“The race is long – to finish first, first you must finish.” That is the mantra of the late Juan Manuel Fangio, etched onto the Halo of your car as you slide it onto the Wellington straight. The rain isn’t letting up and you’re losing tire grip, fast…
F1 2021 is the 12th installment in this long-running series under the helm of Codemasters. This year’s game has been rather interesting with the inclusion of Electronic Arts as their publisher and the introduction of a Story Mode for the very first time.
Changes are aplenty but are it pole position for this game or will they languish at the back of the grid?
Presentation
With the availability of Current-Gen consoles, the graphics side received a nice enhancement on the Xbox series console side of the game. The track surface now looks quite sharper than its predecessor and load times are pretty much non-existent.
Though I do wish the pre-race cut-scenes render in full 60fps like MotoGP 21 instead of a quite laggy 30fps, which looks more out of place with the rest of the game’s smooth 60 to 120fps gameplay.
The sound design did get some buffs as well. The turbocharger is now audible during upshifts and with them cutting off classic cars for this year’s edition, the sounds are mostly the same for the F1 and F2 cars.
And even our custom driver now talks. Well, during the Radio Calls anyway but it is a step in the right direction.
Besides the lag plaguing the cutscenes, it also did get some new stuff alongside the scripted Breaking Point content, like the intro to any new season now features F1’s Will Buxton doing a pre-race rundown like in real life.
Hopefully, we’ll see more F1 hosts coming into the game now, like maybe having ex-F1 driver Jolyon Palmer or Sam Colins (aka the F1.com team) do some Track Rundowns in the future instead of listening to David Croft and Anthony Davidson spouting the same dialogue stuff since 2015.
Gameplay
Breaking Point, the first-ever F1 game story mode is rather interesting, to say the least. It tells the story of one Aiden Jackson and his “Not Kimi Raikkonen” teammate Ackerman battling it out on the track in a story-setting that feels very Netflix-ey in tone.
It’s basically some races with objectives to accomplish within the given laps and does suffer from a bit of Ludonarrative Dissonance during some chapters of the mode.
Its difficulty also ranged from being quite easy to “it’s definitely bugged” during the later chapters on my end but it is quite nice to see the folks at Codemasters revisiting the story mode element of racing games.
Now one gameplay feature that hasn’t been highlighted by the devs is the new Handling model which is perhaps mainly done by request of the actual F1 drivers who also play the games. It feels quite different from the past F1 games and mirrors technical know-how that’s in real life too.
So for example, taking a curb too much will lead to you spinning out of control due to the cars not having a lot of downforces now, which makes controlling these cars rather tricky. Many F1 esports players voiced their displeasure over this but I quite like the change.
It might not be casual friendly due to the following actual physics, but it is rather refreshing to drive the car right on the edge.
AI rivals also get improvements, with them making moves you might see on TV and even making mistakes on the regular. It’s quite nice to be in fights with AI over several laps every now and then, making it quite a challenge to go for podiums, let alone wins.
But alas, bugs from past titles still plague the game. The bugs for the Xbox versions when players are in a party should be duly noted by the devs because it affects gameplay (i.e. steering not connecting and similar issues) and not to mention the Breaking Point mode also getting quite buggy at times.
These fixes might be on the way but it doesn’t really give out a good first impression.
Content
F1 2021’s three main modes will keep players entertained with the game. The aforementioned Breaking Point mode, which will net you around 5-6 hours of gameplay.
The career mode, which branches out with last year’s standout MyTeam mode and the usual team driver mode. Both of which can last from 2 seasons to 10 if you’re willing to spend time with it.
And of course, the multiplayer mode, where you too can be an esports driver, if you’re fast enough. But as usual, the MP modes are rather buggy still and will improve over time with their converted eSports scene needing a solid foundation as usual.
Its Battle Pass (yes, that’s a thing in F1 games) is rather generous with you able to go Prestige rather quickly if you’re engrossed in the game. Its VIP prices are ludicrously expensive and I would avoid it if you don’t mind not getting more interesting helmets and gloves.
And with new tracks coming later in Winter, the content won’t be exactly dry for this year’s edition of F1 and that’s quite a nice change of pace.
Personal Enjoyment
The F1 games, like its parent publisher’s FIFA series, have accumulated quite a following since its 2010 iteration and you can see the improvements (and even downgrades) between then and now.
And although it feels not-casual friendly this year with the cars feeling quite tricky to drive, I can assure you that with enough practice, you can be quite competitive on the track.
For me personally, it is quite refreshing to be a challenge in an F1 game after being more of the same for the last two iterations so with this new handling model that will continue on with next year’s game.
Perhaps then we’ll see Codemaster shift their focus to enhance the pre-race atmosphere and not fall into the early Forza 7 trap of microtransaction. Hopefully.
Verdict
F1 2021 is still one of the best simcade racers on the market. Some of the kinks from the past games still haunt the series, even more so with the Next-Gen versions having lots of bugs but still, there’s nothing like the Formula One game being the gold standard for a licensed racing title.
Played on The Xbox Series S, Review Copy Purchased by Reviewer.
F1 2021
F1 2021 is still one of the best simcade racers on the market. Some of the kinks from the past games still haunt the series, even more so with the Next-Gen versions having lots of bugs but still, there’s nothing like the Formula One game being the gold standard for a licensed racing title.
- Presentation 7.5
- Gameplay 8
- Content 8
- Personal Enjoyment 8.5