Welcome to our review of GRID, the newest racing game on the Xbox One, and other platforms. Prepare to be amazed!
The most iconic cars ever raced – Race the greats, both current and classic, across a huge array of vehicle classes. Modern greats such as the Porsche 911 RSR and Ferrari 488 GTE in the GT class to classics including the Ford GT40 and Pontiac firebird modified are all available to race to their limits.
12 incredible racing locations – Compete in intense wheel-to-wheel races on iconic city streets, world-famous circuits, and beautiful point-topoints, featuring Havana, Shanghai, brands hatch, Indianapolis and many more, with multiple routes at each location and varied time of day and weather conditions.
create your story, define your legacy – Choose from 6 main career paths all leading to the grid world series, plus additional Showdown events.
The Fernando Alonso challenge – one of the most successful racing drivers of the modern era across F1, Endurance and stock racing, Fernando Alonso joins grid as race consultant and his Renault R26 car features in-game. Complete his challenges and earn the right to race Alonso himself.
6 exciting race types – Challenge yourself across various modes in-game, as well as an event/race creator:
race craft – An innovative moment-to-moment scoring system that rewards players for technical, Skilful or brave racing. Players can earn points from teammates, rivals and nemesis drivers to improve their score both offline and online.
impactful damage systems – affecting both players and AI racers, GRID’s damage builds on Codemasters’ Class-leading damage system to visually and mechanically change your race. Damage will affect visuals as well as handling, with potential for Terminal damage.
My dislike for racing games is not unknown but I have to admit that I did look forward to playing this game. I had heard great things of the Grid games in the past and I was told it was more open to play even for those that are not racing aficionados. They were right, it showed driving guidance lanes that allowed me to avoid crashing into the outer bounds more than once. Sadly not every time, but that is bound to be due to my lack of feeling for driving at the highest speeds.
What was really noticeable, the small lag when going out of a course and into the advertisement. The racing itself was fluid and quite fun, to say the least. Fun until you made a fellow driver angry and I loved this, they got even. One race I was nearing the podium and suddenly I got hit, on purpose I am sure of it, by my nemesis and I just went into the sandpit outside the track and lost my position. I was not even mad, I was just smirking. He got back at me after I took him out in a prior lap. So cool!
As this is a racing game, you also got a ton of cars to pick from and every time you earn enough cash, you are licking your fingers as to which new eye candy you will be buying. I got myself a Dodge from my initial cash and just loved how it steered. It was labeled as being heavy and it responded as such. A little slower on the clutch but when it got going, it really went all out!
GRID has sooooo many options, I consider it to be great value for the money and the added seasons only expand the options even more. If you like racing games, I would definitely look into this one! The amount of damage I did to some of my cars… Impressive to say the least. I drove an entire lap without spoilers and bumpers…
In conclusion, GRID brings great value for the money invested in it. While not my favorite gaming genre, I did enjoy this game. Even the races at first when I still ended dead last, were not boring or a nuisance. That alone shows its entertaining value. I wish I could see a real pro do his stuff at this game one day…
