GRID Autosport - Review
The Grid series has been going for a number of years now, but only in the past few has it started to gain more open acceptance, with the appearance on mobile device. Now Feral Interactive have brought the game to Switch, but is it worth suiting up for, or is this one for the pits?
GRID Autosport is basically five racing games in one, or seven if you want to get technical, it offers Touring, which is something more along the lines of the V8 Supercars; Endurance, long races that require careful planning to even finish them; Tuner, a place for drifters and such to seek comfort; Open Wheel something more akin to Formula 1 and Street, which is just racing on closed circuits amongst cities from around the world. Each of the five disciplines requires a different focus when racing in them, as behaving like a madman in Street is fine, but that won’t cut it when in Open Wheel. In fact discovering the mode that you like the best is a challenge of its own and one I think most people will enjoy, the only downside is that in order to gain access to the GRID events, you need to level up in all of them, not just the ones you want. Now there is nothing wrong with that, but I have never been good at drifting in video games, at least when I am meant to be, there is something about it I just can’t get working.
In the series you elect to race in, you will find a series of events, these can range from a single race up to low double digits, depending on the discipline you have selected. In Street, the first series will offer up four or six races, but the one that offers six, has much shorter tracks to experience, but the overall racing time will be around the same. When you begin a series, you are locked into that one, until you complete it, so you need to make sure you pick the one you want, with a series selected, it is time to pick a sponsor. These make very little difference to the game as a whole, but they can impact how fast you level up, which will make the speed at which you unlock the GRID series, so having a think is recommended. Each of the sponsors have a series of goals you need to complete in a season, such as place forth or higher and the more challenging a goal, the more xp you will earn at the end of the season. Mixed in amongst them are race specific goals, such as beating an opposing team or achieving a set speed for a number of minutes, these are not something you need to think about, because as long as you place in the top 3, most of them will be completed with ease. Should you find yourself stuck on a particular turn, or you went to wide on a straight and were passed, the game lets you rewind, undoing the past few moments of racing, to give you a chance to do better and depending on your difficulty selected, you go from unlimited to none.
The career is the main mode, but it is not the only one, you can also spend time in extra championships like drag racing and sprint cars, or you can test yourself against the clock in time attack. For those who want to make their own challenge up, custom cup lets you pick the type of racing and then the challenge within, you can create a demolition derby or an eliminator challenge. This custom mode is for those who want to test everything, from the track, to the time of day, vehicle class, number of laps and more, the only downside, you can’t save your choices, so you have to choose each time. Sadly, the game does not support multiplayer, yet, the team are working on it, so if you had planned to team up with a mate and dominate the racing scene, you will be left wanting. The other thing that the game doesn’t allow for, is custom liveries on the cars, you just get the ones they provide and while your name, or the one you provided at the setup, will appear on it, you have no choice over it, not a big thing, just a missed opportunity.
Of course, racing is the most important part here and the game nails it, all the events are fast and fluid, with controls that are responsive as they are customisable. Before you race, the game will ask you what difficulty you wish to set the game as, with the easiest setting applying breaks for you, so all you need to do is steer and accelerate, the higher the difficulty, the less assists you get turned on but the more rewards you can earn. For most racers, you will likely have the racing line enabled, this green line shows you the best path to take around any track, if you are going to fast for a corner, the line begins to change to red and the darker the colour, the more you need to break, a simple tool, but quite effective; disabling that line means you are all on your own, but the rewards are much higher. If you choose to go that route, then you best make use of the games practice sessions, as each event will offer up some time on the track, to not only learn it and the best line, but also to get you your starting position in the race. For some events the practice is just that, practice and does not impact greatly, but some are actually marked as qualifying and those you need to take seriously, you can choose to ignore it and just jump straight into the races, but if you don’t know the track it will put you in a disadvantage, and likely starting in the last space on the grid.
Speaking of the tracks, there are a host here, a lot of them are circuits that are from around the world and appear in almost every racing game, nothing fancy to them at all. Street is perhaps the only discipline where they could flex their muscles, as they would take place in cities on tracks designed by the team. The downside there is that most of the tracks have come from other GRID games as well, so they are not all new and exciting, but regardless of that, the variety of tracks is massive, as most will have a few options, normal, reverse, short and short reverse, with some having a few more or less, depending on the track. Racing on a street track in Dubai and then hitting the track at Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi might seem like they would be the same, but they are very different experiences, even if the general locales are similar.
Using those tracks as a reference point, we need to talk about the visuals as the game is perhaps one of the most beautiful games on Switch and all the while, maintaining its frame rate. I don’t know the framerate the game was running at, but it stayed consistent the entire time, which is a plus. The attention on the cars is also a nice bonus and when you watch replays, you can see the detail, far better then when you are focused on the race. The tracks, as I said before are mostly circuits that are in every racing game, but they still look a treat here, there is no noticeable pop in or delayed effect on them, in fact the only real tracks I noticed pop in on, are the more wide open ones, such as Yas Marina.
There was a street circuit track set in Chicago that has you racing under elevated train lines and occasionally, sparks will rain down from above, as happens from time to time, but more than that, light rays shine through the gaps in the framework and shine down on the track, it really is a sight. The game looks fine with the base visuals, but if you wanted to, you can download a free high-resolution texture pack, which helps make the game even more stunning and that is what I did. If you want to ensure you get performance over visuals, the game also lets you change how it presents itself, which is a nice option. The games load times can seem a little long, but it does attempt to mitigate that, by showing you track information, race details, event standings and so on, I just wish they were a little quicker.
When you listen to the game, most of the time, all you will hear is the roar of engines and especially if you are in close races, these races can also help sell the bumps and grinds of metal, as you bounce off other racers and walls. The sounds the game has focus well more towards the car than anything else, as the in-game music is mostly relegated to menus and while there is some in the races, it is not loud enough to stand out. There is some pre-race commentary from time to time and for the most part it works, helps to sell the effect that you are in a season of a race, as the game is presenting, they just never get to specific, just general names and such. One aspect that was really cool in the original game and still is now, is that you can name your character and the game will most likely have a spoken equivalent, though if it does not you can always be champ. So, as you are racing, if you bash your car to much, hearing you pit crew call out that your rear left tire is really damaged and it is your name they are using, or your preferred choice name, helps keep you in the world.
GRID Autosport is an easy game to suggest to anyone who is a car fan, as there is just so much content to experience. The number of racing types is large and while there is not a lot of variety in them, as you can move from one discipline to another, it means you are not stuck in one for 12 hours. The game manages to run quite well, with visuals that are some of the best on the Switch, especially with the high-res pack installed and while there is no multiplayer, yet, there is still plenty of events you can enjoy on your own.
