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GRID Preview: Test Your Racing Skills Against 400 AI Drivers
Motorsport aficionados rejoice, as Codemasters has returned to reinvigorate their fan-favorite TOCA series for a new generation. The single-word-titled GRID is set to release in a few months, making it over five years since the previous entry in the series, 2014’s GRID Autosoport; in an interesting and possibly related turn, the Nintendo Switch port for GRID Autosport is also set to release next month. Switch fans of the previous game will be able to enjoy that new port soon, but fans wanting to see what’s new in GRID can read on, as Screen Rant was able to secure some hands-on time with an alpha of Codemasters’ newest, showcasing its single-player campaign and the much-touted “Nemesis System.”
The TOCA series has been running strong since the late 90s, spanning PC and consoles from the first PlayStation onwards. While Codemasters has published a vast number of different properties and genres during their storied decades in development, racing games are in their DNA, including the Colin McRae Rally and Dirt series, Formula One, and TOCA, among others.
This newest GRID game has a continued eye towards realistic racing, featuring progressive damage on cars and intense challenge when competing against its intricate AI. To fortify this last point, Codemasters actually sought Spanish racer Fernando Alonso’s involvement in production, whose feedback in his role as race consultant helped shape the present product, garnering it the insights and road-proven sensibilities of one of motorsport’s greatest drivers. Principle Games Designer Simon Barlow elaborates:
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“Fernando came on board about mid-way through development, which meant we actually had a game to show him and could focus more on the detail. Although he gave us feedback on the game itself, his anecdotes and experience of racing were the real gold in terms of helping us capture the feel – and sometimes the intangible ‘magic’ – of racing. Those are the ‘motorsport stories’ we’ve referred to a few times as being a key pillar of the game.”
Stories are personal, which is something Codemasters seeks to add to GRID. Firing up a one-off match from the sizable assortment of over 80 different routes, you’ll inevitably scrape bumpers with the particular AI tech which distinguishes GRID from previous games in the series. Dislodge a fellow driver a certain way or completely running them off the lap will garner you a nemesis, demarcated with a red icon. From this point forward, that individual will work a little bit harder to stymie your progress, even at their own peril. Doing so repeatedly with different drivers in a match and you’ll have an angry squad seeking to block your progress, ratcheting up the intensity in a potentially characterful way.
While it would take work to make nemeses with everybody on the road in a given race, Barlow doesn’t foresee an “all nemeses” mode: “Sadly not, but I can imagine how crazy that would be! That being said, part of the fun in the system comes from its inherent unpredictability and each drivers’ reactions towards you. I feel like if we took that out and made everyone a nemesis it would lose its uniqueness.”
Part of that originality stems from the near 400 different AI personalities injected into each driver. It’s not simply a matter of a stock-standard driver gunning for you like all the rest — each of these racers is programmed as an individual, adding a dynamic dimension to GRID’s competitive approach that makes it stand out from previous entries in the series.
While we were able to secure a number one slot in an Okutama race (this even required a cellphone photo to prove it), GRID certainly feels like a challenge. That challenge is partially eased by the return of a feature which has previously appeared in the series before: the replay mode. Essentially, players can hold down a button to rewind time and reset the last few seconds of a race, letting you practice a tough swerve or drift until you get it just right. While its use is not a requirement to achieve greatness, it does permit some experimentation on the tougher legs of a given track.
In our time with the game we experimented with muscle cars, Formula One, and GT models, all of which look fantastic and are highly responsive, as expected. While we didn’t get to see it in action, a specific career thread pits players against Fernando Alonso’s team, capped by a one-to-one race with Alonso himself.
The main aspect we weren’t able to see live and in action was GRID’s multiplayer component, but Barlow hints at some of the potential options available in those particular modes, especially for motorsport fans: “The biggest area that I think a lot of people neglect is in custom private matches, particularly multi-round championship-style events that players can host themselves. The grassroots online motorsport community has always been really important to us, and we felt that giving those players the means to run their own leagues and tournaments right out of the box was just the right thing to do.”
Players looking to take on Alonso and a wider world of devoted online competitors don’t have long to wait, with GRID set for release this fall.
GRID releases on PC/Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, on October 11. A Google Stadia version is also planned, at time of this writing.
