Grid Legends review

Grid Legends doesn’t embrace the traditional way of storytelling. You won’t find animated characters within the cutscenes powered by the game’s engine like most modern titles. No sir. This is serious. Grid Legends brings real actors with real-life backdrops and settings, almost like in Netflix’s F1: Drive to Survive. Actually, the game takes a lot of inspiration from this Netflix docuseries, and has cutscenes pretty much the same way.

The game explores off-the-track moments and close-up interviews with the drivers, managers and owners that populate the in-game world. The social relations and brand perspectives that emerge from these interviews and camera snippets breathe life into the game. Don’t worry though, even if you’re here just for the driving bit, this won’t demand attention from all your brain cells. The plot doesn’t feel too essential and is pretty much centred around brand rivalries, snarky drivers, and dramatised emotions. Again, if you’ve watched F1: Drive to Survive, then the story mode in Grid Legends will feel very similar.

It’s also not haphazardly done. In fact, it’s very polished and convincing. The actors are great. Each one has a different personality and all of them are there with one motive — finishing first. Imagine playing the races that happened as the story unfolded in F1: Drive to Survive. Ya, it’s that!

Behind the wheel, Grid Legends feels like an easy game for beginners and thoughtfully smart for loyalists. It’s more action-focused with dramatised car damage that chips and flies off as you fender bender folks, and squeeze your way through the crowded corners.

The driving is not grounded and nuanced like Gran Turismo 7’s, but it’s also not too video game-esque like Forza Horizon 5. It’s somewhere in the middle with characterised handling between the different classes of cars and really fun to drive tracks.

The nemesis system is a bit underplayed this time. It could’ve been more daunting, but it lacks that scare or true sense of competition from your rival AI cars. Once you nudge and trouble an AI driver, they will act as a nemesis which will then try to pay you back for being a bothersome driver. The nemesis can also hold the resentment well after the finish line and into the next race.

With over 120 cars, Grid Legends will also let you take all sorts of cars and smash them into a single race if you wish to do that. Take tourers, drift cars, trucks, GTs, electric cars, open-wheels and pit them against each other in a track of your choice. You can also set the time of day and the weather.

There are also cross-platform multiplayer races and if you find a friend racing a couple of AIs, you can hop in and start racing them by taking control of an AI car. It’s pretty convenient and saves a lot of time before jumping right into the action.

The game is also veered towards being more arcade action than a simulator. So jump ramps and boost gates are a thing here. It’s not excessively done, but enough to make you think that you’re here to enjoy racing rather than sit and master a timed lap or that hairpin bend like in GT7. Cars bump and crash into each other very often and at times the AI can even crash out of the race due to mechanical or technical failure. Watching that happen gives this game a flavourful experience. Although it happens way too often as well.

Grid Legends doesn’t stack up the level of interior detailing as GT7 or even the audio for that matter. It does however manage to look damn pretty as a complete package. Circuit roads bounce off the light almost realistically during heavy downpours and the rain bashing against the windscreen is truly beautiful. There are more than 130 track layouts, so expect plenty of variety in the bends and turns. And each of them has a special zing to them. Some city roads even have detailed buildings and commendable draw distance for a racing game. Even Dirt 5 has a fantastic track design, some of which are unique in more ways than others. We wish Codemasters could spice up the tracks even more with the unique weather system that is available in Dirt 5. It was superficial, but made racing games hella fun.

It’s truly the best time to be a racing fan. Forza Horizon 5, Gran Turismo 7, and now Grid Legends. Even Dirt 5 is available on Xbox Game Pass, and PlayStation was giving it for free during the month of January under the PS Plus subscription. All these racing games offer a unique take on racing and the racing genre.

If you’re looking for a fully fleshed out story mode with a fun driving experience then Grid Legends is pretty much solid for you. Even the co-op multiplayer mode is fun and it’s the only racing game that has cross-platform racing.