Grid Legends (2022)

Unfortunately I found Grid Legends to be very bland which is surprising as I enjoyed Grid and Grid 2 on PS3. I also liked Dirt 1-4 and Dirt Rally. I'm not sure what's going on at Codemasters but this, Dirt 5 and Onrush have been really underwhelming.

First off the good. It works, looks decent, runs fine and I got it from PS Plus. There is a good amount of tracks and cars. It's kind of fun just driving with reckless abandon, smashing into other cars and clipping walls.

The biggest problem this game has is the way cars feel to drive, which is a massive issue for a racing game. They don't behave at all like you expect a car to, the physics are just weird. Driving feels stiff and simple, you really need to try hard to lose control. For example you can drive a RWD car in the wet with no traction control and just floor it without any concern for wheel spin. It's like the developers didn't want you to be able to fail. So it's not realistic at all but it also doesn't deliver arcade fun. It also does not find a balance between realism and arcade thrills. It is just bland.

The story mode was thoroughly boring and I quickly started skipping cut scenes. The career mode is grindy and you get tired as one dull race bleeds into another. You can try to keep things fresh by constantly changing the type of vehicle you are racing. I found the stadium trucks to be the highlight. There is also drifting which they also somehow made kind of boring. It's like the whole game was made as safe and uninspired as possible. They didn't want to allow players to suck at it.

It's not very good but doesn't do enough to make me hate it. I can't recommend Grid Legends unless you got it with PS Plus or are desperate for another racing game.

5.8/10

Where to begin. I miss Rick from toca race driver 3. The only career that made me actually give a damn about racing. From autosport i realised that, like any other title, there is little to no effort in having a compelling story and a career progress that is worth of killing hours. Even grid the old one had me more interested. Not even a presentation for the discipline, for the car class, even gt sport has more car content. When i see that codemasters logo and the title i want to feel like i am investing in something other than mindless boxes with races, useless upgrades, no incentive for difficulty like more xp or money. I am playing at hard, no assists, and still need to increase to have some sort of challenge. Integrate difficulty with progress, not that hard. Codemasters died and they have become someone else. Still, no excuse, be original again ffs. Grid legends is a shame and needs to have a different name like NFS Sport.

1 star for lack of originality. 3 stars for the rest. So, 3 stars.

All-in-all it's a more return to form to a cinematic presentation like in GRID 2, which is one of my favorite racing games purely due to presentation. Races have an unrealistically large crowd size, topped with fireworks and all of that flair. The over-the-top cinematic orchestral racing music returns as well, especially with another rendition of the GRID 2 theme. At least this game has more character and soul than GRID Autosport and GRID 2019.

There is actually the main story with fun characterization, especially seeing past overpowered AI Nathan McKane in fictional motorsport team Ravenwest actually having a face and... is just as a jerk as you'd imagine characterize. However, be warned if you actually followed the GRID series canon from the TOCA Race Driver days as the game DOES make references... you'll actually be pissed about the ending where Ravenwest was proved to actually be cheaters, and how Ravenwest gets a new manager that actually murdered McKane's family in past events.

Even past the story there's an entire separate career mode checklist like GRID 2019, if you want more content to sink in.

Otherwise, this game has solid racing physics. The AI is more likely to cause unrealistic wipeouts which help to add variety to your driving experience. Would recommend it as a short and brief experience, as long as you play it via EA Play or some service like that. I actually had more fun racing in this game than the somehow recently critically acclaimed Gran Turismo 7 (my review).

I'm cautiously optimistic but actually excited for the narrative focus on this game.

GRID 2019, while functional, was the most soul-less racing game I've played being super sterile in its presentation and the single-player mode being just an event spreadsheet with no context. On the other hand, GRID Legends looks like they're doubling down on the full-cinematic direction of GRID 2 (my personal franchise favorite due to its style and presentation) with a more complete story. They actually turned fictional race team Ravenwest's top racer Nathan McKane, a recurring name from the past GRID games who is known for having intentionally overpowering broken AI, into a full character now.

Realistically I feel the CGI sequences will feel like Need for Speed: Heat's cutscenes: Cheesy in a NFS: Most Wanted 2005 kind of way to establish context but not exactly memorable in the long run. It's enough grabbed my attention at least.