Honestly? I had already forgotten about the GRID franchise. Although I would have given the series a great comeback, that reboot from 2019 was a bit disappointing. So I started GRID Legends with some skepticism, but with the hope that Codemasters, now with Electronic Arts in the passenger seat, could clear all my doubts.Driver 22For their fifth GRID game, Codemasters puts the story aspect center stage. This racing series has always focused on the rivalry on the track, but with GRID Legends, they also want to tell the drama off the track. Similar to 'Braking Point' from F1 2021 and still clearly inspired by the Netflix docu Drive to Survive, you are again presented with a storyline here.
The story, titled Driven to Glory, is presented as a documentary that follows Seneca Racing. A racing team whose owner Marcus Ado is gradually at his wits' end because the results do not follow in the fictional Grid championship. The search for a good teammate for Yume Tanaka is also very difficult. Until you wear the overalls of the mysterious Driver 22, an up-and-coming racing talent picked up from amateur competition and hired at the last minute to join the team.
A link with The Mandalorian?Driven to Glory spans some thirty races, and in between races a live-action clip will take the story forward by following several pilots, including Ravenwest bastard Nathan McKane. A Ghost of Tsushima (Brad Kane) writer is involved in the script and all scenes are shot with real actors. Ncuti Gatwa, who became known as Eric Effiong in Sex Education, is the biggest star. He voices Valentin Manzi, who races for the rival team Voltz. Created using the same advanced, virtual production methods as in The Mandalorian, the story scenes pull you into the action convincingly, despite the acting and dialogue that is of widely varying quality. It certainly contributes to the feeling that your direct opponents have a face and personality, but the script is bursting with the usual clichés.
Rookie wins everythingThe story also takes absolutely no account of your performance. If you have already driven a lot of virtual kilometers, it is best to immediately increase the difficulty level. On the normal difficulty (and actually hard too) I crushed all my goals (finish fifth or better type) with ease and won every race by a clear margin.
Driven to Glory only works if you find the right level of difficulty, because without that sweet spot, the story being told won't match the actual achievements you're making. A teammate who isn't happy with an amateur by her side, while you outperform her every race, or a rival team that supposedly wins everything… that's a bit of a squeeze.
Create a careerOf course, in GRID Legends you can also make an old-fashioned career in a multidisciplinary competition without all those Netflix-like ambitions. There you routinely check off hundreds of racing events in a wide variety of racing disciplines. Elimination and Drift are back and in the rotation with the usual races and a new race type in which the field is divided into different race classes. The slowest cars or trucks are allowed to leave immediately, while the faster cars leave later and then have to try to make up for the deficit in a few laps.
DuelingAgain, you have wonderful duels on a number of circuits (there are 130 routes spread over 22 countries) that come from the previous games. Only the street circuits in London and Moscow are new, along with the very fine Strada Alpina track. The fleet (ranging from sports cars over touring cars to uncontrollable Stadium Trucks) also seems to be largely taken over from the predecessor, although the electric Super E racing class is a nice addition. This is by far the most varied GRID yet, as Codemasters likes to claim, but the race pack does feel too familiar once you've played some of its predecessors.
Hard contact is inevitable again, because on the many street circuits, this of course remains GRID at its hardest. The rough and often chaotic racing experience leans more and more towards that of a nice arcade racer, although you can make the racing feeling a bit more serious by fiddling with all kinds of settings.
Anyone who has played a GRID game before knows that your competitors' AI fights for every position with an aggressive attitude. They make mistakes, misjudge a turn or cause a crash. In the midst of that fierce battle, the famed Nemesis system is back in action. Give someone a good tap a few times and he or she will receive a Nemesis tag and will then offer you quite aggressive game in the mutual duels. The big difference with the past is that that extra rivalry is now often spread over a few races.
Just hop inCodemasters also hopes to score with GRID Legends with the online aspect. Not only are they fully committed to cross-play so that PC, PlayStation and Xbox players can compete together for victory, but the hop-in function should also provide a seamless online experience. GRID Legends fills in blanks with AI racers, and players can hop in and out of races to take control of an AI car. Provided the race is less than 60 percent complete. This also applies to the campaign. The first impressions of the races I've completed in this way are all equally positive enough to have high expectations for this.
A real Race Creator completes the social experience. After all, you get complete freedom to set up your own racing event and share it with the community. You determine the race discipline, time of day, weather conditions and so on.
What about the looks?Visually GRID Legends looks good and the performance is also tight. It is the first game in the series to be available on the Xbox Series X (and PS5), although it is striking that this is a cross-gen title. A lot of attention has been paid to the cars and the urban environments where you usually rush past at high speed, but the weather effects (now also with snow) look convincing.
ConclusionThe car enthusiast was undoubtedly looking forward to Gran Turismo 7 arriving a week later, but don't write off GRID Legends either. Codemasters once again delivers a very familiar, but fun to play and spectacular racing game. The 'Driven to Glory' story mode doesn't give the franchise the boost it needed, although it certainly provides some extra personality. Something that is lacking in the routine job that is the career mode. There is also a lot of potential in the online aspect, especially due to the hop-in and out aspect, although that will of course depend on the number of players.
3.5