GRID Review - A Racing Title For Newcomers and Hardcore Fans Alike

Written by Stephen Varner on October 08, 2019

Reviews: GRID does a great job of straddling the line between simulator and arcade while bringing in the drama from a day at the track.

2019 has been a busy year for Codemasters. Since all the way back in February the British based developer has been pumping out a couple of the years' best racing games with Dirt Rally 2.0 and more recently the latest iteration of the annual Formula 1 game. While the company has shown a good deal of love to its Dirt and F1 franchises there's been one game that has been conspicuously absent this generation. The GRID franchise has been on hiatus since 2014's GRID Autosport and that game never got a port to the current generation of hardware. 2019's GRID is a de facto reboot of the franchise that seeks to qualify among the best racing games on today's platforms.

In some ways, GRID feels a bit like a game out of time. That's not necessarily a knock against it but more an observation of how it seems to approach a genre that has changed pretty dramatically since the franchise's last outing. While other racers have seemingly exploded their car list, location variety and customization options to try and cater to virtually any combination a gear head could possibly want GRID takes a more measured approach that feels a little more curated and focused if a bit limited by comparison. That's not to say there isn't plenty to do however as the variety of car classes and an excellent set of locales fill out a lengthy campaign that will be exactly as challenging as you want it to be. The GRID World Series is divided into 6 different categories that will unlock more events in each category as you complete them. Each category will ask you to tackle multiple car classes. With almost 100 events each comprising from 1 to 4 races each there's plenty here to tackle. There's a ton of visual variety in the tracks as well. You'll visit well-trodden favorites like Brands Hatch and Silverstone but also race within the cityscapes of Shanghai, San Francisco and the sun-drenched Havana make for a sense of variety that goes beyond just the traditional purpose-built race tracks.

When it comes to your time behind the wheel GRID strikes a bit of a balance that isn't quite a simulation but it's not exactly arcade either. Even with all of the assists turned on you're still going to have to follow the basic rules of maintaining a race line and driving slow in the corners in order to drive fast. The level at which you can customize this though is one of the ways the game shines. You can dial in the difficulty that feels best to you with multiple levels of AI ability, and driving assists that even let you select different levels of traction control and stability management. I found these especially helpful as I tried to find a setting that wouldn't have me spin out of control with the slightest mistake but still provides a healthy amount of danger when driving carelessly. When the car or conditions get the better of you you might slam into a wall momentarily blurring the screen or ram into an opponent and potentially forcing you to deal with one of GRID’s more interesting mechanics, the Nemesis System. With a unique set of AI drivers that react to you based on how you race around them, you might find yourself dealing with a driver that will get more aggressive with you if you've wronged him one too many times. I never found it to be overwhelming but there were definitely occasions when a nemesis I created would try to force me off my race line even as I attempted to keep it clean. It goes a long way towards making career opponents feel a bit less like robots and help simulate some of the tarmac drama that makes motorsport so fun.

You'll find a bit less depth on the car customization front than you will in gameplay however and this is probably the area that GRID feels the most out of time. You'll be limited to a small set of preset liveries that you can gradually unlock more of but with no clear indication of how to get the specific ones you want it can be multiple races in before you get to set your car up to look the way you want. You can customize the color palette of each livery by individually changing the primary, secondary and tertiary colors but there's only so much you can do when the style you want is locked behind an event you can't even race yet. It's a strange choice especially when you consider that all the winnings you earn after each race aren't good for anything other than buying more cars. When there's only a handful of cars for each class it's easy to be left wondering what you should do with your spare earnings. The easy answer comes in the form of the teammate system. With enough cash and higher driver levels, you can hire better drivers that can help you on the track. Generally, better drivers will soak up more of the race winnings in return for being more valuable on the track. You can have them attack the next position or help you defend your place in the pack. Your team will communicate with you during the race over the radio and give you information about where your teammate is at or what the weather conditions will be and it all helps to sell the feel of an authentic race day. If you want to fully immerse yourself in the experience there's a cockpit view that stands toe to toe with its peers and looks especially good in the rain. In fact, everything looks good in the rain as the water effects in the environment and on the cars look spectacular from both inside and out. It's a great looking game all around especially on the Xbox One X and critically holds a pretty solid 60fps throughout as far as I can tell. It might dip a bit from time to time but it wasn't enough to mar the experience. It's a good bit muddier on a standard Xbox One as you might expect but it's visual flair and use of particle effects like the rain and confetti make it pop.

GRID doesn't quite take pole position among its peers but sets a solid pace all the same. With Forza Motorsport taking the year off and Need For Speed looking to be a decidedly different style of racing game, GRID fills a gap for those that are looking for a more buttoned-up circuit based racer. All said GRID seems to try and recreate the action and drama of a day at the track rather than adhere to a strict set of simulation rules and for that, it manages to carve out space all for itself. There's not as much meat on the bones in terms of customization and car variety when you inevitably compare it to other similar games on the market but I appreciate the focused career mode and attention to presentation in lieu of an exhaustive collection of cars and customization options. If you're looking for a solid track day experience this fall then look no farther than GRID.

**We received a GRID code from Codemasters for review purposes**