Codemasters is back once again this year with a new F1 game. The aptly titled F1 2016 is here for racing fans to enjoy. F1 2016 is a simulation game that takes the simulation aspect way further than most games. But does that make the game better?
Welcome to the big leagues.
F1 2016 has a career mode much like other racing game. But unlike other racing games, F1 treats its career mode as an actual career instead of just a menu screen where players can select the race they want to do. As the player starts their career they are asked to select a face, country, and name for the character they want to represent themselves with. Once the customization is done the player has to select which team they want to race for. Teams offer other stats and perks for your character and cars. Once that’s all done the player will sit in a lounge of the team they selected and will be approached by their agent who will greet them. In between certain races, characters will approach you to introduce themselves and reveal the features their character unlocks. It’s not really a story but it does manage to provide placebo for progression. When no new characters show their face the player will manage their career on their laptop. Aside from racing, players will have to meet the criteria set by their team in order to stay with the team. This will be represented by a meter that shows three colors. When in the purple it means you are exceeding the expectations of the team and when in the red it means you are underperforming. Aside from that you also need to outperform your rival by doing better in the races you are both in. All of this will count for your research points which you need to upgrade your team, research crew and cars. The career mode of F1 2016 goes the extra mile to make the player feel like they are experiencing the real deal.
There is little story and most conversations are just there to inform the player about new features.
Like driving a cloud.
While F1 controls just like most other modern racing games it gets way more technical. Players have to brake and slow down in corners in order to stay on the road. While this is something all simulation racing games do F1 asks the player to keep the official rules of Formula One racing into account. Unlike most simulation racing games cutting corners and ramming other racers will result in a time penalty and doing it too much will cause you to be suspended from the race. Crashing also has way more effect than F1’s competitors. If you run your car into a wall just a bit too hard it will actually break your car to the point that you can’t continue the race giving you what is essentially a game over. This feature can be turned off but it does seem like the game is specifically designed to have the feature turned on. The racing itself feels as smooth as it could be and as an extent of that it’s fun to just race. It’s just fun to race when everything feels extremely responsive. Somehow it feels even more responsive than most other racing games.
There is a nice selection of tracks from different countries with a lot of variety to them for as far as a simulation game can allow. Racing games have always been about three things: Going fast, racing on a myriad of tracks and racing with different cars. F1 2016 does two of these very well. The problem is that F1 doesn’t allow players to collect or necessarily race in other machines. Not being able to collect or race in other Formula One cars is a major omission and it makes the game feel like it’s missing an essential part of what people look for in a racing game. Nonetheless, the game is great fun and while it’s missing one major aspect it doesn’t drag down just how fun the game is and how smooth it plays.
Racing feels good and going at high speed is great.
Better make a pit stop.
Most racing games make it a point to graphically look as good as they can. While F1 does not look bad it doesn’t really seem to be pushing the console to its current limits. The game looks good with environments and cars looking good but never spectacular. Where the game manages to look more like other racing games is in its menu’s and UI’s. This is both a compliment and criticism. The main menu and the laptop menu in career mode look stylish and clean but there are a lot of flaws. A lot of text like the subtitles are incredibly tiny to the point of being unreadable in a lot of times. Another problem is in the settings. The settings menu is a bit of a mess to find anything and the options often use racing terms that a lot of people won’t understand meaning they don’t know what they are turning on or off. The game looks good but it suffers from some UI problems. Many of these problems are small qualms and don’t get in the way of an otherwise great game.
While it doesn’t push the consoles to its limit while most of its competitors would, it doesn’t look bad.
Closing note:
Codemasters did another great job with F1 2016. The team manages to once again create a racing game that feels great, smooth and responsive just when on the racing tracks. All the more technical stuff like getting penalties for ramming and cutting corners or having to suspend a race if your car gets too damaged makes it a lot more technical and harder than almost all other racing sims out there right now. The career mode is where the player will spend most of their time and it’s a good thing it’s really engaging. Aside from some little dialogues with some characters there isn’t any story but the challenges you have to complete like meeting team expectations and beating your rival are fun and incredibly rewarding. The game looks pretty much like most games out there graphically. The presentation is a mixed bag though. The main menu looks nice but there are some minor yet distracting problems with other things like the settings menu and subtitles. F1 2016 is a great game for racing fans even if the inability to collect and drive other cars.
8/10
If you are interested in other games similar to this one you might want check out these reviews:
