Race Driver Grid
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From the moment your computer generated advisor refers to you by your chosen name to the point of spinning off on that first bend, you realise just how much tender loving care the developers have put in to creating this ultimately brilliant race driving game.
This is a game, not a simulator, although it hangs rather tightly between the arcade/simulator barrier. Starting out as a rookie, your aim is to earn cash, reputation, cars and licences. All of these are achieved by competing in different races via three different locations. Europe, USA and Japan will offer you a choice of racing tracks designed for very different styles of racing.
In the USA for example, the races will concentrate on muscle cars along with other styles, whilst in Japan, their speciality is drift racing, again offered with various other racing styles such as Touge, pitting two cars against each other down a narrow Japanese mountain road. The range of race styles is vast. Race a BMW on a dedicated Touring Cars race track or skim through the streets of Italy with your TVR.
For many of the races you choose, you will need to buy a car that fits the race type you are entering. This builds up your collection reasonably quickly. You can customise the look of your car any which way you like, and choose which sponsor goes where on your bonnet. Sponsors are the way to earn extra cash. The more successful you are, the more sponsor offers you will receive. Provided you achieve their requirements could see you receiving a nice healthy bonus on top of the race prizes.
Other factors involved in progressing are your respect points. The more successful in a race, the more respect points you get. Depending on which region you are driving in will see your respect bar increase, and eventually unlock the next set of licences in that region. The aim here is to take your time in trying to progress. The more you race, the more you improve leading to you being able to afford better cars and eventually you can employ a racing partner. Having a second driver increases the chances of achieving your sponsor’s requirements, therefore earning more money.
At the end of each season you are given the option of driving in the legendary test of racing endurance known as Le Mans. This one is tough, and I have yet to finish in the top ten.
What Codemasters have remembered is that this is a game, therefore it should be fun. So being given the choices of which races you want to enter is great. You never feel like you’re on a linear mission to complete a race to progress to the next. The freedom given to you adds to your experience as my drifting abilities in Japan are rubbish, hence I concentrated more on what I did enjoy. I may go back at a later date and have a go at all the drifting tracks, but that’s my choice.
Racing your car around a circuit is not easy as each car noticeably handles very differently. Taking your foot off the gas pedal and screeching round a corner in an American muscle car before going flat out on the gas at the last second could see you thrown into a spin and straight through the barriers in another car. Master each circuit style then start anew with another.
The damage system is a really nice touch pushing this part of the game more towards the simulator end of the spectrum. Gears, suspension, steering, engine and wheels all take a pounding at some point in a race so keep your eye on those indicators. Take too big a smash and the car gets written off. This is where Grids unique flashback system comes in very handy allowing you to rewind time for several seconds before the point of spin off or crash or whatever other misfortune that may have happened to you ten seconds before the finish line and allow you to try and avoid that crash leaving you roaring past the finish line in first place. I can see the sim heads flinching back in fear at this monstrous feature. The thing is, you can reduce the number of flashbacks allowed or remove it all together. The freedom is there to do with it as you so choose.
The computer AI works frustratingly well as the other drivers will hamper your attempts at over taking and will even try and bump and nudge you off a track in their desperate bid to get ahead of you.
The tracks are designed so that you feel every bump and every miss-taken corner can brutally punish you so simplest of mistakes can see you go from first to tenth in a blink of the eye.
Grid looks polished, in fact, I would say it wipes the shine off any of the competition available. The rendering of the cars is superb as is the design of the race tracks. I loved the look of my cars so much, I washed them after every race. I don’t know what that actually achieves, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to pick a games manual. I’m a man dammit and we don’t do manuals.
Sound is tuned engine revving pitch perfect so that all cars sound different enough that you can actually distinguish between a Nissan revving up over a Honda.
The one complaint is that the game should really be played with a gamepad as the keyboard controls just don’t give enough control or enough response compared to the pad. The second is that the game is difficult to begin with, but once you earn your stripes and begin the regular races you can relax a bit.
Besides these minor gripes, I’m hooked and haven’t been able to stop playing. Grid is the best racing game out and that’s fact.
Reviewed by The Don
Publishers: Codemasters
Genre: Race Driving
Website: www.racedrivergrid.com
