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Race Driver: Grid is Codemasters latest installment in the Race Driver series of games which began with TOCA touring car championship back in 1997 on the PC and original PlayStation.

The game sees you play as yourself carrying out various racing jobs in order to build up enough money to buy your own car and so start your own racing team. This effectively acts as the tutorial to the game, introducing you to a few of the different racing types on offer and some of the games original features. Once you have your own team, the main portion of the game begins. This sees races split up into 3 sections, USA, Europe and Japan. USA plays host to street race style enclosed circuits as well as a couple of drift events thrown in for good measure around locations such as San Francisco and Washington DC. The European section is where the classic European racing circuits can be found such as Donington Park. Finally Japan features variations on the drift style of event around Yokohama Docks amongst others. Each region also features different car styles with USA having mostly heavy muscle cars, Europe featuring touring cars and open wheel, with Japan featuring modded street style cars.

GRID is essentially an arcade racer with simulation elements. With driving aids on the car handling sits somewhere in between PGR and Ridge Racer. Cars can be thrown into corners and remain fairly easy to control, being able to break suddenly or over-steer without having to worry too much about spinning out. With driving aids off, handling sits somewhere in between Forza and PGR. Cars still retain a somewhat arcade feel to them but behave significantly more realistic. The 45 cars in the game all handle very different to each other. Formula 1000 cars are very nippy and can take turns fast while still easily gripping the road, other cars such as the Zonda require much earlier breaking and slow acceleration out of corners. Driving style needs to be adapted to each style of car in order to finish a lap in one piece.

One of the unique features in GRID not seen in a racing game before (except Full Auto if that counts) is the use of flashbacks. Accessed by pressing the back button to perform an instant replay, this feature allows you to rewind time by around 10 seconds then at a point of your choosing press the X button to restart the race from this position in the replay. A few cinematic still shots are then displayed before the race seamlessly starts up again at the exact point you decided upon. The use of this feature works very well in reducing the frustrations usually felt in racing games. One of it’s key uses is also allowing you to learn a new track much quicker than is usually possible. If there’s always one corner you can never quite get right, now instead of having the race ruined you just rewind time 2 or 3 times, however many you require until you get the corner right. Flashbacks are not unlimited though and add a nice little strategic element to the game deciding whether to use that last remaining one or gamble on saving it for later for that tricky final corner. 

Flashback also comes in useful due to the impressive damage system the game uses, being able to reverse a big smash up and carry on as though nothing happened. This damage system is one of the key elements of the game that sets it apart from other racers. Cars have numerous layers of damage with various parts falling off, wheels getting mangled and whole front and rear sections of cars getting crushed up. This can all lead to some spectacular first corner smash ups, especially online with cars spinning through the air before falling into a big heap at the side of the road.  The damage your car picks up during the course of a race effects the way it handles, it may constantly steer to the left or have trouble changing gears.

The race is kept exciting and fairly bunched up by use of catch up. This is where cars in front of you are purposely slowed down to allow you to get closer, and cars behind effectively getting a speed increase in order for them to catch you up. Incidentally while this can be switched off in online multiplayer, in single player mode it can’t which may disappoint some people as it does reduce the involvement of skill in a race to some degree. On the 24 hour le-Mans race for example there is a very large straight section where catch up becomes glaringly obvious. You quickly gain on cars quite a distance in front of you only to suddenly end up going exactly the same speed once you reach them and not able to overtake. Having said that, this is the only area of the game where the system exposes itself for what it is. On all other races it’s not really noticeable and increases the enjoyment you get out of the race by making it more entertaining. Still, the option to switch it off as you can driving aids would be no doubt welcomed by some.

With the game split up into three different regions, each of these are split up into three different levels of event. Reputation points are gained by winning race events, with 80k being required to unlock the seconds level of races and 250k for the third level. Eventually when you rack up enough points, all events will unlock across all regions and a fourth level of racing event is added, the global level. This allows you to unlock all events without ever touching modes of the game that you do not get on with such as drift for example. Additional points are available in each race by increasing the race difficulty level, playing in pro mode, or turning off specific driving aids. As you increase the difficulty the number of flashbacks available for use in each race reduces and AI drivers skills improve. Playing a race in pro mode removes all flashbacks and restarts. There are just over 50 racing events to take part in through the game in total with each one being made up of 2 -5 actual races (or drift events). Once every four races you are offered the opportunity to enter the Le-Mans 24 hour race. To begin with you need to accept driver offers rather than entering your own team. Eventually you build up enough money to buy a good enough car and race for your own team.  Big rewards are on offer for winning the event which lasts 12 minutes going through a full day night cycle on a simulated 24 hour clock.   

Money also plays a part in your progress through the various stages of the game. Events can only be entered once you have enough money to buy an eligible car. You may have unlocked the 2nd tier of events in a given region by building up enough reputation points, but if you can’t afford the car to go with it then some of the lower still incomplete events will need to be attempted to build up a big enough pot of money. The team sponsorship system comes into play here. As you progress through the game, sponsors will come forward that want to have their name plastered all over your car. A number of sponsorship slots are available with one major sponsor being allowed which pays double should it’s requirements for payment be met. Each sponsor has a condition attached to it before they will pay up. One sponsor may require a 5th position or higher finish, another may require a podium finish with no damage to the car being caused, another may require nothing less than a first place finish before paying out. This adds a further strategic element to the game in choosing the sponsors that will earn you the most money based on your expected performance in the forthcoming race. Later on in the game a teammate can be hired who also earns money off the same sponsors. This makes you mindful of the fact that a sponsor that only pays for first position will only ever pay out on one of your two team cars. 

Using the money earned, cars can be purchased either new or off Ebay Motors. The Ebay system feels a bit tacked on. You can sell cars in an auction style which take place over a few race events, however when buying all you can do is use buy it now. The voice over tells you to avoid cars that have competed in large number of races and have wrecked a number of times. Codemasters say that cars such as this will have a lower top speed or reduced traction, you don’t really notice this in a race though as not having the new car to compare against, you would never know. Add to this the catch up system which most likely eliminates any negative effects of having a reduced top speed makes this area of the game a bit needless, apart from the achievement earned when selling a car for more than you purchased it for.

Achievement wise the game offers a mixed bag. the game uses the maximum 50 achievements allowed in a full retail game release. To begin with it hands these out very fast for doing not much more than winning a race, buying a car or being involved in a big smash. Around half are fairly easily attained with the others offering far more of a challenge and adding lastability to the game such as winning every single event trophy or obtaining the ultimate online rank of Legend.

The online portion of the game is structured and implemented incredibly well. As usual everything is split up into private, player and ranked matches, however a new voting system has been employed to choose game modes, car and track selection. As with the single player portion of the game, events are split up into a 2 or 3 race series which are spread out across the four regions of the game (including global). At the end of each racing series the choice of the next game is put to a vote rather than the games host being the sole decision maker. First of all a vote is made between one of the four regions. Once this is decided a list of racing events is then voted on. Each event is restricted to a specific selection of cars such as a Formula 1000 or Touring Cars. The race series then takes place and the process repeats, should the host leave the game then another seamlessly takes over both in menus and mid race. It would have been nice to be able to race any car on any circuit, however the simplistic nature of the voting system means more time is spent racing and in events that people want to play rather than large amounts of time spent in menus setting up very specific race types that not everyone in the lobby is happy with.

95% of the time races are lag free and feel exactly the same as a local single player game. However on the rare occasion one player is lagging, this does cause the game to be somewhat unplayable if you are near the problem player. The problem very rarely occurs though and in general practically all games are lag free. The games kick system will no doubt be put to good use if a player continues to cause a problem with the majority in the room voting to kick the player causing the issue. The kick system can also cause a few problems of it’s own though. Codemasters have made the decision to show each players national flag next to their name. The problem with this is due to the nature of the Xbox Live community, in a room made up of mostly English or American players and then one or two French or German players for example, players will gang up on the “foreigner” and kick them out the room. The problem occurs in most rooms where the minority player does not speak the native tongue of the majority. In other games the minority can keep quiet with everyone being oblivious to non talkers nationality. This is more of a reflection of the Live community itself rather than the game, but displaying players nationality encourages this type of behaviour so was a bad idea to run with.

Having said that, all of these issues are player caused problems, the online game itself plays excellently and gives the game significant replay value. A Ranking system is in place which awards points for high finishes in both races and each overall race series result. The more players in the race the more points awarded for high finishes.  Nothing is unlocked for achieving a higher rank other than achievements for reaching elite and later legendary rank. These should take most people a significant amount of time to reach. Nationality conflicts aside most game are competitive enough to be enjoyable and keep you coming back but no so much that the social aspect of the game suffers. Most games we played online were very talkative with the majority playing fair and doing their best to avoid intentionally smashing into each other.  This does of course go on in some races but it doesn’t usually take too long to find a room where most people are playing fair.

The game as a whole is presented in a very slick and quality way. Graphics are at the high end of current gen expectations. Menus are easily navigated being quick and simple to use. In the audio department there are a few nice touches such as the ability to choose a driver name (hopefully your own) from a list of a few hundred and the swooping sound made when your car goes under a overhead advertising scaffold. Sometimes a piece of dramatic music will play during a race such as when the 24 hour Le-Mans approaches it’s conclusion or the final race in a long series to add to the tension and excitement of the race. This is a clever touch but it also highlights the lack of music to be had during all the other times your racing. Compared to burnout which has an extensive selection of tracks, GRID has practically none. This doesn’t affect the overall presentation though as you don’t really notice the music isn’t there so when it does come it gives the race that something extra.

In conclusion Race Driver: GRID is a quality title that any racing game fan should not go without. At it’s heart GRID is a top class arcade racer mixed with simulation elements that combine to provide a unique racing game experience that cannot be had with other titles. Codemasters have successfully positioned the game in between other major franchises to provide an original gameplay experience.

Gameplay     3/3 - Excellent

Presentation 3/3 - Excellent

Lastability    3/3 - Excellent

Gold star 0/1 - no

Overall: 9/10

For information on our review scoring policy click here.