To preface this review: I'm not really an avid racing game player nor have I ever even heard of this series beyond mindlessly scrolling past it on the storefront. This is from the perspective of a complete noob. When I play racing games I usually go for the more arcade-y stuff like Burnout or Split/Second and the Need for Speed Games. Basically the less focused it is on being a simulator the more fun I have. Driving around is always my favorite part in open world games and so nothing bores me more than a dozen mechanics and driving around some sterile track. That seems to be a lot of racing games these days though and so I usually avoid them. Much like fighting games they're a genre I don't particularly like but every now and then I just randomly decide to play one and get hooked on it and too addicted to play anything else until I get tired of it. I was starting to crave that for a racing game and then as I was scrolling through all the games that came out this year I saw this! Something that came and went this year seemingly without much buzz or recognition and didn't get many good reviews, but had a short story mode. It was perfect.

I do need to confess to a terrible thing I had to do to play this though. I wasn't just gonna pay its full price for a game I knew very little about so I had to make a deal with the devil. Don't condemn me, I feel bad about it enough. But I bought a month of EA Play. A terrible, horrible thing. I tried to justify it saying "ill use it to get a discount on the Dead Space remake or Need for Speed Unbound" but the truth is I just really fucking wanted to try this random ass racing game because it would make me feel better about not beating enough 2022 games this year. And what I got was well, pretty surprising.

This game actually has a very interesting mix between the two different types of racing games. On one hand its a very forgiving game not muddled with a bunch of different mechanics, but still gives you a bit of a challenge in the way you control your vehicle and that classic organized racing kind of vibe. It's not particularly what I like but if you're someone who loves the feeling of being in big (mostly) formal races without a whole lot of technical junk thrown at you you might get a good kick out of this one. I did find the lack of explanations for a lot of its mechanics to be a little frustrating but as mentioned the game is still pretty forgiving. A sort of easy to learn hard to master kinda deal.

The story, for a racing game, was enjoyable. Obviously things are really limited when its a game you are entirely restricted to your car in but what it does is nice. It uses live action scenes (much more effectively than a certain other series, thank god for the rebranding with Unbound) in a documentary like way. A tv crew is filming the characters. It's pretty nice actually. The acting is solid for the most part and some of the characters are pretty enjoyable, particularly Valentin. The actual story itself is basically nothing and the
"villains" are weaksauce however they do succeed at being extremely unlikeable. Legends does actually have a certain bit of charm to it however and Id say I liked it. Where the story fails however is that it has a really huge disconnect from the gameplay itself. Let me explain.

Difficulty balancing in racing games has always been a bit of an issue for me. Rubberbanding when used right can make every race feel tight and like a close one but more often than not it just makes the game feel cheap and unfair. Conversely if the game is too easy it becomes far more boring at a really rapid pace, which is a huge issue for this game. Most of the difficulty comes from navigating the tracks themselves and getting used to the different type of vehicles you drive. The AI is total garbage and you'll likely pass each and every one of them with relative ease. This means a lot of the game didn't feel like a racing game at all and more just a driving game where you try to turn tight corners all sad and alone. This is amplified even more when some races decide they want to be an agonizing 4 to 6 laps long and sometimes upwards of 10 minute levels that just feel like they're stretching the campaign length as much as they can. Where this comes into the story is that even for a shitty driver who bumps into everything like I, I basically never once lost a race. But the story doesnt change at all with that. So there were multiple cutscenes where despite the player character absolutely crushing everyone in every single match, you have a teammate bragging about being the number one of your crew or the villain characters saying they've been slam dick dunkin' all year and aren't worried about any competition. You could count this as arrogance but even in some scenes the sportscasters announce all the villains win yet again or how your character apparently had a crash inbetween levels. Its basically the racing game equivalent of whittling the boss down to 1HP like a pro and then the cutscene after showing your whole party crying half dead on the floor. I'm not gonna pretend to know jack fuck about game development but considering all the cutscenes are on the same small handful of steps surely it would be worth filming at the bare minimum slightly alternate scenes to reflect how well you're actually doing in the story mode. As is I really wanted to enjoy the story for what it was but stuff like that made it very hard to take seriously or get invested in.

Overall, I'd feel bad for giving GRID Legends a harsh score. While its true that its underwhelming and too easy to be exciting, It was the perfect little distraction to hold me over for a few hours and I really appreciate the attempt at making a hybrid of the two big racing game subgenres. Maybe next time guys. If you like this type of game, it's worth your time. Just get it at a steep discount and definitely not from EA Play lol. Thanks for reading <3

Trophy Completion - played on alt account huehue
Nancymeter - 55/100
Game Completion #134 of 2022
October Completion #11

Para quem já jogou vários jogos de um mesmo gênero fica bem perceptível certas situações "copiar e colar" que são, na atualidade, motivos de vídeos e reclamações intensas nas redes sociais. Sem surpreender ninguém, Grid Legends é mais um dos milhares exemplos lançados anualmente, mas diferente do que muitos esperam, o título agrega ou melhor, retorna com pequenas características e modificações que diferem dos demais, criando o famoso sentimentalismo de "jogo diferente".

Quem tem o costume de conversar comigo sabe que o gênero de corrida, simulação ou qualquer outra coisa relacionada a carros é, de certa forma, um interesse recente pois nunca tive condições de bancar, porém com a aquisição do Game Pass a possibilidade de jogar sem arrependimentos é algo que me deixou tentada e desde então estou dedicando parte do ano para me aventurar por esses jogos.

Grid Legends foi estranhamente um jogo que carreguei durante 2023 e não foi pela dificuldade, repetição ou falta de interesse, mas pelo tempo e por lançamentos que não paravam. Porém, com a época de festividades se aproximando, também chegou o momento de finalizar a última pendência oficial e preciso dizer: começar 2024 com um jogo como esse não foi nem um pouco ruim.

A diversidade de carros, pistas e modos de jogo para alguém com o primeiro contato é extremamente diferente do comum, deixando o jogo bem mais dinâmico e com aquela sensação de "não sentir as horas passando", pois a todo momento é jogado um novo desafio.

A campanha também não decepciona, principalmente pelo elemento que carrega toda a trama e não, não foram são carros, mas as atuações e a utilização de um dos elementos que mais sinto falta na atualidade: FMV. Sei que posso parecer uma pessoa estranha, mas toda vez que um jogo é lançado com o recurso, meu lado "fã da Sierra" retorna com força total e se torna quase impossível não dedicar um tempo para comentar sobre isso.

Apesar da sua alta dedicação para a diversão, Grid tem uma das piores soundtracks que já tive o prazer de escutar e eu entendo a ideia de colocar algo de ação extrema para atrelar a ideia de "corrida é igual a ação", mas vamos variar um pouco, por favor?

Sendo um jogo da EA já é de se esperar problemas de desempenho e alto custo, sem falar em expansões e alguns outros elementos, mas como o jogo está disponível no GP, sinto que pode ser uma ótima recomendação para quem só quer passar um dia se divertindo.

It's a bit sad to think that the racing game that entertained me the most recently wasn't the latest Forza Motorsport or Gran Turismo, but this game. I didn't play it with high expectations, as I've tried other GRID games before, and none of them caught my attention. However, this one is so beautiful, runs so well, and its live service aspect is so unintrusive that it's hard not to like it. I found the idea of splitting it into two modes quite interesting. The story mode introduces the game in a cool way, and then you can continue in the career mode if you enjoyed the gameplay. The difficulty options are also praiseworthy.

I remember I was kinda hyped for this game when it was announced cuz of the story mode, but then forgot about it

Then, after some time I saw a post in acecombat subreddit saying that it was like "ace combat" but racing. Say less my guy, that's my horny dream. I love ace combat and i love racing

So I usually play "arcade sim", like f1, forza motosport and so on. I play it with the wheel and in first-person mode, so just to establish my preferred way of playing racing games.

So, the main thing that I was interested in is the main story. It's structured in a similar way to "Drive to survive", a documentary about F1. Pretty much it's real ppl on cameras, taking place in a singular season of some moto racing championship. I'M DOWN.

The characters are pretty cliche but that is what it makes it good. Bad guys are so bad, they just show with every second they are in. Good guys are underdogs who always are in the fucked situation. That's the part that I adore: simple cliche characters, good over-the-top drama, simple and effective.
This story also makes some races more impactful, sometimes you actually feel that "oh this son of the bitch said that and this about me, I'm gonna race him rly hard this race" and so on, there is even one somewhat emotional moment near the end. Also during the races, they add some cool music depending on the mood of the story. That's the best thing that the game can offer.

Sadly, that's about that. That's the only feature of this game that makes it stand out. But the worst part is that it's just not enough. There are 36 or 31 races in total, and about 10 of them have cutscenes. And like only 2 move the story forward, the rest of them is just establishing the characters and showing how bad the main guys are. I'M fine with it, but there is just no story development. Deadass the story progresses only in the last 3-4 missions. There is a beginning where you only get introduced into stuff, the middle part has no story, and then the end.

It just feels like there is no story whatsoever. Such a letdown, I was expecting all kinds of drama, sports drama, character drama, and business/politics drama... but I kinda got nothing... The actors and acting are good, I really liked all of them, but there are just not enough interactions. I wish every race was treated as the last one. And cuz of how little we gotta see them, you can't connect with them and they just gonna be forgotten :(

So, the story, while I was super hyped for it and super excited, was a let down cuz it was wayyy to little of it.

Now gameplay
It's fine, but it just doesn't feel as good as other games. I dunno how to describe it. It's an arcade, but if you disable every assist setting and crank up the difficulty, you will get more enjoyable racing, but it still feels kinda clumsy. Especially fucking pick-ups or wherever these cars were. I dunno, at the end, I really wished that I was playing forza motorsport tho


Anyway, I was super hyped for it. It was kinda my dream racing game in my mind. Dramatic sports story with good gameplay... But it has such a small "story" and the gameplay is alright... Also the performance wasn't that good on xbox one s

Anyway, I know that dlcs enhance the story. I might check them out later, but for now, this game is a disappointment for me

GRID Legends feels more like a product than an empowered artistic attempt. It’s the age-old dilemma in video game criticism, especially reviews. Is the video game reviewer a writer of technology or culture? Are they looking for how well a product works, or how emotionally resonant an artistic endeavour is? As a product, I can’t criticise Legends too much. I didn’t notice any technical problems, certainly no crashes or save issues. Not that I would notice minor framerate or texture issues. My eye is unkeen, you might say. There’s a lot of stuff to unlock, something I would normally criticise, but it feels a little more appropriate here. Cars are machines, after all, and it makes more sense for them to have rigidly controlled stats than it does for fantastical beings and items of power. Maybe I’m being too nice to progression mechanics in my writing lately. I’ll try and make up for that soon, but GRID gets a pass. I can’t review the driving experience at a high level, but as a casual player it scratched the right itch. Everything it attempts it does fine. It’s all fine. There’s just that alluring suggestion of more, of some of that real video game magic, the cinema of ludology that I alluded to when discussing Mafia. It’s all there on the surface, but it isn’t under the hood. The relentless focus on teammates and rivals of the story just isn't reinforced by the gameplay at all, and it just sucks. It feels wrong, weak. Codemasters had a chance to sculpt a masterpiece of interactive narrative on the track, but they chose to script a mildly entertaining docudrama instead. You can play it and enjoy it, but you won’t be gushing about it.

Na falta de Gran Turismo vai tu mesmo. A ideia de um jogo de corrida contar uma historia é mto massa, ainda mais no estilo Need For Speed 2015, porem oq vc faz na pista nao afeta em nada o desenrolar da historia, se vc fazer os objetivos minimos ja ta otimo, se vc ficar em primeiro em todos, ngm liga. A jogabilidade e os graficos são OK, nada de fabuloso pra um jogo de PS5, e se vc quiser fazer tudo, meu amigo, boa sorte, é muito repetitivo e chega a ser chato. A personalização e tunagem de carros é uma porcaria, nao da pra fazer quase nada. Mas é um jogo divertido.

My favourite arcade racer since Dirt 2 on 360. The handling is bang on here for my tastes. The ideal mix of arcade and sim. Cars feel weighty and there is nothing better than nailing the apex to a corner. There is also a huge amount of tracks, some real and some fake but unbelievably they have managed to make every track a lot of fun to drive. It doesn't get 5 stars only because the script and plot in the story mode is proper cheesy. I like those modes in racing games but yeah, proper cheese fest.

[Breve análise]

Eu gosto do conceito desse jogo, a jogabilidade e a variedade de veículos, eventos e pistas também é muito boa, já a dificuldade e a história deixam muito a desejar. Os objetivos nas corridas são muito fáceis e mesmo em dificuldades altas a IA não oferece tanto desafio. Mas o pior pra mim é como a história segue um script sem relação alguma com os resultados do jogador nas corridas, você sempre vai ser o piloto B da equipe mesmo vencendo absolutamente tudo, por exemplo. Acaba não existindo qualquer motivação pra terminar as corridas em 1º lugar.

8/10

Histórias em jogos de corrida costumam ser idênticas em todos os aspectos, você é um piloto desconhecido, em ascenção, e seu objetivo é impressionar pessoas influentes para assim criar uma relevância para o seu próprio nome.

Em Grid Legends, ironicamente isso também acontece, mas surpreendentemente, ela não se resume a isso. Gostei muito de como a história se desenrola, da forma que ela é contada através de um documentário e principalmente dos personagens, em sua grande maioria, que contaram com atuações ótimas.

No quesito jogabilidade, segue o padrão de um jogo de corrida arcade, e é satisfatório. Assim como os cenários e pistas, que são bem bonitos.

Minha única ressalva mais importante fica pra trilha sonora, a todo momento eu senti que estava em um filme de ação, e essa claramente não é a proposta do jogo, não acho que as músicas estavam em sintonia com o restante dos elementos.

No mais, no que se propõe a fazer, Grid Legends tem mais acertos do que erros, e mesmo que ainda esteja bem atrás de outros jogos do gênero, é competente e consegue entregar uma experiência agradável.

A story based but casual racing game.

So we get a sports title, this time it’s racing, and Grid Legends does something that not maybe racing titles do, it puts a full story into the game about the player joining a weak racing team and making them into a major force. The story has live actors and is well done. There’s a villain for some reason, but it’s mostly about building up your team.

The downside is there’s no challenge in the racing. The story talks about you just beating other teams or races, and the objective is to beat a specific car, however, I took first place in every single race on the first attempt but one. The driving model here isn’t that realistic, but the challenge is almost non-existent, to the point players will likely do well even on the hardest difficulty.

Pick this up if you want an easy racing game. This is perfect for children or inexperienced gamers, but anyone who is somewhat accomplished will find no challenge here. I’m looking forward to Forza, and Horizon 5 was great. Though compared to some of the ultra-hard racing games like MotoGP22, I prefer this, but neither is my favorite.

If you want to see more from me: Check out my video on this last month of Game Pass games: https://youtu.be/5_7MTcN1-Ac

Grid Legends terminado..... Caramba que jogão. A Codemasters acertou demais nele. Depois do Grid 2019 ter sido um jogo medíocre sem vida, o Grid legends é um jogo cheio de vida.
Bom, a história do jogo é muito boa, obviamente não é algo maravilhoso já que estamos em um jogo de corrida mas é muito bem executada e todos os atores que estão participando do jogo estão maravilhosos. A coisa que mais gostei foi ter os personagens da Revenwest.
Agora falando de Gráficos, eu sinceramente acho o jogo muito lindo, não acho ele feio como muita gente fala. O som do jogo e a sensação de velocidade é simplesmente do caralho, uma coisa que os jogos recentemente pecam é sempre nesses quesitos. A chuva também é um ponto forte.
Falando agora de Dirigibilidade, acho ela ótima mas um Pouco pesada demais mas Grid sempre teve praticamente a mesma Dirigibilidade desde o Grid Autosport. Ela cumpre muito bem o seu trabalho entre Arcade e realista, também os dano ao carro do jogo é um dos melhores como sempre.
É um jogo realmente completo e perfeito para quem gosta de carros. Temos Drift, corrida de circuito, ponto a ponto, Track Day, Nascar e umas corridas com caminhonete e caminhões. Fazia muito tempo que a Codemasters não acertava em Grid.
Veredito. É um Jogo bom e até demais, ótimos gráficos, história ótima, Jogabilidade boa, conteúdo enorme e muita coisa para fazer. Realmente recomendo esse jogo, Codemasters para mim sempre será um dos melhores studios de jogos para carros. Para mim ele claramente é um 10/10

Massive grind for the platinum, but it was still a lot of fun. It’s super generic for a racing game and feels incredibly bloated, but I just really enjoy playing these games and find them super relaxing. The driving does feel really smooth though and I love that the game forces you to switch between such a massive range of cars to keep things fresh. The whole nemesis system felt incredibly pointless as well. It didn’t offer any kind of variation in the gameplay, but it was quite funny to see those cars try to swerve into you and failing most of the time.

Unfortunately I found Grid Legends to be very bland which is surprising as I enjoyed Grid and Grid 2 on PS3. I also liked Dirt 1-4 and Dirt Rally. I'm not sure what's going on at Codemasters but this, Dirt 5 and Onrush have been really underwhelming.

First off the good. It works, looks decent, runs fine and I got it from PS Plus. There is a good amount of tracks and cars. It's kind of fun just driving with reckless abandon, smashing into other cars and clipping walls.

The biggest problem this game has is the way cars feel to drive, which is a massive issue for a racing game. They don't behave at all like you expect a car to, the physics are just weird. Driving feels stiff and simple, you really need to try hard to lose control. For example you can drive a RWD car in the wet with no traction control and just floor it without any concern for wheel spin. It's like the developers didn't want you to be able to fail. So it's not realistic at all but it also doesn't deliver arcade fun. It also does not find a balance between realism and arcade thrills. It is just bland.

The story mode was thoroughly boring and I quickly started skipping cut scenes. The career mode is grindy and you get tired as one dull race bleeds into another. You can try to keep things fresh by constantly changing the type of vehicle you are racing. I found the stadium trucks to be the highlight. There is also drifting which they also somehow made kind of boring. It's like the whole game was made as safe and uninspired as possible. They didn't want to allow players to suck at it.

It's not very good but doesn't do enough to make me hate it. I can't recommend Grid Legends unless you got it with PS Plus or are desperate for another racing game.

5.8/10

So, I’m not gonna lie, seeing the two letters “E” and “A” listed in the credits of this game had me worried. In fact, that’s an understatement: I was positively bricking it. Was EA about to kill one of my favourite racing game series of all time with yet another cashgrab pile of greedy filth? Thankfully, no.

GRID Legends feels almost like an apology for the terminally dull series reboot back in 2019, a game that was so devoid of personality it felt like playing through a game that was made whilst watching a tutorial about how to build a functional racing game: You buy cars, you race them, you win said races, you buy more cars with the money you just won, cycle repeats. By the time I got to the final faceoff against Ravenwest I was functioning entirely on autopilot.

GRID Legends fixes that by bringing back some fan-favourite game modes such as Elimination and Multiclass Racing, touching up the visuals to make the game more colourful, adjusting the progression to make things less of a slog and adding something completely new as a sort of amuse bouchée: A story mode.

Said story mode is called “Driven to Glory,” a faux-documentary based on the fictional GRID World Series that follows the trials and tribulations of Seneca Racing, a down-on-its-luck backmarker team looking to make it big in the Pro Leagues and disrupt the status quo by taking down long-time series antagonists Ravenwest Motorsport. It’s actually a lot more fun than it sounds.

The cast in particular is what makes the dish (To steal a quote from character Marcus Ado), with an excellent ensemble of characters that all have their own unique personalities: Nathan McKane is arrogant and brash, Yume Tanaka has a veneer of Kimi Räikkonen-esque steeliness and Valentin Manzi has a playful charm that adds some comic relief to what is otherwise a surprisingly dark storyline.

The plot is no narrative masterpiece and it certainly won’t win any Oscars, primarily due its predictability (I don’t want to spoil the ending for you but you probably already know what it is anyway), but it’s pretty solid and should keep your attention until the credits roll - And trust me, you do not want to skip the credits, the mid-credits scene is a worthy payoff.

Moving on from the story, we have the campaign. It’s largely the same as GRID 2019, but it’s been reworked to encourage less linear gameplay and more jumping between disciplines: Sponsor objectives usually require you to drive certain distances or do certain things in certain cars, upgrades encourage you to try as many cars as possible and find one from each class that suits your driving style and the greater variety of events help keep things fresh. It’s a much more rewarding experience as a result, and a more fulfilling one too.

However, the game has some glaring issues that stop me from giving this a full five stars. The AI is my first port of call - It sucks.

Ok, that’s exaggerating a little. They’re not terrible - They’re actually pretty smart and every driver has their own personality that makes each one just as fun to race against as the last, but they’re far too slow. Even on the highest “Legend” difficulty, I found myself winning races by over 5 seconds with incredible ease, and that was whilst handicapping myself by using the slowest car in each class.

Next is the vehicle balance. Some classes have cars that simply do not belong, whether that’s because they’re too fast or too slow. Trackday Hypercars is the perfect example: The Bugatti Veyron SS is the second fastest car in the entire game in terms of top speed, making it hideously overpowered on speed tracks. Meanwhile, the Ferrari FXX-K has to share a track with this damn thing, and if the track you’re racing on has a straight longer than 0.5 Miles you’re gonna have a bad day. I could go on, but really some cars need to be moved around or even placed in their own class.

Finally, the graphics & sound design. Generally, GRID Legends is a pretty good looking game. It even manages to improve upon its predecessor with improved reflections to make rain look a bit less flat and higher-resolution shadows for some satisfying trackside lighting when racing under the stars. However, the hyperreal visual design starts to hurt your eyes after a little while, with blinding lights that inexplicably cast fog across the track even if it isn’t actually foggy and so much visual noise that it can be hard to decipher what’s going on half the time.

Sounds are also pretty good in most cases: Cars are varied in tone and exhaust note, ranging from ear-piercing shrieks to earth-shaking burbles, the environmental audio is fully reactive (Listen out for those screaming fans when you nail a daring inside pass) and the soundtrack is energetic. However, some cars are a little too quiet and easily get lost in the background if you have the music turned on, and there is an element of sound file recycling for vehicles with exotic engines such as Rotaries.

Overall, GRID Legends takes what Codemasters has learnt from the tepid reception to the series’ 2019 reboot and builds on it, with a more open-ended career structure that encourages experimentation, improved visuals for a more next-gen feel and some physics tweaks to make the game more accessible to newcomers. I wholly recommend buying GRID Legends, at least on offer, especially if you didn’t like its predecessor. The GRID is waiting… and trust me, it’s much healthier this time around.

Sendo sincero, não vejo sentido em querer reviver essa franquia, ela é totalmente sem sal, sem alma alguma. Gameplay desse jogo é tenebrosa de ruim, continua com aquela mesma gameplay de 2013 do Grid 2. Modo história fraco demais, o jogo é muito fácil, precisei colocar no Very Hard pra ter uma diversão pois nenhum carro te alcança.
A Inteligência Artificial desse jogo beira ao extremo ridículo, não tem capacidade nenhuma, os carros só ficam te fechando, indo pros lados na pista e andam em um ritmo MUITO mais lento que o seu carro, fazendo com que você empurre ele na maioria das vezes