GRID Autosport is a fresh new game in the GRID racing series from publisher and developer Codemasters. Codemasters has had a lot of experience with making high quality racing titles, most notably the Colin McRae series. Most may know that series under the current name, DiRT. This series currently has been hitting on all cylinders and are simply excellent off-roading experiences. GRID is in a somewhat similar situation. The first GRID was well received and the second was just slightly less critically acclaimed. Some complained it drifted a bit far from its simulation roots but was nonetheless a decent game. Now with a new title in the lineup, GRID Autosport, can they overtake the competition or will they continue their gradual fall behind the front pack?
GRID Autosport, as the name suggests, is a racing game. The game puts you behind the wheel across five distinct disciplines. These are Touring, Open Wheel, Street, Endurance, and Tuner. Touring, as the name suggests, has you racing with modified street cars. Open Wheel is your standard Formula 1 single-seater cars. These two types have you racing on typical assortment of race tracks. The other disciplines are not as cookie-cutter and have their own flavors.
The Street game type is what it sounds like, you race through blocked-off city streets. I personally enjoyed this one the most and it brought back memories of racing in Project Gotham. The cars you race in feel great, the courses make it feel like you have a chance, and there is always something interesting to look at. But this is where the game shines, my enjoying this is largely a preference in driving styles and one would be equally fine enjoying any of the other playlists.
Endurance is quite similar to Touring with some notable exceptions. You race at night on a rolling start for a specific length of time, paying special attention to the wear and tear on your tires. This is the only game type that your tires really come into play but it makes for an interesting race formulation. Race hard and aggressive and you may end up in first but as your tires give out, you’ll probably lose during the last minutes.
Tuner is the most varied of these disciplines with time attack and drifting competitions. While the variety is nice, it also is dragged down by probably the most different game type, drifting. The first time I encountered drifting, it had a qualifier. A qualifier which I sucked at and didn’t get to compete. This just felt wrong to get slapped so hard for a first encounter. It’s equivalent to playing a platformer for the first time, struggling the first couple jumps, and getting knocked to the next level because it doesn’t think you can handle it. This also highlights a possible plus for some people, the game does not have much hand holding. You can toggle assists on in the difficulty screen but there are no tutorials. All the events allow you to do practice runs to learn the layout and for those unfortunate like me, to learn how to do this game’s particular style of drifting. Once you try it a couple times, drifting becomes decent but only so because it is such a drastic change of pace for the times you are bored of standard racing.
These five different categories are where the single player career mode live in. You choose one for each season of play, select a discipline, choose one of the open championships, and select an offer. The beginning stuff is pretty self-explanatory. The championships are composed of several events and each one varies slightly in the amount. The offers are sponsorships for each season. These sponsors are typically from real world companies like Intel and Razer. It makes the game feel a bit more realistic but others may frown upon them and consider them ads. Each sponsor have a personal and team goal for you to achieve for the season to attain a lot of experience points. And you noticed correctly, you are not alone on the tracks, you have a teammate. Unfortunately, they seem to only drag you down. You can give them basic orders like push or defend but mostly they will just disappoint you. It feels like more of a reason to hold you back from the top and work your way up to better sponsors who will have better cars.
On the other hand, if you’re constantly at the top of the racing boards, it might be time to increase the difficulty. You have the standard base options if you want a quick pick but the game offers a wide variety of choices on how to increase the difficulty. Increasing the difficulty increases the experience bonus at the end of races. The options include a variety of assists, forcing cockpit view, the difficulty of the other driver’s artificial intelligence, and several others. This also extends slightly into multiplayer so each person can have their own difficulty, making playing with your little brother not so terrible. The one option that does not extend to multiplayer is obviously the ability to rewind your game several seconds but during single player, those rewinds are a definite lifesaver.
Once you achieve a certain uniform tier amongst all of the driving categories, you will be invited to one of the Grid championships to show off your talents. Since there is quite a hump to get to each of these events and given that it’s the name of the game, you would think these are the apex of the single player experience. Unfortunately, nothing is done to make them feel any special. In fact, they simply feel like a randomized playlist from the each of the categories. There is no special introduction. There are no special words from your coach before the races indicating that it’s a special race season. It’s quite disappointing.
Overall, the game packs a lot of content and a lot of customizability. If you wanted a game that can give you a lot of variety, this might be up your alley. But with all the different options, it means some aspects are simply shallower than others. The single player is nice but it also is not well fleshed out. There are no buying or persistent cars. You race the car your sponsor gives you for that race. If you absolutely destroy it, nothing happens. For a car game, there is very little connection to the cars in single player. For that stuff, you have to go online.
Online is simply where many racers live or die and GRID Autosport is no exception. Here you race for experience points and money. Experience points level not only yourself up, but the car you drive as well. The money is used to purchase new cars and to customize them. Upgrades for the cars are locked behind level requirements. Painting and detailing your car is supported but it’s fairly simplistic, limiting you to preselected and positioned decals and paint jobs. The amount of options offered is nice but it won’t offer many different looks. When you’re ready to take the competition seriously, it’s worth it to sign up for RaceNet. This is a free service and will help you set up leagues with your friends and compete in weekly challenges for extra money. This extra money is nice because you don’t unlock cars and upgrade them in single player so there is a slight feeling of a grind as you unlock everything you want. Overall, the online is structured nicely but a lot depends on if you have people to race against and that will take friends. On the Xbox 360 you will be able to find games currently but with the diversity of this game, you might end up doing races you don’t want to do or are not as fun for you.
One of the pitfalls of most racers is the graphics. This is simply because of the wide-open flat areas with a lot of fine detail. The cars are expected to be gorgeous and the track, along with its fences and wires, are expected to be crisp and detailed. Most can succeed at the first part, and GRID does a good job here. The exteriors look really nice and they all take realistic damage. Unfortunately, once you go inside the cars, it leaves much to be desired. They are low-detailed and the game then blurs it to cover it up. The mirrors don’t even work. It’s not a complete waste though, the driver’s hand moves when the car shifts and the front windshield can get knocked out from damage.
The second half is where a lot of other racers underachieve, mostly because of the massive amount of aliasing inherent to these types of environments. Thankfully, GRID does a great job here. The tracks look great and there is usually something nice to look at like a mountain in the background or fireworks in the background at night. The fences and overhead wires, which typically create the most aliasing, look pretty good. Most of the tracks are lined with fans watching the game and when you’re at top speeds, it looks good. As with most, at low speeds, the illusion of a detailed crowd starts to fall apart a little. When you rewind during a part with a lot of cars, the frame rate drops to near-slide-show status. For the most parts the races themselves hold a nice consistent frame rate but there is an occasional rare dip. Overall, the biggest thing lacking is simply is something signature to this game. A sense of style or look it can call its own. When you look at a Forza, Gran Turismo, Dirt, or many other racers, it is immediately known which game it is from. Here, it’s quite generic and not well fleshed out. It looks good and succeed in a lot of areas but at the end of the day, it doesn’t make the graphics something special.
The sound design is intricately done. The first aspect you’ll notice that unlike a lot of other racers, the game isn’t inundated with tons of flashy music. When you’re on the road, you hear just the action and that action is well done. The cars sound authentic and have depth. The game packs a lot of different types from Formula 1 race cars to regular street cars and they sound great. The squeaking of the tires as you go around corners, the reeving of the engines, it all sounds good. When you’re inside the cockpit view, just like real life, the sound outside is muffled. When your front windshield gets demolished, you get thrust into the outside world. There is some minor voice acting for the single player but it is all very brief and well done. Even though you’ll hear it over and over, it’s simply not intrusive or annoying. Overall, GRID Autosport appears to be about the racing and the focus shows.
GRID Autosport is a title of many traits. It encompasses five distinct different categories of driving and has a wide variety of tracks and cars for you to utilize. The game takes quite a minimalistic approach to serious racing and that will bring a smile to many faces but will leave other yearning for a little more. The single player feels like simple playlists to prepare you for multiplayer. The slight grind of multiplayer might off put people who want to customize and tweak their cars right off the bat. The online community may not be as strong as one may like but you will find worthy competitors and if you have friends, the leagues and weekly challenges are nice. The graphics look fantastic on the older hardware but lacks a signature style to stand out. The audio sounds fantastic but there is nothing more. That’s just the reoccurring theme of GRID Autosport, the game does a good job in most areas but it lacks that extra bit to make it memorable or knock it out of the park. Some of these negatives probably are not even a negative. The minimalistic approach is a refreshing one. If you have friends, want some serious driving, and enjoy the wide breadth of different styles contained within GRID Autosport, this might be for you.
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