Review: Race Driver: GRID (360)

One of the nicest features comes right from the beginning. Upon adding your details you then get to pick your name from a list of others. Once this is complete then the lovely announcer actually says “Welcome” followed by the name you’ve chosen. Of course if you have a rather unique name then chances are you won’t get the most out of this feature, though there are an assortment of nicknames that you can choose to help soften the blow. This carries on into the main races where the person shouting in your ear will say things like “Well done…”. It doesn’t add anything to the actual game, but it’s a nice touch and a shame other games don’t make some use of this.

As you start playing through the main mode (Grid World) you’ll need to create your own race team, complete with name and team colours. Once you get further through the events you’ll also be able to hire a team mate and add sponsors to your car. The sponsors give you a special cash bonus if you complete their requirement such as finishing above a certain position or taking no damage, which is almost impossible.

The races are incredibly hectic. With around twelve cars on the track, coupled with the narrow courses it means crashes are inevitable. Luckily your cars can take an awful lot of damage and if you do end up totalling it then you can always rewind time. Seriously. Like Prince of Persia you can rewind time using the instant replay and start the race again from a point that you specify. You only get this option a few times (depending on the difficulty you choose) so it needs to be used sparingly and while some may say this is cheating, it certainly takes away the frustration if you end up crashing on the final bend of a race.

The GRID World is split into three regions: USA, Europe and Japan. Each one is car specific but also race specific. The Japanese races in particular are completely different than the other regions. Much like Initial D you can take part in hill races where you go one on one with an opponent with the aim of the first round to stay ahead of him and the second it’s to overtake without hitting him. During the most epic of races some great adrenaline fuelled music appears, making it sound like you’re taking part in an explosive blockbuster movie. The other main Japanese race are the drift challenges which are best forgotten.

When the demo first surfaced on Xbox Live it really split opinion with some not being able to get to grips with the unique handling model. When you go into GRID you have to realise that this is no Forza 2, it’s not even a PGR4, this is its own game with its own style of handling. The car when you first begin can feel like it’s floating and not properly connected to the track and we also felt this. However, after some playtime we soon grew to love how the cars handled and now wouldn’t mind seeing more games in the series use the same kind of handling.

Once we got tired of the Grid World and its tier system we decided to take the race online, and this is where it loses points. Through no fault of the game at all, GRID online is full of the dirtiest, most annoying drivers we’ve ever met in a racing game. Accidents are bound to happen because of the hectic nature of the races, we’re not denying this. However, in our first race after a multi-car pile-up on the opening bend we were closing in on the leader when he decided to intentionally swerve and knock us into the barriers. More races later and the same thing happened again. With a patch that was added later you can turn off collisions but that in our eyes destroys what a race should be about. This is definitely one to be played with friends only.

After being addicted to Forza 2 for quite some time it’s a refreshing change to play a game that really doesn’t take itself too seriously. If high speed crashes and action packed races are your thing then there is no reason not to give GRID a try.

Rating: 8 / 10

Words by Adam Gulliver