The last remnants of the TOCA series, GRID Legends is an odd 25-year celebration for the series about racing fast cars around bends. I’ve been a fan of the spin-off series since its early-late PS3 days, set around a competition with a loose story, telling you that there is something to fight for. This year’s release from Codemasters brought something new to the framework, however, you would be able to do more than tackle racing trucks like Midas Interactive’s Truck Racing 2. Instead of letting the GRID world series stay in the backdrop of the racing, Legends brings an FMV-heavy story in the form of Driven to Glory to the foreground.

The plucky young upstart, Senneca Racing looks to take the title fight to the bitter end after getting into the pro-series of the GRID world series. With title rivals from Voltz Racing and Ravenwest Motorsport played by Sex Education‘s Valentin Manzi and Jamestown‘s Callum McGowan, Legends stresses an emphasis on an epic fight for the ages. The trouble with that, and the trouble with the best motorsport or any sports story is just how bland it comes off. We’re shown how extravagant and grand every bit of wheel-to-wheel action should feel, yet in-game, it is just a further example of 2019’s GRID.

That is not to say GRID Legends is boring because it is more of the same, the racing has been refined a bit more, the established career mode with your own team is a little better overall, and when it has its moments, they are good. There was one particular low point roughly midway through the story-mode in a race somewhere generic, yet the moment when the car ahead spun out, hit the wall and barreled over me while still in gameplay, that right there was a fun racing moment. There are some of those that are a little more scripted than others, but when the moment is right, when the engines are revving and the smell of exhaust fumes are in the air, it can make for an all-time moment.

The FMV-heavy cutscenes on the other hand don’t receive as much praise in my book, as you could find a better story on the back of a shampoo bottle. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, the up-start team rises through the ranks finds a hot-shot driver to take them to the title fight, with the series antagonist being backed by family connections and money. Strapped for cash and hitting brick walls like they were playing Elden Ring, the underdog team has to pool together and stay strong in the face of adversity.

The point that makes you invested in a story is the context it provides to the larger plot, but here we’re shown prototypical underdogs fighting archetypical jocks, captured Drive to Survive-style with interviews, and looking down the camera. The phrase painfully generic seems too broad for it like it is averse to exactly what it is. Story mode isn’t bad but it isn’t good either. If it weren’t for the gimmick of the Mandalorian-style backdrops to the FMV section as actors obviously played dress-up for a couple of weeks, it would have been entirely worthless. With the gimmick, the intrigue is there but it lacks the quality to keep a hold of you.

Driving is still a bit arcade-y, though this time I purposefully turned the sensitivity down almost as far as possible to reduce that. Maybe I’ve been playing a bit too much Burnout 3: Takedown, Gran Turismo, and otherwise, but when I’m driving a truck that is supposed to be heavy enough to not go around a corner at speed, I want to feel that and not just see it. That said, the handling on the Dumont Brawler Sport truck made me want to chew a brick, and that wasn’t just for the odd bug where I crashed so hard I made the game run at 13 FPS. I could clip through walls, get 40-seconds ahead, and I’d endlessly be clipping walls that weren’t in the middle of the track while trying to race.

Something tells me the bug that I found was so obscure no one else will have (or ever will) encountered it, though if you are going to do the story-race at Yokohama Docks, turn off the terminal damage and try to avoid the inside corner of the beige warehouse you drive through. I still don’t understand how, but be wary of those stadium trucks. What makes their handling stand out so much is the fact that everything else from GT racers, open-wheeled Formulas, and even Formula E cars, feels fun and great to drive. However, the Drifting category is about as welcome as a dirty diaper, lacking the fun or finesse that other games have provided for such modes.

I mentioned Burnout 3 a minute ago, but I need to do so once more, as Eliminator X is copying the homework of sister EA studio Criterion. Opting for eliminating two drivers at a time, a clock ticks down and like an anti-Royal Rumble someone is booted out until we’re only left with two racing to stay in first on the final countdown. Fun, yes, but with the extended grid, it makes the trick of the concept go on a little bit too long for its short monkey dance. Though if we are going to talk about taking something from something else, we can’t forget about the electric series basically stealing the Mario-Kart boost from Formula E.

It is an interesting concept with a serious racing series, but the concept of the boost is almost entirely dependent on other components of the series as well. Formula E, if you haven’t checked it out just yet, is a timed race with the cars all conditional on battery life. The boost can be activated only a set number of times by a driver throughout, and of course, it uses up a greater amount of energy. It is a strategic move beyond just falling off the racing line, it is akin to F1 pit-stop strategy. Here there is none of that, it is just a massive amount of boost that doesn’t live up to the hype.

I enjoy the novelty of electric cars in the game. I like the near-silence off the line, the weight and how it generally feels, alongside the strange feeling that such speed without a roar of combustion isn’t possible. On top of all that, they are fun to drive. With that being said, the number of tracks and additions make for a meager offering on that front. San Francisco is still here, a storied companion to the series that I can still see the evolution from the DS version to now. London is fun, the less way say about Moscow the better, and the entire collection as a whole is great, but there isn’t much that feels new or interesting to race around. This continues the opinion that Legends is little more than an expansion of 2019’s GRID.

On the Xbox One, performance isn’t a highlight. When caught behind a busy crash or causing one yourself, the busy nature of bits of bodywork flying off gets a bit messy, causing a few dips. That is nothing compared to the sustained 15-minutes of 13 FPS I experienced, though it is only noticeable for the moment it is there nonetheless. Not that graphically GRID Legends is taxing, it does enough to stay out of its own way without trying to render every blade of grass and spot of paint to have pixel-perfect physics attached to them. It isn’t difficult, but it looks better than Gear.Club Unlimited 2 but doesn’t nip too harshly at Forza Horizon 5‘s heals.

Ultimately, GRID Legends attempts to have the story mode do a majority of the heavy lifting in the 25th year of the TOCA series. Despite being a touch lacking, it does enough to intrigue over its short runtime. It is a more refined version of 2019’s GRID than anything else and Legends brings more of that racing fun alongside a small but sumptuous collection of improvements. The biggest letdown overall is the lack of anything to clutch to within the Driven to Glory story, going for broad strokes rather than something original and interesting on its own. I guess the nicest addition was the ability to create your own races, but with such a small collection of tracks and the length of both the story and career, I’m ok going elsewhere for that.

An Xbox One copy of GRID Legends was provided by Electronic Arts for the purposes of this review.

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GRID Legends

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• Driven to Glory is a fine gimmick.
• Fun racing refined from last release.

Cons

• Story lacks originality.
• More of the same to the previous release, more or less.
• The handling of the stadium trucks is wild in comparison to everything else.