grid Legends has everything you need in terms of visuals, sound, and gameplay. To make a statement, the game’s creators have chosen a narrative approach that differs from the norm. Codemasters, a racing game developer, has always been more concerned with the storey than its competitors. As the storey mode of Grid Legends is a live-action documentary about a struggling racing team, it represents the pinnacle of that.
The storey of Driven to Glory, despite its innovative use of a framing device, ultimately falls flat. Forza Horizon and Gran Turismo have overshadowed Grid Legends as a racing game, but it’s still a fun experience.
Grid Legends has everything a racing game fan could ask for. There are over a hundred race tracks around the world, and a large number of automobiles from well-known brands can be driven on each one. While these aren’t some of the most realistic car models, they aren’t unappetizing either. This is a good choice for those who want a more traditional racing experience.
Driven to Glory’s storey campaign and Career mode feature a variety of race types that players can participate in to earn currency and gain new abilities, stat boosts, and vehicles. The most popular race mode is Elimination, in which the last-place drivers are disqualified at predetermined intervals, resulting in a fierce battle for the lead.
Grid Legends looks good, sounds good, and plays well, but it doesn’t do anything better than any other racing game.
You can brake too hard without risking death, but Grid Legends doesn’t feel like Forza Horizon, which is more arcade-like and punishing. Even if the player makes a mistake, he or she can use the race’s flashback feature to go back up to three laps. Grid Legends looks good, sounds good, and plays well, but it doesn’t do anything better than any other racing game.
That being said, Grid Legends has an ace in the hole because it makes players feel like they have to work for their wins. If the player gets a little too aggressive and keeps bumping into and slamming into other drivers, it has a Nemesis system (not that one). For example, if the player is particularly aggressive toward an A.I. car, the computer will remember this and retaliate aggressively in the future.
A.I. drivers’ aggressive tendencies must be taken into account, which is something that is typically reserved for multiplayer racing games only. For those who are interested, Grid Legends has a robust cross-platform multiplayer that can be accessed at any time.
As a new driver, I had to deal with the Nemesis system and take control of my teammate driver in order to make it to the front of the pack in both campaign and career mode.
That being said, Grid Legends has an ace in the hole because it makes players feel like they have to work for their wins.
It’s not surprising that Codemasters wanted to go one step further and put faces and personalities to the names of the drivers in Grid Legends, even if they are faceless A.I. characters. Codemasters, on the other hand, falls short of accomplishing this.
Having the storey of a sports or racing game appear as a documentary has a lot of potential. Although the gameplay and interviews are intertwined, the documentary format sets it apart from other video games. Madden or FIFA could easily incorporate a storey mode like this into their games.
It’s a tale of one Grid World Series team’s last-ditch effort to win the championship and keep the lights on in the fictional Grid World Series. A new, unproven driver is necessary for Seneca to pass Ravenwest, a dishonest team with arrogant owners and drivers. Only that much is explored in Grid Legends.
An underdog storey that doesn’t have any surprises or twists, even if the actors who star in it are excellent. There are only a few locations, so it doesn’t feel any different than if the studio had just used practical sets, as Codemasters claimed they used the same extended reality technology used on The Mandalorian.
The player is a non-factor in the storey, which is the biggest problem. As important as “Driver 22” is in terms of this novel’s plot, its fictional documentarians never considered interviewing him or her. This is like if the film Val only mentioned Val Kilmer as “Batman 2” the entire time.
A few other drivers are made memorable thanks to the documentary style. Drivers like Ravenwest’s Nate McKane, who trash the player in an interview, will be aggressive in races after using the Nemesis system. It’s great to see Netflix’s Sex Education star Ncuti Gatwa in the role of chauffeur Valentin Manzi, but he’s underutilised and has no bearing on the storey at all.
If he had taken on the role of Driver 22 and brought life to the fake doc’s narrative core, or if it was more responsive to the player’s actions, this storey would have been better served. For all that it adds realism, using live-action in this game limits the number of adventures. I hope Codemasters learns from the mistakes of Grid Legends, because the documentary framing is an excellent idea for a follow-up.
There are better racing games out there, but Grid Legends isn’t one of them. In addition, Codemasters may have hoped that its documentary-framed storey would revolutionise the series. Despite this, the Nemesis system and other solid mechanics ensure that racing game fans will enjoy the game, even if there is currently no shortage of options. This isn’t a high-end sports car; it’s a daily driver.
