Codemasters' GRID franchise has managed to offer a fun simcade experience dating back to 2008. The series was rebooted three years ago, but the experience of continually unlocking cars and progressing through the career felt a bit dated. Codemasters has released GRID Legends, which keeps the heart of the game intact while offering new additions to keep the longevity alive. The biggest attempt at trying something different comes in the form of a new story mode called Driven to Glory that includes full-motion video and real actors. What shines the most about the game, however, is the driving and most importantly the technical implementations.

The narrative-driven story mode revolves around a racing team on the brink of extinction. This documentary-style filmed story focuses on Seneca Racing, who before the GRID World Series begins is down a driver and manages to find you to bring aboard. This story is inspired by the Netflix Series documentary Formula 1: Drive to Survive, as Codemasters went this route in F1 2021 to add something new. Rather than having CGI, Driven to Glory is filmed in real time with real actors including award-winning actor from Sex Education, Ncuti Gatwa. The actual film quality during these cutscenes is shot well and looks impressive. The team also used virtual production techniques similar to what was used in The Mandalorian.

The character-driver story sees players progressing through about thirty chapters. The development of the story introduces new characters overtime and tries to give personality and background stories to each. The first half of the story focuses on making it to the gauntlet with the main rivalry consisting of Seneca Racing and VOLTZ Racing. The antagonists don't crop up until the later half of the story with Ravenwest, as the best driver on the circuit and his uncle -- who owns the team -- seem to have an advantage. Most of these narratives in other games are cringy, but the acting and writing is solid here. The story features dramatic tropes of what goes on behind the scenes of a racing league and does offer a pay off that seems to set up for a sequel.

The implementation seemed to trail off the more the story mode progresses. You're introduced to other characters who are a part of the Seneca Racing team to add more depth and get you to care about the team. The issue that cropped up is the fact that the cutscenes seem shorter and get spaced out between two to three races. The other major point is the story seems to focus on everyone else but you, and there isn't a character that portrays you either. The story seemingly seems to recognize your existence towards the very end. It does put a name to some of the faces during races and some of these characters carry over to the other modes. Driven to Glory is a solid effort from Codemasters at doing something different and I recommend playing through this to get your Driver Affinity up and also to win money before jumping into other modes.

The career mode makes its return offering the ability to race multiple classes of race cars across 250 events. This is also why the story mode is a good test bed to see how the game works and get an idea for multiple facets of racing. This mode as always been the focus of the series in the past, maintaining its integrity with over 100 hand-picked cars ranging from muscle and GT classes to the latest electric cars, stadium trucks and even big rigs. A range of events including circuit racing, multi-class racing, time trials and the return of drift mode and Elimination all keep things fresh across the board. Cars can also be upgraded the more you race with each one individually.

GRID Legends also offers 130 routes across 22 different worldwide locations. There are real circuits here including Brands Hatch, Indianapolis and Suzuka, but there are currently only about six. The rest are city circuits that feature closed corridors and tight racing. The stadium truck events will include ramps and the electric car events have recharge areas that provide boosts. It would be nice to see more actual real world circuits in the game and that may come with DLC down the road. For help on mixing things up, Codemasters has added the Race Creator. This allows players to create special racing setups with the ability to save these for later. This can be tracks, modes, weather conditions, adding ramps and more.

The handling physics of GRID have always been the main hook for the games. You can have all the varying modes you'd like, but if the racing isn't fun, then there isn't much of a point. GRID Legends retains the addictive handling the series is used to. The focus of cornering is on oversteer and drifting. The faster you can get through the corner, the better. Everything about this game is dramatic ranging from the look of races to how the cars feel. Each car does offer a variation of handling models with the higher prototype cars offering more understeer and the muscle cars being floaty. This means you will be adapting to each race. It was rare, even with all the assists turned off, to completely spin out or not save the car when breaking loose. There's a rewind button for easy access if needed. What makes the PlayStation 5 version of this game clearly the best is the DualSense. Codemasters has already had some experience with F1 and DIRT to implement this, and the implementation in this game is its best. With the Adaptive Triggers, braking under pressure provides resistance with the LT, but only when it needs it. Breaking hard under pressure can also cause the cars to become unstable as you fight to keep the car in line. Acceleration on the RT will create resistance when the wheels begin to spin. To add to this, when traction is lost on one of the wheels, the controller subtly vibrates to that side and creates an excellent sense of immersion that hasn't been felt to this degree in other Codemasters games to this point.

The only major downside to the racing comes in the form of the AI. The Nemesis System returns and it feels like the team could have done more to make these rivals be more aggressive towards you. Running into the back of someone or hitting them hard causes this to trigger, but rarely did it have an effect on the race. The worst part about the AI comes with cornering as they'll slow to a halt around certain corners of the tracks, which provides a good chance to get around them. They are bunched up early and can block your vision of the track, but will spread out and also crash. There has been worse AIs in games and it's solid enough, even at the higher difficulties with no rubberbanding, but it doesn't shine either.

The visuals are a mixed bag for GRID Legends and they may have stood out better if it wasn't for the current generation competition. The cars look solid and can have excellent reflections that even question the implementation of ray tracing, but it's not here. The overall look of the game is soft with building and environmental assets looking dated. This is still on the EGO engine, but what stands out the most are the effects. As stated, some of the reflections on the cars, especially on the windows, is fantastic. The lighting, especially at sunset, does look good with sun rays that can blind you on the track. Cars still take heavy damage and look detailed in that degree. Rain and snow play a major part and the puddle reflections also look brilliant. Codemasters has been the one developer to maintain the option of including a 120hz mode for its games, and it's present here. This game runs consistently like butter at 60 FPS while keeping its visual integrity in place. Codemasters has added fireworks and vivid lights to help add life to races, especially at night.

The audio is possibly the best part of the game especially with headphones on a PlayStation 5. Using the 3D audio, the game literally scared me through the initial races due to how well this 3D audio is implemented. When I figured out that the exhaust backfire was that sound coming from behind me and not someone breaking into my house, I was blown away. You can hear which side that opposing cars are approaching and can also hear the crowd in certain directions on the track. The only downside is that the sound from my car didn't seem loud enough, but full audio immersion for the 3D effect has to be experienced within the cockpit view of the car.

The multiplayer is also different for online play. While you can take your custom races into a lobby and host a race, these races allow players to jump in whenever you want. This is something that hasn't really been seen in other racing games, and no longer will you be required to wait around for a race to end to jump in on the action. The game will have you take over an AI car in a race to finish it. GRID Legends is also cross-play between all platforms and offers the ability to turn this off, but this adds to the total amount of players out there.

Closing Comments:

Codemasters has put a good amount of thought into reinventing the GRID experience. GRID Legends is no doubt the best GRID to date with the amount of new options and the power of the PlayStation 5 and added tech included. I simply had a lot of fun playing this as the racing model is as addictive as ever. The story mode deserves recognition due to its design and a solid enough story, but feels more like a tutorial to get players acclimated with the series. The visuals have highlights and lowlights, but the weather effects and the reflections are where it shines the best without having to implement ray tracing. The game needs to be experienced with a headset on this console and it also gives a possible idea of what a game that launches in a week might have in store. GRID Legends pushes the series forward with new additions while the core game remains intact.