Grid Legends: it’s never too late [Backlog]

Since the days of TOCA Race Driver, i.e. since 2002, I’ve been trying not to miss a Codemasters game dedicated to road racing. Not all of them were mega-hits, but still, they were all at least good. But I missed the last one, Grid Legends, because the game was released on February 25, 2022, when we were all a little bit busy. But, as it turned out, Grid Legends is available on Game Pass, so after the Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown fiasco, I decided to give Codemasters’ game a chance. And you know, it looks like I’ve already played it more than the last TDU.

Grid Legends: Survive to Drive

Grid Legends is the fifth installment of the Grid series, or the thirteenth installment of the series of semi-arcade road racing simulators from Codemasters, which began with TOCA Touring Car Championship (1997). And it’s also the second Codemasters game after F1 2021 after the purchase of Electronic Arts studio in early 2021. And in fact, you can see that this is a bit of a lazy sequel, because the game borrowed a lot from the previous parts of the series, such as most of the tracks, as well as from F1 2021, from which the developers took not only the structure of the story mode, but even the team icons! On the other hand, the story mode was already in TOCA Race Driver (2002), so this is a kind of return to the roots.

The story mode in Grid Legends seems to be the main one and starts by default. Ever since the days of TOCA Race Driver, there has been a debate about why racing games need a story at all, but sometimes it looks good, for example, the very underrated Need for Speed: The Run (2011), and adds some variety. The story of Grid Legends was clearly inspired by the Formula 1: Drive to Survive series from Netflix. The story mode is called Driven to Glory, and here, too, interviews with pilots and team owners are interspersed with dramatic events on the track. The plot is not very original and tells the story of a team of outsiders that challenges the arrogant multiple Grid champions.

There are 36 races in the campaign and it’s a kind of a long presentation of the different classes of cars and series that are available in Grid Legends. And it also features some pretty good British actors, such as the new Doctor Who’s Shuti Gatwa, Sarah Vickers from the detective series Endeavour, and actor and singer Joseph Millson, who, by the way, appeared in the very same TOCA Race Driver in 2002.

Since the game’s release, Codemasters has released four more storyline DLCs with the continuation of the racing drama, as well as additional tracks and cars. Unfortunately, as is usually the case, DLCs are not included in Game Pass, so you have to buy them separately on EA Play.

But as we have already said, the Grid Legends campaign is only the first course necessary to get acquainted with the game and accumulate the initial capital to level up your team and partner. Yes, there is more to it.

How to enjoy Grid Legends

As in any part of the Grid, the main mode in Grid Legends is career. As always, this is a series of competitions, sometimes even for one race, which open up other competitions, new cars, etc. To get to the next league, you need to complete a certain number of competitions in the previous one. And herein lies a small problem, because the first championships for beginners in Grid Legends are frankly uninteresting, you need to “sit it out”, win 10 tournaments and move on to the Semi-Pro races.

We also strongly advise you to immediately disable all the assistance, traction control, stability control, etc. Because with this “help”, it’s not very interesting to drive even in the rain and even in the snow, the cars grip the asphalt too well. In addition, you should immediately raise the level of AI opponents to the maximum legendary level, because it seems that only at this level they are worthy of fighting back. On the other hand, at least the AI doesn’t cheat here.

One of the features of Grid Legends is a kind of Hop-on/Hop-off multiplayer, and here the opponents will not let you get bored. By default, any of your game sessions, except for the storyline ones, is an online server that anyone can join. So, unexpectedly, you may see another player, or even several, in a regular career race, and they will definitely show you how to pass this track with a 1-2 second lap advantage.

By the way, in such multiplayer, the series’ trademark time rewind, which has long been the standard for arcade racing, does not work as usual, but simply instantly returns you to the track at the same speed. Sometimes it can be very painful.

In addition, replays and photo mode do not work in such open sessions. This is logical, because none of the online players will wait for you to rewatch the race and take beautiful screenshots. To get these modes back, you should choose the offline mode, since it is also available here.

As we have already noted, the main thing is to “sit through” the boring beginner championship, win 10 tournaments, and move on to the really interesting Semi-Pro races. Here it is important not to touch the cars of your opponents, beware of a blockage in the first turn, look for the apex and the best trajectory for entering/exiting the turn, take into account the track condition, etc. By the way, if you turn on the realistic damage mode, you should also avoid accidents in order to avoid crashing your car. This is certainly not the classic Flatout (2004) or Wreckfest (2017), but if you want, you can smash some of the cars to the point of the safety frame and bare axles. But even medium damage can interfere with proper steering and braking.

In terms of car behavior, Grid Legends is still more of an arcade game than a simulator, but I think the balance between arcade and realism is maintained here. Car collisions are quite realistic, the behavior of cars with different drives and weights is different. The only thing that upsets me a bit is that the tires are too grippy, and the weight of some cars seems to be a bit too high.

Grid Legends, like the previous installment of the series, has a Nemesis system. It’s when AI racers are so “impressed” by your daring and reckless driving that they become your sworn enemies and try to interfere with you, not yielding to your trajectory, cutting you off, deliberately pushing you. It looks good, but it seems to work only within one tournament, and it can be only one race. By the way, unintentional AI errors in the game seem to look good too.

The only thing that frustrates me about the career and storyline is the progression. Unlocking new cars and series is great, but profile backgrounds and team icons for victories, seriously? On the other hand, such awards are traditional for the Grid series and I have always disliked them. It kind of diminishes the joy of winning.

If the career isn’t enough for you, and there are a lot of races here, the game has a race/game session designer where you can choose the track, its configuration, race class and car, bonuses (for example, Boost Gate for electric cars, everything is just like in reality), time, weather conditions, etc. Here, by the way, you can make a thick fog, a dust storm, or snow in Barcelona or Sepang, and the FIA would be shocked by such racing conditions. Sessions and individual races can be played both offline and in the same Hop-on/Hop-off multiplayer.

Tracks, series and cars

What is good about Grid Legends is the tracks, although some of them are stolen directly from the previous parts. This is a kind of wild mix of real racing locations such as Brands Hatch, Fuji Speedway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Red Bull Ring, Sepang International Raceway, Suzuka, and fictional city tracks in London, Paris, Barcelona, Chicago, etc. There are 5-8 configurations for each of the tracks, which gives a total of more than 130 options and is really impressive.

But what is very frustrating is the presence of the track in Moscow. Unfortunately, you can’t miss this race either in the storyline or in your career. It helps me that when I’m racing through Red Square, I can imagine how it looked in Metro 2033 and how I hope it will look in reality someday. In general, Codemasters has some kind of unhealthy love for totalitarian regimes – the game has tracks in Russia, China, and Cuba. Diversity and exoticism are important, of course, but does Cuba have players and a legal video game market? Again, there are plenty of interesting and exotic locations in the world, so why do you need to go to the bears again? You don’t have tracks in South America and Africa in your game, for example, wake up!

As for the series, we have body racing, open-wheel racing, tuning racing, truck racing, electric cars and electric series, GT, drifting, special series, invitation racing, elimination racing, and so on. Not every game offers such a variety and mix of arcade racing and seemingly serious racing. That’s why we love the Grid series.

But in terms of cars, Grid Legends has almost nothing to surprise you. There are just over a hundred of them, and some brands are represented by one or two cars, and even Porsche and Ferrari have only a dozen of them, plus a few fictional brands. This is not Forza Horizon 5, Forza Motorsport, or Gran Turismo 7. Plus, there are almost no new cars in Grid Legends, with a maximum of 2021.

Among the really rare cars here are the Bugatti Bolide (2021), the virtual prototype of the Ford TFZ-P1 (2020), Ginetta sports cars, Panoz Esperante GTR-1 (1997), and Tushek TS 900 Racer Pro (2021).

Grid Legends in context

As we have already noted, Grid Legends is not a perfect game, the presence of Moscow in the game alone is worth it, but it is actually a good game that can be given a chance. Especially since it’s not too demanding on the system, and it still looks good. It even has ray tracing, not that it’s very realistic, but it looks very cinematic, especially at night.

Lately, arcade racing hasn’t been doing so well. The Need for Speed series has withdrawn itself. Its latest installment, Need for Speed Unbound (2022), is a buggy, poorly optimized farce. The Test Drive Unlimited series has buried itself, with 100-400 people playing the supposedly serviceable Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown (2024), and its Steam rating has dropped to an impressive 35/100 (24/100 in the last 30 days). The Crew Motorfest (2023) seems to be okay, but the physics of cars and especially collisions are very strange. There is, of course, Forza Horizon 5 (2021), but there are many questions about its latest DLC, and after 350 hours, this game is already a bit boring.

So Grid Legends, especially on Game Pass, is a very good choice, even if there are some flaws in the game. Pay attention if you are looking for an alternative to Forza Horizon 5.