Codemasters is well known for two different series of car games and both are tough to beat. You get GRID and you get the F1 series. If you have ever played the F1 series, you know how tough and demanding the games have been since their inception. The F1 gaming experience is probably only outshined by the actual F1 racing experience. That’s how tough it can be. The game asks you to become a driver and a mechanic. Adjusting vehicles, selecting parts that are positioned or work correctly on certain tracks and in certain environments can be a maddening experience. F1 fans love that stuff and Codemasters knows how to deliver it.
On the flip side of that, Codemasters seems to blow off some steam from using their giant, complicated F1 brains with their GRID series. They don’t require your full, undivided attention to every detail when it comes to racing in the GRID series. It’s more about the driving than it is about the car’s creation. We’ve seen off-road, street and other variations of non-F1 organized sport within the GRID games, and they’ve always seemed to please their audience. In fact, I can’t really recall the last time someone absolutely despised an edition of GRID. If there was someone, they probably need to stop playing racing games.
With these two sides of the Codemasters coin exposed, what can you expect out of GRID Autosport. Well, you can expect the best of both worlds. Your given a nice collection of complication from the F1 series, with a wonderful wrapped arcade feel of the GRID series. For example, you can adjust and tweak certain cars within GRID Autosport, just like you can in the F1 series — but with not the amount of detail that is demanded from the F1 game. You can tune and upgrade certain cars to get better performance, though it solely depends on what race you’re running, what you’re driving and what the rules in the race dictate. This means that sometimes you can’t tweak that car you’re trying o rev up to destroy everyone else in the race. The fact that this element is present in some areas, does remind you that the developers had more than just an arcade racer in mind. They wanted to make sure you understand that GRID Autosport had some element of complication built into it, and they certainly succeeded. Although, I wish there was a bit more flexibility with tuning and upgrading all vehicles.
On the arcade side of its personality, the game is easy to pick up and go, unlike its F1 cousin. You can turn on some useful handicaps in the game, such as a nice guideline on the racetrack to warn you of tough corners. Or you can choose to turn off actual damage on the cars, so that you can bump and grind a bit with the pack without penalty or affective damage (yes, I meant to say ‘affective’) as you come around corners. The game is incredibly adjustable to your needs that it caters to almost every style and level of racer. So, if you want to be that guy/gal, who loves to go full racing simulation and consequences be damned, GRID Autosport has those elements intact. If you feel like sitting back and just turning corners without much worry of damage, then you can do that as well. There’s certainly a Ridge Racer flavor on this side of GRID.
Staying with the ‘best of both worlds’ motif, you have a bevy of disciplines to choose from that cater to F1/GRID fans. Here’s what to expect:
Touring — I suspect that a lot of people will certainly enjoy the Touring discipline. Standard stuff that starts you out with plain-jane cars that are neither adjustable or upgradable. You get laps, you race in hard-tops and the racetracks vary. I really enjoyed the arcade simplicity of this mode that requires less brainpower to manage and only requires you to just press the gas and go. If there is anything the most ‘arcade’ about this game, it would be Touring.
Endurance — I had never played Endurance racing before, well at least that I can remember. You get a certain time to keep going and you just keep driving until that time is up. If you turn on damage and turn off guidelines, then you’re in for a rough, rough ride — though a challenging one. This is not for the faint of heart. A few more tuning and upgrade options are present within this one, though the cars themselves are extremely fast to begin with, so you may not need them. Lots of power cars in this discipline.
Open Wheel — The closest thing to F1 racing in GRID Autosport, and the most damaging/brutal, if you’re not careful. Fast and furious, though simple in nature. My F1 side of me loved this discipline quite a bit. The nice roaring of the engines really gave me goosebumps and made my blood flow. I found quick success with this discipline.
Tuner — Time attacks and drifting, no thanks. I’m not a fan of drifting, as much as I’m a fan of strategy and technique. I know what you’re thinking, ‘Drifting is a technique, you goober!’, and you would be right, but I’m old and set in my ways, and I prefer turning on a circular track than drifting around corners. I think the younger, ‘Fast and Furious’ generation will get a kick out of this discipline, as it’s dead on previous drifting games, but it wasn’t my favorite. That is more about me than it is about the game.
Street Racing — It’s just what you think it is. A variety of cars in a close and intense racing environment makes for a helluva time. This is definitely one of my favorite disciplines out of the bunch and one that I will come back to long after this review has ended. It’s definitely a big plus to see this style of racing included in the GRID Autosport package.
GRID Series — I’ll let you enjoy this one by not giving it away. The best of the best race here, baby.
As you can see, you get a large variety of racing styles to choose from initially. There’s so many different ways to enjoy this game that it’s sickening. It’s literally an all-in-one, which is very impressive. In short, you won’t be bored with the various styles and ways to make this game go. It won’t give you the depth of an F1 or Gran Turismo, but there’s enough here in one package to keep you satisfied.
In addition to these elements, the game also has a nice point system to keep you engaged, as well as sponsorship goals and offers to keep you going. The points you gain from race to race help to open up new offers from various sponsors. So, the better you do in a race, say if you beat your rival or place in the top five, the better chances you get from other racing teams with bigger money and better vehicles. In addition to opening up those opportunities, the game also helps to unlock other races as you progress in the game. It’s a healthy and encouraging point system that wants you to do better. You want to do better because of it. That equals out to more replay value.
The flip side to that coin is what the game expects of you from race to race. What I like and hate about the sponsorships in GRID Autosport is that their goals don’t give you a proper push to do well. The points you gain while racing certainly do give you that push, but not so much the sponsors. Knowing Codemasters track record with their racing titles, they don’t make racing easy on the gamer, even though it feels like it’s easy at times. What I mean by that is you have to go into the game understanding you won’t win every race from the get-go, as F1 has trained us quite well in those regards.
In a way, the game sets you up for failure early, but cushions the blow with enormously flexible sponsorship goals to achieve. For example, the sponsor Oakley (the sunglasses company) gave me a goal of at least 8th place when I started out on my first Touring race. It’s incredibly difficult NOT to get 8th place. With that said, it’s almost impossible to achieve first place with the vehicle you’re given, which isn’t upgradeable or tunable. Instead of opening up tuning or upgrades, or giving you a very nice car, the game just plays down to a lower level of expectations. I hate that about it. I want a challenge and some hard goals to push me through a race, even at the beginning of the game. If you’re going to make the first bit of GRID Autosport more of a tutorial than a racing event, then just give me the tutorial, so that I have a chance when the real race begins.
I get why they did what they did at the beginning of the game, I just don’t like it.
Once you get beyond the first few events of the Touring discipline and more opportunities start to open up for you, the game really hits its stride. It won’t take long for gamers to get to that point, but I just dislike the bumpy road at the beginning. It certainly could have been a bit smoother.
Moving along, another element in the game that really impressed me was the aggressive and defensive driving from the NPC cars. They kept me in check when I was trying to pass them and they weren’t afraid to give me a bit of a love tap from behind when they wanted me to know they were trying to get around. This is probably one of the most intelligent racing games I’ve seen in some time, as the computer driven cars weren’t afraid to get their bumpers dirty. I can’t tell you how many times I spun out from a bastard car bumping my backend. It was cool, as it was frustrating. In other words, prepare yourself for some mean competition that goes beyond just online a-holes.
Shifting gears (pun intended) just a bit, the visuals in GRID Autosport were as good as you would expect from the last generation consoles that are nearly a decade old. The PlayStation 3 did its best to make the jagged edges and rough looking crowd something to behold. I did find the lighting, shadows and outside view of the cars to be quite beautiful. Other than that, you won’t find anything particularly out of the ordinary or eye-popping with what Codemasters did visually in GRID Autosport. I’m sure the PC version of GRID Autosport is miles ahead of the PS3 or Xbox 360 releases. Anyway, it’s beautiful as usual, but it’s a bit worn because of the aging/limiting hardware, and especially after watching the likes of Forza and Driveclub on the current generation of consoles.
As for the sounds, pure poetry to the ear. Good engine roars and fine crowd noises help to kick some adrenaline to your veins. You won’t be disappointed with this part of the game’s presentation. Hell, even the person on the radio is pretty enjoyable to listen to during the race.
Other points of interest in GRID Autosport include a strong (as usual) online multiplayer support, a custom cup racing option (creating your own type of race), and a splitscreen mode to one-up a friend. You will more than likely spend a large amount of your time playing in career mode (which is what the majority of this review is about) in GRID, but if you want a change of pace then you pop in the other modes.
With all this said, is GRID Autosport worth your time and money? Lord, yes! First, it’s $49.99 for this package, which is ridiculously nice considering what you are getting. Secondly, if you like racing, but don’t want to invest your life in a Gran Turismo or want to avoid the endless frustration of an F1 game, then this is a pretty darn even balance that will satisfy all racing needs. The experience and fun of racing lives within GRID Autosport. Lastly, and to put it quite bluntly, this is another triumphant feather in Codemasters’ racing cap.