Codemasters brought back the GRID franchise in recent years as it continued to blend an excellent arcade racing experience with simulation aspects. The career mode in that game, however, offered purely racing to unlock more leagues all while seeing these other racer’s name on the track and having no ties to truly building a rivalry with them. GRID Legends is looking to improve on this with the inclusion of a documentary-style storyline that features real actors and full-motion video. Unlike the story mode that was added to F1 2021, ‘Driven to Glory’ is filmed as a behind-the-scenes documentary that sees the Seneca Race Team lose a driver right before the GRID World Series starts as the story will take you through the season as you race in varying events with different cars. Codemasters recently sent over a preview build that offered the opportunity to play the story.
‘Driven to Glory’ offers a diverse cast of characters that is headlined by Ncuti Gatwa (Sex Eduction). The story is shot with the same visual methods that were used to film The Mandalorian. You will race in many different events as the cutscenes transpire between each event. The story looks to be character driven as interviews will be conducted with individual players in the narrative. This will also give a better overall sense of your competitors and how the season evolves. There will be people you like and people you dislike as the narrative looks to dig into each racer’s personality that are a part of the events of the GRID World Series. This is something that you can get entrenched in and this is also thanks in part to having actual actors/actresses and amazing production value.
GRID Legends will offer the career mode that it has in the past outside of ‘Driven to Glory.’ The actual core elements of the series will remain intact with over 250 events and 130 routes on new and returning locations. The game will also offer 100+ hand picked cars ranging from muscle and GT cars to stadium trucks and more. You can expect the return of the Elimination and Drift races along with a Race Creator and more. The Race Creator will allow you to host dream multi-class races with varying weather conditions and over a million different combinations that can include boost gates and ramps. Codemasters is aiming for GRID Legends to be the most varied game in the series.
The actual racing physics and how the game is played will be purely GRID, as the high speed and high intensity racing and controls will remain. Couple this with eccentric racing environments, whether it be a city or a circuit, as these elements should be a big positive for returning fans of the series. The game will offer wheel support for more intense racing as well. You can expect cross-platform multiplayer across Xbox, PlayStation and PC with a new hop-in feature that allows easy access to racing no matter what you’re racing on.
‘Driven to Glory’ will add a new dynamic not only to the series, but to racing games in general. There have been other narrative-focused racing games, but bringing in actors and going the route of an actual dramatic documentary will be a fresh take for a series that has been looking for that next push. GRID Legends will be available on February 25 on PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC. There’s a Deluxe and Standard Edition available for pre-order with the Deluxe offering exclusive content for up to twelve months. This includes extra ‘Driven to Glory’ experiences, additional events, cars, locations, Challenges and more. Day one access includes bonus cars, the Voltz Legends Pack and the Mechanic Pass, which allows for upgrading cars faster.
