It's been a year (plus a week) since the game's launch, and lots of things has happened so I figured that I should try reviewing it again. Do note that I'm talking about this game from a singleplayer focused perspective.
I always enjoyed racing games but no racing franchise has stuck with me like GT does. My first GT game is Gran Turismo on PSP, and since then I only skipped GT6 (my PS3 was broken and I saved up for a PS4 instead).
GT games have this unique, anachronistic vibe that other games just don't even try to replicate, and GT7 has pretty much doubled down on that vibe. The main menu UI features a city/town scenery that seems to be structurally made for car enthusiasts to live in, complete with the most relaxing cafe ever made in a video game, which serves as the hub for the singleplayer campaign. In the campaign, you'll meet various characters (many of them based on real life people in the car industry and professional GT scene) that serves as an info source for random automobile history and driving tips, and while there's no voice acting to support them, they're presented in such a non-chalant way that is weirdly wholesome. There's a whole in-game museum that not only notes many important moments in automobile history, but also general world history, and it feels wild to see the game showing what year Windows 95 releases when you're browsing for car history. All of this is supported by a great selection of elegant and relaxing music in the soundtrack. It truly feels like Polyphony Digital (and by extension, the game) truly adores car culture, and I'm sure many other racing games feel the same way, but nothing else presents it like this. Some may call the game pretentious, but I call it endearing.
The racing itself is at its greatest form yet, as the physics feel even more refined than GT Sport. The average joe's experience is elevated by the Dualsense, as the controller's flagship features are implemented in a way that is not only pleasant to experience, but also functionally useful. This includes feeling the adaptive triggers fight back when your car is pushed too far, or feeling the haptic feedback when your car switch gears. I'm sure you'll be more immersed if you get yourself a decent racing set, but for people like me that doesn't want to buy one of those, it has helped me connect to the vehicles I'm driving to a much deeper level. It's definitely up there in terms of best Dualsense implementation.
The singleplayer experience includes completing "menus" from the cafes by doing certain activities (mostly racing in an event), tackling the series' iconic driving license challenges, mastering each of the tracks in the circuit experience time trials, and a few more. The game's regular races are mostly about chasing the AI from the very back of the pack, and as somebody who is decent but not great at racing games, they're definitely easy to beat, provided you came in prepared with the right car (and right tuning). Fortunately GT7 doesn't disappoint on the series tradition of addicting "one-more-try" driving license and time trials. Also, they have begun to publicly showcase Sony's GT Sophy AI that will hopefully someday replace the game's current braindead AI, and I'll say that Sophy is much more fun to race against.
Since its launch, the game has experienced a few big hiccups. The infamous server blackout that lasted more than a week is the real life example of why the always online requirement sucks. The devs has been accused of trying to push people into the microtransaction system, as many of the game's activities early on rewards you with so little credits in comparison to the prices of the cars and car parts. While it's unlikely that the always online requirement will ever be addressed soon, the game's economy has been improved by a lot, and there's a decent amount of activities to choose from if you want to get a lot credits in the endgame. I personally never felt the need or was annoyed by the microtransactions, and I have bought pretty much 90% of the cars I wanted to have.
The one area that I think the game especially needs to do better at is periodic special events. Last December, there was a anniversary period for the GT series, and it obviously was close to Christmas, so the game had new Christmas themed music for the nearly whole month, in addition to extra credit bonus if you race in certain multiplayer events, and special singleplayer challenges. I wish that the game did more events like this, possibly featuring new special game modes or anything that will pull back casual players who are not playing the game regularly.
As I end this review, I would like to make a confession. Like many people, I can't say that I liked car culture. I live in a crowded city where cars are the main mode of transportation, and it annoys me to no end that I keep getting stuck in traffic even with my nimble scooter, and there's no decent public transport. Not to mention the noise and gas pollution. I usually approach racing games from a purely fun seeking perspective rather than a love for cars, but GT7's flamboyant and honest presentation of its genuine love for the culture has made me actually appreciate cars. The other GT games I played are great, but they never felt this focused in terms of showing what car culture is really about. While I will still support reducing the grasp that car companies have over our lives, I understand that as a human being, there's lots of things to love about cars, and like many other things in life, they can serve to connect individuals and communities. I can't think of a more impressive feat that a racing game could do. Thus, I can safely say that its my favorite racing game of all time, and there's more to look forward to in the future.
I always enjoyed racing games but no racing franchise has stuck with me like GT does. My first GT game is Gran Turismo on PSP, and since then I only skipped GT6 (my PS3 was broken and I saved up for a PS4 instead).
GT games have this unique, anachronistic vibe that other games just don't even try to replicate, and GT7 has pretty much doubled down on that vibe. The main menu UI features a city/town scenery that seems to be structurally made for car enthusiasts to live in, complete with the most relaxing cafe ever made in a video game, which serves as the hub for the singleplayer campaign. In the campaign, you'll meet various characters (many of them based on real life people in the car industry and professional GT scene) that serves as an info source for random automobile history and driving tips, and while there's no voice acting to support them, they're presented in such a non-chalant way that is weirdly wholesome. There's a whole in-game museum that not only notes many important moments in automobile history, but also general world history, and it feels wild to see the game showing what year Windows 95 releases when you're browsing for car history. All of this is supported by a great selection of elegant and relaxing music in the soundtrack. It truly feels like Polyphony Digital (and by extension, the game) truly adores car culture, and I'm sure many other racing games feel the same way, but nothing else presents it like this. Some may call the game pretentious, but I call it endearing.
The racing itself is at its greatest form yet, as the physics feel even more refined than GT Sport. The average joe's experience is elevated by the Dualsense, as the controller's flagship features are implemented in a way that is not only pleasant to experience, but also functionally useful. This includes feeling the adaptive triggers fight back when your car is pushed too far, or feeling the haptic feedback when your car switch gears. I'm sure you'll be more immersed if you get yourself a decent racing set, but for people like me that doesn't want to buy one of those, it has helped me connect to the vehicles I'm driving to a much deeper level. It's definitely up there in terms of best Dualsense implementation.
The singleplayer experience includes completing "menus" from the cafes by doing certain activities (mostly racing in an event), tackling the series' iconic driving license challenges, mastering each of the tracks in the circuit experience time trials, and a few more. The game's regular races are mostly about chasing the AI from the very back of the pack, and as somebody who is decent but not great at racing games, they're definitely easy to beat, provided you came in prepared with the right car (and right tuning). Fortunately GT7 doesn't disappoint on the series tradition of addicting "one-more-try" driving license and time trials. Also, they have begun to publicly showcase Sony's GT Sophy AI that will hopefully someday replace the game's current braindead AI, and I'll say that Sophy is much more fun to race against.
Since its launch, the game has experienced a few big hiccups. The infamous server blackout that lasted more than a week is the real life example of why the always online requirement sucks. The devs has been accused of trying to push people into the microtransaction system, as many of the game's activities early on rewards you with so little credits in comparison to the prices of the cars and car parts. While it's unlikely that the always online requirement will ever be addressed soon, the game's economy has been improved by a lot, and there's a decent amount of activities to choose from if you want to get a lot credits in the endgame. I personally never felt the need or was annoyed by the microtransactions, and I have bought pretty much 90% of the cars I wanted to have.
The one area that I think the game especially needs to do better at is periodic special events. Last December, there was a anniversary period for the GT series, and it obviously was close to Christmas, so the game had new Christmas themed music for the nearly whole month, in addition to extra credit bonus if you race in certain multiplayer events, and special singleplayer challenges. I wish that the game did more events like this, possibly featuring new special game modes or anything that will pull back casual players who are not playing the game regularly.
As I end this review, I would like to make a confession. Like many people, I can't say that I liked car culture. I live in a crowded city where cars are the main mode of transportation, and it annoys me to no end that I keep getting stuck in traffic even with my nimble scooter, and there's no decent public transport. Not to mention the noise and gas pollution. I usually approach racing games from a purely fun seeking perspective rather than a love for cars, but GT7's flamboyant and honest presentation of its genuine love for the culture has made me actually appreciate cars. The other GT games I played are great, but they never felt this focused in terms of showing what car culture is really about. While I will still support reducing the grasp that car companies have over our lives, I understand that as a human being, there's lots of things to love about cars, and like many other things in life, they can serve to connect individuals and communities. I can't think of a more impressive feat that a racing game could do. Thus, I can safely say that its my favorite racing game of all time, and there's more to look forward to in the future.