May 26 2008
Race Driver: Grid, Pre-release hands on
On Friday we had the opportunity to attend a Race Driver: Grid community day to get a look at the full version of the game before it’s release on the 30th of May. If you can’t be bothered to read the whole article then I’ll sum it up by saying that later in the evening I put my pre-order on in ready for release day.
Race Driver: Grid is getting a lot of attention and for good reason. It looks good, plays well, appears to have a good online multiplayer component and brings new ideas to the racing game genre that change the way you play the game. Codemasters are definitely onto a winner here. The biggest stand out and unique feature of the game has to be the highly original (in a racing game at least) flashback feature. When I first used it in the demo version I was amazed at how easy it worked and how it effectively changed the way you go about playing a racing game.
Having now played the full version, the advantage of having the option to rewind time, should you want to use it is a very handy tool. Codemasters say they have put the feature in because they felt that when having the kind of damage system they do in the game, there needed to be something for the player to be able to quickly get back into the game following a big smash rather than having to restart the race all over again. It is put to good use in this kind of situation but it also comes into it’s own as a tool to ease you into the game. All to often I get frustrated in racing games where on a new track I struggle on one particular corner, causing me to lose the race and restart. In GRID this restart syndrome does not occur anywhere near as often for the simple reason being that on the problem corner I can now just rewind time and have another crack at it, without having to start the race all over again. Of course if you don’t like the idea of this then you don’t have to use it but it will always be there as an option should you change your mind. On normal mode your restricted to four uses of flashback per race. If you really don’t like the idea of it then you can turn on pro mode which not only turns of flashbacks but also restarts in exchange for additional XP points.
The main career mode of the game begins with you having to reach £40k by completing a series of driving job offers across a variety of game types and cars. Once you reach the £40k goal you can then start up your own racing team and buy your first car. Before this though the racing jobs on offer introduce the player to some of the various different cars and race styles on offer in the game. After each race your given a choice of three different events to enter which usually consist of either street race, drift event or traditional European race circuit. There are also various other game modes on offer as the game progresses such as figure of eight destruction derby style modes and a Le-Mans simulated 24 hour race with a full day night cycle during the race. The key change from the demo I found was in the drift events. In the demo I found the drift mode to be a very frustrating experience with such an enclosed track littered with hazards it was not a fun experience. In the full version of the game the drift racing jobs are actually one of my favourite modes in the game. They do a good job of breaking up the racing action and give the player something different to try instead of just trying to be the fastest driver every race. On an open traditional race track style circuit the drift mode was a lot more forgiving with not so much around to crash into and so being able to build up drift combos a lot easier. The track chosen in the demo for this game mode was a bad choice for it’s difficulty level compared to the starting tracks for this mode in the full game.
Once you get your £40k and set up your own team, the meat of the game starts to open up. You can now buy cars either from new or at a big discount second hand on Ebay motors. When buying from Ebay your given details such as how many times the car has won a race and how many serious smashes it’s been in. The voice over advises you to avoid cars that have been in too many crashes and that if a car has won lots of races then there is probably a good reason for that. It wasn’t too clear what effect buying a car with a history of crashes would have over buying it new, but it’s a nice little feature non the less. Other options now opened up include managing the sponsors on the car. You have a limited number of slots open to place sponsors into, a main sponsor along with several areas to place minor sponsors. Choosing the sponsors works as a mini objective in the game by itself. Some sponsors will only pay if you finish first and complete the race with little to no damage. Alternatively others will pay for a top 5 finish and don’t care about damage.
Progression in the career mode is made using money which limits the cars you can buy and so races available to enter. Also used is an experience points system. More points are awarded per race depending on driver aids being switched off or on, pro mode being used and position finished in the race. Once you hit certain key milestones on the XP total, additional events and game modes are opened up. That’s not to say your limited to only racing in cars you can afford once you set up your own racing team, you can still go off and complete racing jobs for other teams in their own provided cars, just as you do at the initial start of the game.
There’s been a few complaint’s by people playing the demo about the handling of the BMW being a little twitchy and the car feeling a bit light. Other cars available in the full game did not seem to suffer from this. Each car handles in its own unique way and takes a few minutes of practice to get used to. Some of the more weightier cars come with a lot less twitchy steering controls. The handling of the cars tends to work well being a kind of mix between Forza’s simulation style and PGR’s more arcade style, depending on what driving aids are turned off or on in the options. Most players should be able to find a set of cars and controls that suits their handling requirements as long as the appreciate this is not a full on 100% accurate car simulator but a racing game with racing at it’s core.
Computer controlled racers in the single player game, all appear to race with their own personality. Some racers will play aggressive and nudge you off the track or vigorously defend their position in the race your battling to take from them while others will allow you past and concentrate on their own race. Unlike in other game the AI cars do not just follow the racing line in a scripted fashion. Computer controller racers make mistakes and can end up causing large scale pile ups ahead of you in the race which can cause some exciting moments in a race when there’s a sudden crash just ahead and you have to do your best to avoid it. Of course if you do end up involved in a smash then you can watch the replay back showing off the impressive damage modelling which leads to some quite spectacular crashes. Once over you can then just rewind time with flashback and have another attempt at avoiding the pile up, getting the best of both worlds.
In ours pre-release hands on, multiplayer was shown using a local PC LAN (single player was on both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3). I didn’t host any games so didn’t really see too much of the full options available for setting up races. From what I did see it appeared to offer a wide variety of options. The actual multiplayer gameplay was top notch with all involved having fun. I can’t really comment anymore on the multiplayer as I’d like to play it in a real environment on Xbox Live to form an opinion on it and what kinds of lastability it adds to the game. The demo on Xbox Live showed it’s clearly going to be good though, and I can see it doing very well online.
While this write up is quite detailed it’s not a review. That will come later in a smaller article where we put the game through the all new ButtonBandits.com scoring system to see how it fairs. Look out for it coming soon once we’ve had chance to put more time into the game and properly assess the depth of the single player and how the multiplayer ends up playing out on Xbox Live. Regardless of this though it’s clear from the early access we had on the game and from the demo that this is a stand out title and it’s a definite recommended purchase from me based on what I’ve played of it so far.
