Every racing game fan should be excited about GRID 2. Codemasters racing pedigree is undeniable and the first GRID is arguable their finest work, succeeding in melding urban racing, drift and open-wheel track events in an enjoyable ‘run your own team’ mould. Yet for two specific reasons, the removal of the all-important cockpit view and the inclusion of dynamically changing city tracks, anticipation has fallen flat.
Call it a miscommunication or whatever you want, but the good news is that the core GRID gameplay is still here, albeit in a more mainstream and glossier mould, centred around starring in and helping to establish a fictional championship dubbed, the World Racing Series. This new championship frames the singleplayer narrative with players cast as a talented yet unproven driver whose exploits are key to the success of this new series gaining worldwide acclaim. A championship where drivers from various disciplines – including oval, open-wheel, tin-top and drift – get together and compete to discover who is really the finest driver in all of motorsport. As premises go, GRID 2’s is very enticing, with series creator Patrick Callaghan getting personally involved with the player’s ascension up the rankings. If you want the whole ideology of the WSR summed up, think Formula One if it was run by the people behind the X-Games and you aren’t too far off.
Across multiple seasons players will see the championship evolve as it moves from North America to Europe
and finally Asia, with events, drivers and locales corresponding with each continent you play in.
This is a similar progression curve to the original GRID, with players buying cars and unlocking events in a sequential fashion, only now this growth is supported by media interaction communicated via fame and social networks. As you progress through the season-by-season narrative, rivalries between region champions will be established, each of whom have their own driving style, personality and liveries. Codemasters unfortunately wouldn’t answer any questions on if real-world drivers fill these spots, a la DiRT 2, but it would
be absolutely bonkers if the developer didn’t use their considerable leverage to bag a few well-known names from F1. After all, if NASCAR’s Danica Patrick can have an appearance in Sonic & All Stars Racing
Transformed, surely Codemasters can open a few doors and get Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button in GRID 2? We can only hope.
The team management element which was so crucial to GRID’s appeal also seems to be glossed over. Players will be able to toy around with their livery by selecting colour schemes and sponsors, but the developers wouldn’t be drawn on if the ability to choose a team-mate returns.
The aspect that sold us on this WSR concept was the nature of how Codemasters communicate its growing relevance. During the first season races are rather low-key affairs, with just safety barriers and the odd
dog walker stopping by to watch races, but as the years roll on events seem more like low-level carnivals with fans lining every centimetre of the track in big grandstands, with lots of sponsor logos, massive neon signs and fireworks going off during events.
Codemasters approach is certainly the flashiest of all the racing developers, you just need to look at their menu design for proof of that, and in GRID 2 it seems as though the team is taking those elements and
dialling them up even further.
Seeing as WSR seems to be its own fully fledged series, we have our doubts that Codemasters are going for that pan-series appeal that the original GRID had, but then we could be wrong. We asked the UK developer about what licenses they have in their wheelhouse, but again they wouldn’t be drawn on the details. It would be a massive shame if the Le Mans 24 hours didn’t return in some fashion, especially as a lot of real-life drivers tend to moonlight in other disciplines during the off season, so there would be room for it.
Codemasters are certainly pushing the GRID concept into new areas, but the most important element, the actual racing, remains just as entertaining. We went hands-on with two different events, an open-wheel race around Austria’s A1 Ring and an elimination event around the streets of Chicago involving Dodge Challengers, Chevrolet Camero SS’, and Nissan 370Zs. As you would expect, the production cars were much more unwieldy than their track cousins, with the open-wheel choices restricted to the BAC Mono, Ariel Atom 3 and the KTM X-Bow R.
Car handling feels very much like the previous GRID, with players able to introduce oversteer to power out of corners faster and bump wheels with other cars without too much impact. Mechanical damage was switched off for the hands-on session, so we could ram into other cars and take victory without suffering any real consequences – aside from the occasional missing door and bumper. There were 11 other racers involved in each event and at times it was entertaining to just watch the AI battle it out; switching lanes, going
wide and spinning out.
The checkpoint event in Chicago was a little bit tougher. The slim streets with their hard 90-degree turns and tyre-protected traffic islands resulted in our car wiping out on more than one occasion, but we still had a lot of fun performing drifts around corners to get to checkpoints before the timer ran out. The lack of actual competitive racing cars did bemuse us a little during the demo, as the car selection at the moment seems more akin to the roster you’d find in a Need for Speed release rather than a motorsport game, but then all Codemasters has to do is chuck in a few touring cars, endurance cars, Formula Fords and F3000 cars and then we’d be onboard. We really don’t think that we’re asking for much, and these inclusions would help to win over the sure-to-beconflicted sim-loving crowd.
All in all, GRID 2 seems like an ambitious and daring reimagining of the first game. All of the component parts are here including the contact-heavy racing, the varied disciplines and the appealing presentation, but now it’s wrapped in this unified, slightly American, WSR wrapper. Whether it all pays off remains to be seen, but nobody can say that Codemasters are playing it safe with this sequel.
DEV: IN-HOUSE
LAST GAME: DIRT:
SHOWDOWN
PLATFORMS: XBOX
360, PS3, PC
ETA: MAY 31ST
