GRID Legends review: fifty shades of GRID... darker?

Regulated like a Swiss cuckoo clock, the British studio brings the GRID franchise back to life at regular intervals. The latest opus – soberly titled GRID was released in 2019 – and here we are, three years later ready to celebrate its return. Finally, there will only be celebration if the game is worth the candle of course.

GRID Legends review: fifty shades of GRID... darker? View PriceRead ConclusionGRID Legends

Many modes / disciplines
Extensive list of cars to unlock
Race nervousness
Cross-platform fort bien vu

No split-screen mode
AI behavior to review
Uninspired script
Pervasive rubber banding

First notable change, this GRID Legends is the first opus of the franchise to be published by Electronic Arts. Last year, for the tidy sum of 1,2 billion dollars, the American offered the studio specializing in racing games. A takeover that probably did not have much impact on the GRID Legends project, as it was well advanced at the time of the takeover. One thing all the same, we were asked to associate our Origin and Steam accounts to play multiplayer from the Valve platform. See if it's still necessary.

Test carried out on Steam using a code provided by the publisher and numerous solo or multiplayer races, but before the official launch. GRID Legends will be released on February 25, 2022 on PC Steam, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.

GRID Legends review: fifty shades of GRID... darker? — The story mode is interspersed with multiple video sequences, not always very inspired © Nerces

The axle to cry...

Series derived from the franchise TOCA, GRID signs its fifth opus today, but it must be recognized that the recipe does not change much. Inevitably, who says car racing game, says courses crossed at the bottom of the balloons at the wheel of racing cars, each more roar than the other… although, GRID Legends makes a compulsory passage towards electric motors, but we will come back to it. At the first launch of the game, alongside the traditional options, it is impossible not to notice the story mode which tries, once again, to chain the races by scripting things a little.

No need to beat around the bush, the scripted aspect does not convince. The acting is not (too much) in question, although the Spanish dubbing needs to be reviewed, and the writing could have been much worse. The problem lies in the absence of consequences for our exploits on the road, of consistency in progression. The scenario is divided into 36 episodes with a staging before the races with starting conditions and objectives that change each time. Problem, the story does not vary one iota, no matter what we do on the track. Thus, the champion that we have just humiliated continues to look down on us… because it is written.

Of course, it's hard to get caught up in the game when the videos are so disconnected from the reality of the track. To make matters worse, we must also recognize that the writers have not poured into unbridled originality and we are entitled to all the clichés of the genre. This story mode, however, has the advantage of allowing us to experience virtually all events, all categories of vehicles in very short races. The beginner thus quickly gets a good idea of the styles he prefers, which will then allow him to go more directly to the most interesting options in the career mode.

JVFR

Ramps and boost zones can be added to tracks to spice up races © Codemasters / Nerces

Indeed, alongside this story which will occupy a large handful of hours, Codemasters offers what it calls a career. The name is strange insofar as it is a question of piling up the tests and the categories without any real binder. Here, the main advantage is, as on any GRID, the great wealth of options. It is thus possible to choose from 8 disciplines (race, drift, electric, elimination, head-to-head, multi-class, time trial or chrono) which open the way to a total of 57 classes within which more of a hundred cars and staging 10 environments for 130 different layouts. Phew!

Apollo GRID: does not send us to the Moon

We are not going to detail all the possible combinations here, but variety is clearly in order with the return to GRID of drift and elimination events. The latter is one of our favorites: it is simply a question of eliminating, little by little, the last of the race, second after second. Pressure guaranteed. On the other hand, we regret that the famous multi-class mode which mixes very different categories of vehicles from each other with a staggered start to create a handicap does not allow all the fantasies: oddly electric cars are excluded from it while the latter constitute an interesting novelty because of their rather particular start.

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Truck racing is fun in multi-class with a friend... but not at all in single racing © Nerces

All these events, all these categories, all these disciplines are distributed in an imposed manner on the career mode, but are also accessible from the race creator. This is the nerve center of the game, the place from which we will prepare our challenges to play with friends or strangers online. It is thus possible to manage your own sessions or to rely on the Codemasters tool to create “quick games”. The PC, PlayStation and Xbox communities are completely intertwined, even if a small icon is put in front of the players to mean console or PC.

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Joining a friend's race or career is as easy as it gets © Nerces

However, the major advantage of this GRID Legends lies in the seamless multiplayer action as Codemasters called it. This is an option to join a friend in the middle of the game, or even a stranger in the middle of a career. When he starts, each user can choose between offline to play alone, private to only meet his friends or public to authorize anyone. The thing works well and we joined the careers of other testers. Two downsides: the game seems to arbitrarily replace an AI, so you can end up 4th as well as 12th when joining and the host of the game must have a powerful PC to hold the charge.

JVFR

Many views are obviously available: the internal ones are particularly successful, especially in rainy weather © Nerces

Codemasters is a bit greedy

This last point is all the more regrettable since, moreover, GRID Legends is well optimized. It runs quite well and the configuration recommended by Codemasters (i5 8600K / GTX 1080) allows you to enjoy it in good conditions… solo. Without any question of a visual slap, we can say that the developers have done the job: the environments are pretty and varied while the graphic effects bring a little something very appreciable, especially in internal view of course, even if many assets seem to be coming back from GRID 2019. On the sound side, it's not bad without it being possible to cry genius. Clean, but lackluster.

JVFR

On the wet Indianapolis track, my Renault still looks great! © Nerces

Finally, if we took an indisputable pleasure on our many hours of play, we must point out major pitfalls on this GRID Legends. First of all, and while multiplayer clashes are at the heart of the game, it is annoying that local multiplayer is not on the menu. Codemasters had made itself the specialist of the split screen in four, but that's all in the past. Another criticism, the artificial intelligence is strawberries, and this, while the studio always puts forward its system of rivals which assumes that other pilots can take a dislike to us for a little violent contact.

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Logically, a very extensive progression system allows you to unlock new content and improvements © Nerces

In fact, this system is not very convincing with rivalries that are triggered even by passing very far from the runner while others accept good big stamps without flinching. In addition, the AI has a surprising behavior and can go into the background for no apparent reason or achieve incredible sequences in the same race. This leads us to talk about the rubber banding which is far too marked. Basically, the AI speeds up if you're good and slows down when you're bad to keep the challenge consistent. Alas, in this case, the thing is sorely lacking in finesse and it is more and more obvious as we improve.

JVFR

Carrying out “brilliance actions” in the race allows you to accumulate the currency allowing the purchase of vehicles / improvements © Nerces

At the same time, it's worth bearing in mind that GRID Legends isn't a wickedly accurate sim aimed at motorsport enthusiasts. Even if some settings, some assistance can be activated / deactivated, driving is frankly arcade typed with an exaggeration of everything that can promote the show. The differences between vehicles are greatly accentuated, the damage is very visual – but can be removed – and the crashes are well staged. Conversely, you should not be careful about the subtlety of behavior, but also about the story mode. In fact, it makes it less rewarding. Shame.

JVFR

GRID Legends, l'avis de JVFR

As much to be clear, Codemasters is not going to revolutionize the world of racing games with this GRID Legends. He will not even revolutionize his own franchise which, to use the title of a famous film by Chatilliez, is only a long calm river. This is also the main criticism that can be made to it, because it must be recognized that the risk taking is close to zero.

Of course, Codemasters will be happy to present us with its new story mode or the possibility of integrating a multiplayer game "on the fly", it's not really likely to make us jump to the ceiling. We appreciate more the real cross-platform which allows to play the most simply of the world between PC, PlayStation and Xbox or the richness of the creator of races.

Thanks to the countless vehicles, events, environments and circuits, we have plenty to do and even if the piloting will not delight fans of pure and hard simulations, it is certainly on its replayability that GRID Legends wants to make a name for itself. Provided that the very nervous arcade style is your cup of tea and that you are not too fussy about the realism of the situations, you will have dozens of hours to get by.

GRID Legends

Very honest entertainment, GRID Legends is unfortunately very lazy compared to its predecessor. The novelties are neither numerous nor really convincing while the AI remains largely perfectible and the rubber banding effect still omnipresent. For fans of arcade-type races in need.