Grid Legends review: Driven, but derivative

digitaltrends.com:

Grid Legends is like the kind of car one buys out of necessity. It’s not a beautiful sports car to flaunt to others like a Gran Turismo game or a sturdy and robust vehicle that can handle anything off-roading throws at you like a Forza Horizon game. It’s that car that will get you to work every day, but not be something you show off to friends and family.

From graphics to sound to gameplay, Grid Legends is perfectly adequate. The developers know the game is acceptable in these areas, so it tries to stand out with a unique approach to its narrative. Developer Codemasters has always cared more about the story in its racing games than its competitors. Grid Legends is the culmination of that as its story mode is a live-action documentary about an underdog racing team.

While using this framing device for its narrative is innovative, the Driven to Glory  storyline ultimately falls flat. Grid Legends is simply an enjoyable, if underwhelming racing game overshadowed by the new Forza Horizon and Gran Turismo games it is being released between.

Grid Legends features everything players have come to expect from a racing game. There are over 100 tracks spread across the world and more than 100 cars of every type across notable brands to drive on them. These aren’t the highest-fidelity car models and there isn’t a vast open world to explore, but it isn’t ugly. Players looking for a standard racing game won’t have a bad time.

There are several different race types that players will experience over the Driven to Glory story campaign and the Career mode, where players complete races and sponsor challenges to earn currency and gain new abilities, stat boosts, and cars. The standout race type is Elimination, a mode where the drivers in