A detailed review of GRID in about 3 minutes!
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GRID 2019 is supposed to be a reboot of the original Race Driver Grid from 2008, a game which featured a wide variety of cars, exciting and challenging AI, great physics and was overall a brilliant game on all fronts.
When Codemasters sat down to discuss how they were going to make Grid 2019 though they apparently decided it would be a great idea get rid of everything that made the first GRID so good and instead released a hollow, uninspiring and basic arcade racing game that all but the most casual of players would struggle to enjoy.
Firstly the multiplayer scene is completely dead and from what i’ve read online it was never really alive to begin with. I saw 3 other players in the online lobby while I was making this review so keep that in mind if you’re thinking about trying out the game for yourself.
Graphically the game looks really good. The tracks and vehicle models look great and there’s an interesting variety of cars in the base game including V8 supercars like the Ford Falcon, a few GT4 cars, a couple of open wheelers including Fernando Alonso’s Renault F1 car and classic touring cars like the Ford Sierra Cosworth. In total there’s 66 cars in the base game and a further 16 available as optional DLC’s.
Unfortunately though almost all the cars I drove suffered from massive oversteer and felt horrible to drive.
With a gamepad i’d describe it as almost unplayable as even applying a tiny bit of throttle results in massive wheel spin. When I switched to my TS-PC racing wheel it felt much better and the force feedback actually felt pretty solid, but none of the cars have any suspension or body roll which is extremely noticable on city tracks littered with steep sidewalks, and even so much as thinking about touching the inside curb results in being instantly pulled in and spun around.
The career mode basically involves going through a long list of 3 to 5 lap races spread across 13 different circuits and 6 different racing categories. At the start of each race you can choose to do an optional qualifying lap to set a time or just start towards the back of the pack. Once you’ve finished the no-doubt mundane race that follows you’re awarded some credits and experience points based on your finishing position. Do that over and over again and that’s the career mode in a nutshell.
It felt like the whole game lacks any incentive or progression and there’s no attempt to inspire you to feel invested in each race, it’s basically just a string of quick races one after another that they’ve called a career mode.
The AI is pretty bad too. I got pit manouvered into a wall countless times and they just drive off like nothing happened, but rather than being playful and arcadey it felt more like they just weren’t aware I was there.
Overall it’s a good looking game that suffers from alot of questionable design choices. They tried to capture the essence and thrill of racing but the end result was an over-dramatised and lifeless experience with no real racing elements and a complete lack of progression. Needless to say we don’t recommend buying it even if it’s on sale.
If you’re looking for similar alternatives that won’t make you pull your hair out though we recommend checking out Forza Horizon 4 or Project Cars 2.
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https://store.steampowered.com/app/703860/GRID/
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