GRID (2019)

Review

This is it! You are strapped into your seat, helmet on, and every time you blink your eyes you are in a different car. Whether you’re in a Touring, GT, Modified, Formula or Classic car, your desire is still the same . . . you want to step onto the highest step of the podium. It’s going to be rough; there are going to be tough races ahead, but as a petrol-headed fan, you can’t miss having a go at GRID (2019)!

GRID (2019) is a racing game developed and published by Codemasters and released on the 11^th of October 2019 on Steam, Xbox One and PS4.

As soon as you launch the game, you’ll be tested in three different tracks to give you an insight of what you are going to experience later on in the game.

The game consists of a career, free play and a multiplayer mode. The main game focus is based on the career mode, which includes 6 different race categories plus the GRID world series. However, you’ll need to conclude 4 out of the 6 main events (showdown) to unlock it.

Five of the six categories have 13 events to complete, while the last one, the invitational categories, has 23 events and one showdown at the end. Each of the events has 1 to 4 races to complete. They can be either a race or a time attack scenario. The time attack scenario is not based on who comes first at the end of a determined number of laps, but who is the fastest in a three-lap showdown while all the competitors are running on the track.

When you start your career, you’ll have one or two events available to select.  As you either win or achieve one of the top three positions, you’ll unlock more events, which may be from the same category or others (most likely invitational events (classics), which I really enjoy, to be honest with you).

As you start an event, you’ll have 1 to 4 races ahead of you. You can decide to go straight into the race, which will see your car toward the end of the grid, or you might decide to go for a hot qualification lap to determine where you’ll be placed on the grid before the race starts.

Now, bear in mind that the level of difficulty will be set as medium (it was for me, but it might be different after the first three tutorial races if you are a better driver). Nonetheless, you can change the level of difficulty through the gameplay settings which also includes the removal of the racing corner lines, along with many more helpful features.

There are not many destinations in terms of circuits, but what I really like is the variants in all of them.  In some events, tracks are shorter than in others. In one run they might be clockwise, and the other anti-clockwise. Then you might race at night, or during a sunset with the glaring sun in your eyes, or it could be pouring with rain.  Despite that, it will also depend on which car you select to drive with, and the equation becomes totally new every single race, which I personally love.

At the end of each of race, you’ll receive experience points which will go towards levelling up your profile. You’ll receive points for drifting, keeping on the racing line, overtaking, and how close you drive toward a barrier or to another car. For the first 25 levels, you ‘ll need 5000 points to level up and from there it will grow by 1000 points. As I am writing this review, I have reached level 35 and it seems to still be 6000 experience points to reach my next level. However, I am not sure if it will increase later on.

For most of the races, you must finish between 1st and 3rd to gather the largest sum of money so you can buy a new car. On some occasions, you’ll be forced to buy a new car in order to participate in a new event. You can choose to sell some of your cars to buy another one so you can enter the newest event. It’s a fun and fast car game, and a bloody one too.

I personally find the game on the medium setting pretty easy, but as soon as I increased to the hard difficulty and removed a few flashbacks (rewinding up to 30 seconds before a crash), the game became fairly competitive, which I really enjoy.

What a stunning game overall. Great graphics, soundtrack and sounds. Unlock new events and skins customisations. You can play this game with a gamepad or a steering wheel. Mind you, I did have several issues with my Logitech 920 steering wheel which really frustrated me at times. Interestingly, I didn’t encounter this issue with F1 2019 which is from the same publisher. Thank God for Microsoft gamepad; I had no issue with it and I had plenty of fun!