GRID/£39.99inc VAT
DEVELOPER Codemasters / PUBLISHER Codemasters
A
fter a dodgy sequel and a decent but largely
overlooked spin-off, GRID is Codemasters’ attempt
to take its arcade series back to the roots that made
Race Driver: GRID a success in 2008. It’s strips away
unnecessary frippery and focuses entirely on track action.
After a brief introduction that sees you complete three
rapid-fire events, GRID catapults players straight at its career
mode’s wall of races. Its four primary categories – Touring
Cars, Stock Cars, Experimental Cars and a Fernando Alonso-
branded Supercar category – each offers 14 events and
dozens of races. There are also 28 more invitational events,
with cars ranging from Mini Coopers to classic Ferraris.
These events take place within what seems like a wide
variety of locations, ranging from British classics, such as
BrandsHatchandSilverstone,tomoreexoticlocations,such
asHavanaandJapan.Twolocationsstandout.Thefirstis
Barcelona,wherethewaterfrontandcitycentrehasbeen
painstakinglyrecreated.Thesecondis Shanghai.Intherain
atnight, the centre of Shanghai resembles a Blade Runner
scene, with towering skyscrapers and neon signage.
GRID looks fantastic, and it feels similarly satisfying
beneath the fingers. A pure arcade racer, GRID is all about
muscling your way to the front of the pack over the course of
three laps. To further facilitate its aggressive, shoulder-to-
shoulder racing, Codemasters has introduced a new system
that affects driver behaviours. If you bump into a rival driver
too hard or too often, they’ll become your ‘nemesis’, who
then tries to ram you off the road.
This system has a couple of other elements too. For each
race you have a specific ‘rival’, and you gain extra points for
beating them in a race. Lastly, you also have a teammate who
you can order to race aggressively to gain extra team points,
or defensively to hold back the pack. These three driver types
can combine in interesting ways too. It’s possible to make
your teammate your nemesis, for example. However,
Nemeses only last to the end of the race, after which your
actions are apparently forgiven and forgotten, only scraping
the surface of this feature’s potential.
As the game continues, that seemingly diverse range
of locations also turns out be very limited. GRID simply
front-loads the vast majority of what it has to offer within
its first five or six hours, then repeats those same
locations ad nauseum. Multiplayer is even less well
served, offering only two race modes and no public
lobbies. With no more structured career goals, and no
exciting modes or ideas to unlock later, it isn’t long before
the thrill of racing wears off, and GRID is simply going
through the motions.
RICK LANE/VERDICT
A surefire winner
on the track,
GRID struggles
to maintain its
blazing speed
across the longer
distance of its
careermode.OVERALL SCORE
67 %%
GRID
+ Looksgood
+ Greathandling
+ Aggressive^
arcade racingGRIDLOCK- Best ideas are
undercooked - Career mode^
getsrepetitive - Thin multiplayer