Review of the game GRID Autosport: Black Edition

November 27, 2021
Review of the game GRID Autosport: Black Edition

Fan dissatisfaction with some of the franchise franchises has escalated in the new decade. Not surprisingly, in the pursuit of high sales, developers often sacrifice complexity and everything that may represent at least something incomprehensible to an unprepared player.

Codemasters went the same way last year – after the comprehensively high-quality Race Driver: GRID, which perfectly combined the heritage of the TOCA Race Driver series with accessibility and entertainment, the sequel called GRID 2 (the words Race Driver were symbolically removed from the title) was high-quality, but arcade race with physics changed for fans of sliding and no view from the cockpit. However – after the dissatisfaction of the fans of the original GRID, the studio decided to make concessions to the fans. The “result” of the concessions was GRID Autosport – a game on the engine of the second part, but with an orientation towards the simulator.

Arcade Motorsport

Despite the prefix “Autosport” – the game has not turned into such a serious simulator as Gran Turismo or (to go to extremes) Street Legal Racing, but unlike the previous part it has become noticeably more difficult.

There is no plot narration – in GRID Autosport there is only a set of different classes of competitions and cars, which, however, does not make the game worse.

The main modes are very diverse – racing on formula cars, street racing on tuned cars, body car racing and many others perfectly coexist here.

Forza Motorsport 7
Forza Motorsport 7
forzamotorsport.net
Forza Motorsport 7 for Windows

The player, as a novice rider, needs to join a team with which he will have to spend the entire season and earn reputation points to participate in higher-paying competitions. When choosing a team, the player automatically selects a sponsor and partners – alas, they will not be allowed to choose them on their own. Formula competition is most like a true simulator, where you have to really show your skills – there will be no indulgences that were allowed in the street racing modes.

If in street racing the ability to win is equated with the ability to keep the speed at a height and overtake other cars, then the formula values ​​filigree accuracy. Before a particularly responsible race, it is usually necessary to pass a qualification test, which differs for each class of competition. Here, the lack of a storyline has a positive effect – they will not be forced to participate in unloved competitions, giving the player the entire choice.

But before you start defeating your rivals, you need to “defeat” your own car. Unlike last year’s GRID 2 – Autosport returned the control scheme of the first part, bringing physics closer to realism – this time flying at full speed, ignoring the brakes as in Need for Speed, unfortunately will not work. The damage system is much more merciless, and in formula competitions, the tires wear off the car, so you have to balance between fast driving and accurate cornering maneuvers in overtaking cars of rivals. There will be no universal cars that are equally good at circuit races and drifts this time – some cars are only good in certain classes of races. The controls are not overwhelmed with so many details that there are not enough keyboard buttons or even a gamepad.

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit
Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit
ea.com
Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit for Windows

The fact is that the car itself behaves in a completely different way than in most arcade races – it is easy to crash here and the car will not recover in the middle of the road, the fatal outcome of the accident means the end of the race. The “flashback” function, proprietary for the series, saves you from having to start the race again – after an accident you can rewind the time to a certain point, giving yourself the opportunity to correct a mistake and slow down at the right time. Especially one should not hope for such concessions, they are given a little for one race. In addition, without using flashbacks, you can get an increase in money and reputation.

You should not count on the skills of your partners – they take the first positions with extreme reluctance and often only interfere in every possible way. They are needed, first of all, for team competitions, where victory is determined not by the championship, but by points in the race – and it is in such competitions that they can pretty much spoil the nerves of the player. It doesn’t matter if you come to the finish line first – if a team-mate took a place at the end of the rest of the riders, and rival drivers came behind you, it would be a loss. If a player, who is somehow miraculously behind, tries to overtake his partner, he will not let the descent, and will in every possible way interfere and provoke collisions, preventing him from going to overtake. Whether the partners have a belligerent character, or whether they have the same artificial intelligence as the enemy, is unknown.