Race Driver: GRID - ShindoDragon Review

 Hey all, Dragon here,

It's been over half a year since I've written a review but that's mostly down to a lot of things going on personally, but today, I just had the urge to write something so I might as well write a review of what is probably one of my all-time favourite racing games: Race Driver: Grid. I'll be referring to this as GRID from here on out, not to be confused with the 2019 reboot.

So every racing game from the mid-2000's always had some sort of unique selling point to their charm. In the case of GRID, it was the ability to create your own racing team and become the best team and driver combination in the world, something they ultimately brought back for GRID 2019 and subsequently, after the multiplayer cars in 2019, a fully-fledged mode in F1 2020 and F1 2021.

When I think of GRID, I think of Codemasters at the peak of their video game development period. ToCA Race Driver 3 was the predecessor to the game and the EGO engine they used in GRID is still being used and tweaked to this day with their most recent 8th generation titles, which is remarkable because it looks great even now. GRID is a wonderful-looking game, even nearly 15 years on. The game definitely goes for a quality-over-quantity approach, which means there's a big drop in content compared to ToCA 3. If I had to nitpick the graphics, the yellow tint the game has is awful and doesn't age well, like a slight sepia effect. The car damage model and that are amazing, one of the best in the racing genre, and that's no exaggeration. You can even terminally damage your car, which looks like a write-off if you do.

GRID has15 locations (not including variations) and if you have the PS3 version with DLC, you get Bathurst added as part of the "Prestige Pack" DLC, with Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 receiving the "8 Ball Pack", and PC getting no DLC at all until the Mac version release. Codemasters clearly favoured the PS3 in this regard but I think the 360 or PC version is the definitive way to play this game. None of the DLC stuff, unfortunately, makes its way to the campaign mode, which kind of sucks. Would have been nice if they made those available in the campaign mode, rather than limit them to Freeplay.

Gameplay-wise, it's more of an arcade racer with simulation aspects. Cars will grip a lot but are not shy of sliding when being pushed. In the case of the TVR, I had a lot of traction issues with it but that was more on me not being patient. There's a good variety of cars, and with the European Le Mans Series license, a bunch of real-life drivers are present from their teams. So Tom Kristensen is at Audi, Marcel Fassler at Swiss Spirit, and Shinji Nakano of F1 fame at Courage Competition, among many more. Even some real drift teams like Nobushige Kumakubo of Team Orange and the like make an appearance as well, although about 85% of the rest of the teams and drivers are entirely fictional and never as good as the real drivers in that category because of the specialty that none of the fictional drivers have. This is 2008 of course, so don't expect to see people like Kevin Magnussen or Max Verstappen here.

Dragonstorm, my team's livery.

The game is quite replayable, for me anyway and there's a lot of diversity with the teams, drivers you can hire, and a lot more. There's nothing quite like hoping your teammate can deliver in the tense championship fights, although most of the time, you'll probably end up winning by miles, and usually, your results are enough to win the title single-handedly. It's fun to do though so I ultimately don't mind this. It does kind of suck that opponents don't really rotate and there's a very limited driver skillset to choose from, only 75 different AI styles can be chosen and most of the hireable drivers aren't all that amazing, making you feel like you can't really become the ultimate team out there, on the most part. It's a shame because your biggest rival is arguably the best team in the game by a long margin. Ravenwest. The team on the front cover of the game.

Ravenwest are meant to be the perfect team. Best two drivers in the game, always 1st and 2nd. At least, 2nd and 3rd, if you go and win. It's basically you v them and even have specific head-to-head events which you can unlock, which pit you 1 on 1 with one of the drivers, both of which are an easter egg in some way to previous ToCA titles. If you can spot them, good on you.

GRID is a fantastic racer that has aged well, and is still worth playing, no matter the system you buy it for. What it lacks in content it makes up for in fun and excitement tenfold. Whilst it's delisted from Steam, you could always buy a key or a disc copy for it or pick it up for the 360 or PS3. It's a testament to one of the best racers Codemasters have ever produced and it's a shame that the hype surrounding GRID 19 didn't live up to the standard everyone had hoped. Hopefully, in due time I can review the Autosport and GRID 2 titles. as I have fond memories of those as well.

Fun fact about the game: GRID 08 was originally meant to have Fuji Speedway in the game, with its own drift event which was cut, along with a V8 Supercars DLC that also got cut from the game. Bathurst made it in, which makes it sound like it was a licensing issue between the license holders and Codemasters.