Grid Autosport will appeal to all racing fans
GRID AUTOSPORT is in stark contrast to Codemasters' previous game under the Grid moniker: Grid 2. Actual motorsport is the sole focus of Autosport, with purposebuild race cars making up a sizeable slab of Autosport's vehicle roster. Autosport makes some odd choices with its low- quality cabin view and flawed endurance racing, and it lacks enough customisation options to leave gamers seriously wanting, but overall comes to something of a triumph as Codemasters seems to be back firing on all cylinders.
Crucially, Autosport’s career structure and nuanced vehicle handling combine to alleviate any potential frustration for players weaned on effortless victories. The career is split into five disciplines: Touring, Endurance, Open Wheel, Tuner and Street. Taking part in an event will earn you XP in that particular discipline’s strand, and larger Grid tournaments become available once you’ve reached a certain level in all five.
XP is earned in several ways: Team Targets ask for a minimum finishing position in the Team Championships ( but you’ll only lose XP, not progress, if you miss this); Team Bonuses offer secondary objectives such as a finishing position in the Drivers’ Championship or finishing ahead of a particular driver; Sponsor Objectives offer smaller amounts of XP for, say, driving above 120mph for three minutes in total or improving on your previous lap time during a race; and finally Discipline Rewards award you for your finishing position, beating your rival, posting the fastest lap and any bonus earned from racing without driving aids or limiting yourself to an in- car view.
Autosport's career structure is quite straightforward, and basically follows a sponsorship model where you need to hit specific objectives to attract new ones with deeper pockets. It’s a lot simpler and more rigid than past Grid games, and doesn't have any meaningful management or teammate decision- making, which makes the game sometimes feel a little arbitrary and lacking depth. It works fine, but it just doesn't do a particularly good job of making you feel invested in anything.
Autosport is a good- looking game for the most part. I love the little details, like the flies buzzing around your helmet while parked on the grid at Jarama under the belting Spanish sun, or the bugs assaulting your headlights when waiting for the green light in a night race. The car models, at least externally, are entirely satisfactory and the tracks beam with colour. There are quite a few details that don’t stand up to much inspection, however. Underneath damaged hoods engine detail is rudimentary at best, as are the crowds. I did like how the stands were almost empty during qualifying sessions but packed for races, though.
For the first time in a long, long time, it feels like Codemasters have released a racer built purely to appeal to the long- time Codemasters racing fans. It promised proper motor racing and that's exactly what it delivers.