But can you remember the plot of the driving games? Because – and this may seem strange – many games belonging to this genre actually have some history. Think of the various Need For Speed. Or Driver San Francisco. Or, again, The Crew.
Squeezing our brains we could perhaps remember some elements here and there but being able to tell all the events, in chronological order, is another thing. Taken by the frenzy of competition, by the enthusiasm of touring cities or entire states, by the possibility of getting behind the wheel of very rare and extremely powerful cars, the narrative component of racing games takes a bit of a back seat.
Codemasters, backed by the experience of EA who bought the British studio last year, he decided to try to change something. Here because GRID Legends it comes with a full-bodied story mode that will keep you entertained for about 8-10 hours and that abandons computer graphics in favor of the live action.
The result? To find out, we tested this component of the game in advance.
GRID Legends: the road to glory
Part of the Seneca Racing team
“Live action” is an Anglo-Saxon expression that describes a film starring real actors. This already sets GRID Legends apart from the competition: instead of using 3D animation to bring characters to life, Codemasters has chosen to rely on a series of interpreters who could really give body and voice to the ambitions of the English software house.
The result is a pseudo-documentary which follows the events of Seneca Racing, a team that competes in the Grid World Series and is facing difficulties right now. It will be up to you to take on the role of “22”, the new second driver of the team, personally chosen by Marcus Ado, director of Seneca Racing.
You can easily guess the goal: to win. Not just the races, but the whole season. A path that will take you to the Olympus of legends and that will be studded with difficulties, accidents and fierce opponents.
But what makes the narrative component of this game unusual is attention to the characters. Normally, in fact, we try to outline the protagonist and then any supporting actors. We know nothing about 22, we don’t even see it. Also because 22 is you, which leaves you free to outline his face, his style, his aspirations and his character.
Codemasters has instead invested heavily in the other characters in the game, trying to tell the relationship between the members of the same team as well as the tensions with the drivers of the other teams. The result is certainly interesting even if some narrative solution is a bit obvious and not very original.
Overall, however, the Story mode manages to make you passionate about the events of Seneca Racing and all the members of this team, pushing you to get to the end to understand how it will really end.
How does one become a legend?
GRID: Legends relies heavily on variety: of cars, circuits, races. In the role of pilot 22 you will find yourself driving very different cars, from trucks to very fast electric cars, passing through vehicles dedicated to drift and the inevitable pickups.
What makes it all the more exciting is the alternation of different races. On board the electric cars, for example, you will have to face a circuit that contains boosts, ie areas that can give you an additional charge to beat your opponents, taking into account that these “aids” are normally positioned far from the ideal trajectory. A strategic component then comes into play that is absent in other challenges.
Codemasters also offers the modality Elimination, where every few seconds the last two drivers in the race are eliminated. The aim of course is to finish first and win, or at least delay your elimination as much as possible by overtaking your opponents to gain positions.
Then there are circuits in which some are placed ramps on the road or, again, competitions that take place on the Nascar track where the slightest mistake could take you to the bottom of the rankings. They are not missing i time trial where the aim is to bring home the best time, as well as the gare multi class where not everyone uses the same type of car.
Getting bored is practically impossible.
They contribute to the overall variety too the circuits, with tracks that take us to different parts of the world, in the middle of the cities, with different weather conditions and at equally different phases of the day.
The arcade and all in all boisterous approach of this GRID Legends could lead you to adopt an aggressive driving style, which could mean more fights and more damage. But beware of the consequences. Ruining the car doesn’t seem to affect your performance but accidents with the same drivers trigger the Nemesis System. It is a mechanic already seen in the past that leads your opponents to become a little more hostile towards you. This means that, once they officially become enemies, pilots led by artificial intelligence will tend to give you more headaches than others. In short, if they can give you a push to throw you off the track, rest assured that they will.
GRID Legends preview: the appointment is in a month
We tried the Story mode of GRID Legends on PC, with a beta version of the game. We therefore reserve the right to evaluate the title in its entirety, including the technical sector, when we have access to the final version of the title. For now we can tell you that the Story mode has convinced us, thanks to an original approach – that of live action – and a good variety in the competitions that lead to the finale without ever getting bored.
GRID Legends will be released on February 25 su Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 e PC.