Good morning, Ladies, Gentlemen and those of a non-binary nature, my name is Daibhi and this is the Gamerhub Community. As a lot of you know, I’m a bit of a racing nut. From racing Scalextric car racing, to spending wayyy too much time mastering Pocket Car Racing in Yakuza, to watching Jelle’s Marbles Runs on YouTube during the lockdowns to stave off the boredom and the lack of Formula 1, I’m a fairly big racing fan. Forza Horizon is my favourite racing series, and I love racing of most varieties. That is to say that I’m basically the perfect mark for a game like GRID Legends. Is it as good as GRID? Did I see a doctor whilst playing through this game? Was this a game worthy of being put on my racing games list? I will endeavour to answer all three questions as I work my way through this review for you…
GRID Legends is the current instalment of the GRID series developed by Codemasters, which is one of my favourite video game developers, and published by Electronic Arts. The game launched in 2022 on all major consoles minus the Nintendo Switch (which this game isn’t available on), with a 2023 launch for the Meta Quest 2. It’s the fifth instalment in the franchise, and it’s fair to say that this franchise is popular with gamers on streaming channels. For example, on Twitch, this game is incredibly popular and is only really beaten by the Grand Turismo, Forza and Grand Theft Auto Franchises.
Plot
This game actually has a plot, unlike a lot of games that present in a similar fashion. To avoid too much in the way of spoilers, you play as a silent and anonymous driver known only as Driver 22. You can, of course, change the driver’s name, but the audio won’t change, even if the subtitles will. You race for a company called Seneca, who are attempting to win the GRID series with Yume Tanaka (who wants to become the first female champion) and yourself. As part of this team, you’ll face a whole bunch of different racing teams, as you climb your way up the GRID rankings, eventually to take on Team Ravenwest to try and win the title.
Alongside your team and the aforementioned Ravenwest, you’ll meet a plethora of characters, each with their own stories and wants. One thing to look out for is Valentin Manzi, played by the wonderful Ncuti Gatwa of Doctor Who fame. His character reflects Ncuti’s biography, but instead of becoming an actor, he becomes a racer. It’s honestly distracting at times, as you find your eyes darted to him as opposed to what is going on.
When the guy in your game is currently the biggest actor in British TV…
Gameplay
The gameplay for this game is hecking impressive. For the sake of clarity, I’m playing this game on a PlayStation 5 using a Dualsense controller. Let’s start with the beginning. This game ditches the approach of the predecessor and throws you in at the deep end, in a similar fashion to the Forza Horizon series. You start by racing your way to the top of the race, with the game showing you the basic methods of getting around. You can choose to ignore the racing line, but it really is better if you don’t. The game modifies the AI controlled opponents and adapts to your racing style. So if you want a nice start, don’t do what your friendly neighbourhood Scottish goth did, don’t ram your opponents out of the way, and focus on nice, clean racing.
The genius of GRID Legends as opposed to other franchises of racing games is both the variety of racing disciplines and cars. Do you want to play demolition derby with giant vans on ice fields? You can in the first DLC. Want to take a rocket car screaming through London at 150 miles per hour? You can. How about racing whilst jumping in giant pickups through a dockyard in the freezing cold? This game has got you covered. Honestly, that was one thing I found absolutely refreshing. Racing to professional standards with homologated cars might be fun (and I do love doing just that), but sometimes, you just need the perfect mix of anarchy and frustration. This is exactly what the gameplay of GRID Legends offers, and I’m honestly glad for it. The world of racing online is often too serious, and some games go the opposite way to counter this (I’m looking at you, Wreckfest). This game is truly the goldilocks of racing games, it’s just the right mix.
Graphics
The graphics of this game isn’t much to shout home about, if you compare it to the previous instalment of the franchise, but that isn’t the insult some will regard it as being. Let’s start with the cutscenes, which were all done using motion capture technology. I’m going to focus in on Ncuti Gatwa’s character merely because right now, at the time of writing, he’s The Doctor in Doctor Who and the show is having something upon a renaissance. When you look at the cutscenes and then look at a recent Doctor Who clip, it’s very hard to tell which is live action and which is mo-capped.
The cars are beautifully rendered to an almost unbelievably realistic extent. From the details of all the liveries being as sharp as anything, to the reflections of the racetracks from the windscreens, GRID Legends has absolutely phenomenal graphics. Like GRID, GRID Legends is by far and away the market leader in racing games when it comes to graphics and this game is living proof of that claim. The graphics in this game are seriously impressive, and I honestly wish that they had a photo mode, because you’ll find yourself marvelling at the graphics.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack in this game needs to be separated into two parts, because the voice acting in this game deserves a particular shout. The voice acting in GRID Legends is phenomenal. Every single actor more than earns their salary, and I want to give a particular shout to the acting of Miles Yekinni, who voices Marcus Ado in this game. Marcus Ado is the deuteragonist in the plot of this game, and he really earns his paycheck.
Now for the musical score. I should inform you that whilst typing this draft, I’ve got the soundtrack playing on my Spotify. I’ll be honest, unlike a lot of the other videogames that I’ve reviewed recently, GRID Legends hasn’t got a soundtrack that is worthy to shout home about. It’s not bad, don’t misunderstand me, and it doesn’t detract from your gameplay, but I certainly couldn’t say it was too memorable. It’s not exactly Wreckfest or the Forza Horizon series.
Accessibility
On a scale of Sonic games to Marvel’s Spider-Man, this game is much closer to the latter. This game allows complete controller remapping, allowing gamers to play exactly the way that they want, making GRID Legends great. So, for example, for me, I switched the analogue sticks around because of my left handedness. There’s also options to change the visuals to all three types of colour blindness. GRID Legends also has options for subtitles in multiple languages, for anyone with hearing issues. I just want to point out that the aforementioned two features should come as standard on any game, but I’m glad GRID Legends does.
Final Thoughts
GRID Legends is a cracker of a racing game, with many options for a great racing experience. The races are a breakneck, white-knuckle, edge-of-your-seat affair made accessible for every gamer, with a cracking career mode and an amazing storyline to boot. Honestly, it’s well worth the purchase, and whilst not perfect, GRID Legends is in my top 10 racing games of all time. That takes some serious doing, so you know I’m being deadly serious when I put it in the same company as Forza Horizon 4 and Mariokart 8.
I give this game a total of…
4.6 out of 5 Joysticks.
For the Gamerhub, I’ve been Daibhi and you are all legends.
See you at the finish line!
