Codemasters’ Grid series has always been stuck between arcade and simulation racing with it trying to appeal to all sides rather than be tucked into a specific category. Grid Legends is Codemasters’ latest entry in that realm and is highly accessible thanks to it featuring racing lines and the ability to rewind time if you’ve crashed or made a major mistake (something that Codemasters has taken out of its more simulation-heavy Dirt Rally titles). Once again, Legends chooses to race in every lane instead of picking a specific one, as nearly every type of car imaginable can be raced on tracks that range from sprawling cities to racing ovals. This variety works to both its benefit and detriment as it tries to offer a little bit of everything but never offers up anything better than its many competitors.
Taking full advantage of the new generation of consoles, Grid Legends makes a strong first impression as it looks marvelous. There are some shadows that pop in with annoying frequency if you look farther down the track, but this is something that all driving games have struggled with including the games in the Forza Horizon series. Weather effects are particularly impressive as a rainy, nighttime drive looks spectacular when combined with a track lit with bright, artificial lights.
Codemasters is one of the most experienced racing game developers, so it’s no surprise that Legends looks and feels great. It is a largely consistent developer that rarely misses on the essentials, although sometimes the products are a bit rough in other areas. The racing feels quite versatile with its breadth of vehicle types controlling differently as one would expect. The only disappointment for PlayStation 5 players is that the rumble and triggers aren’t as impressive as Dirt 5‘s DualSense implementation, but it does make sense that off-road tracks would lead to more wild courses, even if jumps and collisions don’t feel as impressive as they could here.
Similar to F1 2021‘s Braking Point mode, Grid Legends also has a cinematic story mode. Called Driven to Glory, the mode puts the player in the shoes of a rookie driver that joins a struggling team. The story is all told with live-action cutscenes and notably enlists Sex Education star Ncuti Gatwa in one of the lead roles. While Gatwa is entertaining as the charismatic driver Valentin Manzi, the rest of the cast falls into a bunch of boring archetypes such as the cocky superstar, the hard-to-impress teammate, or the conflicted person who is on an evil team. The only constant is that none of the characters get enough screen time or character development across the 36-chapter story to establish much of a connection with players.
Most disappointing about Driven to Glory is that it’s largely a step backward from F1‘s Braking Point. Braking Point offered a number of different scenarios — like a malfunctioning car or a scripted race-ending crash — to uniquely tell its story. Instead, all of Grid Legends‘ races are just a few uneventful laps and then you win.
However, winning every single race has no real impact on the story as the protagonist’s team is still seen as struggling early on. Some of the odd details make it even sillier, such as the one teammate I was beating in literally every race that was wondering if I was going to drag the team down. It creates a real disconnect and since the player isn’t ever shown on screen, they become a tertiary character in their own story. There are a few entertaining scenes in this solo mode, such as the backstage kerfuffle between two drivers and a serious accident that is supposed to be dramatic but winds up being comical due to how the story is poorly told. However, it’s mostly a forgettable series of 36 races.
While the story mode is largely bland in terms of storytelling, it does do a great job of introducing players to the wide variety of vehicles and races they can expect. From driving big trucks in an elimination race to electric cars that can yield Mario Kart-style boosts from driving through power-up zones, there are plenty of different types of cars and event types. There are also some fun drifting levels as well, and the diversity of events is very similar to what Project Gotham Racing had in its heyday.
Those that don’t care much for racing drama outside the track will be glad to know that a traditional career mode comprised of dozens of races is also present. Similar to the narrative campaign, you have a teammate in these events who can be given instructions during races, such as blocking drivers that you’re on bad terms with, but since it’s pretty difficult to focus on the entire grid of opponents while also racing, it becomes pretty inconsequential most of the time.
The events themselves are fun enough and immediately offer up a bunch of different types of races. But unfortunately, the progression system becomes a grind as you’ll need to upgrade vehicles to unlock some of the upper-tier events. Instead of simply winning your way to them, you have to drive vehicles and spend currency. This system replaces the need to purchase cars for the events (which can now be loaned out in exchange for a smaller share of winnings) like in 2019’s Grid, but also results in a lot of time wasted either redoing events or custom races with no real consequence.
If you truly love the gameplay, then doing nonstop races to progress won’t feel like such a burden, but a problem with Grid Legends is that it’s strangely difficult to find a satisfying race offline. I generally play on the default settings but races wound up being far too easy on medium difficulty, so I boosted it up to hard. However, this did little in terms of challenge as I still found myself winning races by 10-plus seconds, which typically amounted to me getting the lead in the first lap and then doing glorified time trials for the rest of the race with little interference from other drivers. I finally found an actual race on extreme difficulty, although making the podium became quite the challenge. There are a lot of ways to tweak and customize the difficulty, but finding a satisfying challenge will be tough if you’re not willing to experiment within the settings quite a bit.
Grid Legends continues the series streak of failing to fully capitalize on its ideas or finding a unique identity. There are still racing thrills to be had like in almost every Codemasters title, but its underwhelming story mode and grindy career mode really hold it back. It’s hard not to like certain parts of the game as they are similar to past entries, but it’s not the evolution that the series needs.
SCORE: 6.5/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 6.5 equates to “Decent.” It fails to reach its full potential and is a run-of-the-mill experience
