Last weekend Codemasters showed a good 40 minutes of new gameplay for the upcoming racer Grid Legends.
This showcase focuses on the Story Mode, called Driven To Glory, which sees you as Driver 22, a last-minute replacement for the No.2 Driver slot for Seneca Racing.
The story is framed as a documentary, featuring driver and individual interviews, very similar to the hit Netflix documentary series Drive To Survive. But instead of putting personalities to F1 drivers, this time is adding Hollywood-level faces to the AI drivers you will be racing on the Grid Series.
Any negative feelings you have against Ravenwest Motorsport, the big boss of the Grid series so to speak, is evermore justified after seeing this rendition of Nathan McKane.
(Having Seneca Racing racing in white, blue and red colours as the underdog and backmarker team is either pure coincidence or a cheeky nod. But I digress.)
The gameplay showcase gives some glimpses of the cutscenes in Driven To Glory, shot using extended reality. So you see the cast interacting with virtual assets like when they point towards the cars. The acting is what you expect from an FMV game, you either find it overly acted and cringey, or oddly charming.
There’s plenty of variety in the racing in Grid Legends. All the races shown are part of Driven To Glory. You’ll be taking touring cars around the streets of San Francissco (a returning track), an open-wheeler around London (a new track), super trucks around Paris (returning), do a bit of multi-class racing where you race in the top class while avoiding the moving traffic, race through the iconic Australian track of Bathurst (Mount Panorama) (returning) in horrid rain, and take a Honda NSX-GT for a lap around Suzuka (returning, previously in Grid 2019 as DLC).
Also, all the races shown here have an original soundtrack playing. The Grid series usually is sparsed when it comes to music (which makes those Le Mans races in Race Driver: Grid so good). So it’s an interesting change.
Grid Legends is coming out on February 25 for the PS4, PS5, PC (Steam, Origin), Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.