This game got a lot of stick just like old TRD1 (Toca/Pro Race Driver) and I honestly don’t see much of an issue. Its kind of the same level as TRD1 for me.

Game has all the content that GRID 2019 had including its DLC’s plus new tracks/cars and old favourite locations from Grid 2, the game looks just as good if not better and the handling model has been refined again to be less realistic as GRID 2019 and to be a tad more arcadey in my opinion but not as much as GRID 1 or 2 and its good feeling I think.

The game has a story mode that includes Ryan McKanes return that are acted out with real actors, a bit cringe but I loved it to be honest. Theres 4 DLC’s, only 2 of them being any worth playing. The first and last DLC’s are just lame: first being destruction derby, which should be fun, but isn’t designed properly and the last one is just a mash of game modes that isn’t anything to shout about. DLC’s 2 and 3 cover endurance racing at new track Fuji and the history of Ravenwest team which does some nice callbacks to the older GRID games.

Post story there’s a non story career mode which is unfortunately about as grindy as GRID 2019’s. It has a lot of events but each event uses a wider variety of tracks and weather combinations to keep it quite fresh. The grind comes in sponsor objectives and getting into the final league of the mode where you have to master every car discipline but every finale race of the disciplines require a fully upgraded car which can only be unlocked from driving 25 miles with the car - but in most cases the game only gives you 2 events to use with the car. So you end up having to make single races grinding out mileage on the car for an upgrade which is dumb, the game is long enough it didn’t need that.

On the track the AI is much better than the last game and opponents cars can just get critical malfunctions out of nowhere which just adds more action to the race, plus the soundtrack that plays in story mode makes the races hyped up. Some race characters are also complete ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and really ram into you if you try to pass them. The team driver AI also can be upgraded to let you pass, etc bringing a bit more depth to them but you cant hire anyone it has to be one person which doesn’t bother me. You can also upgrade the mechanic (who isnt as annoyingly repetitive as the last game) to give you money off cars and upgrades, etc which is okay.

The games flaws as far as I see it are: DLC 1, the grindy career mode, the tacked on drift mode (which can be mostly avoided) and the simplistic tuning options. All in all the game isn’t as good as GRID 1 I don’t think any racer ever will be again but it’s a decent game that has learned from its past mistakes. I think many that are heavily low rating this game are mostly nostalgia salty that they don’t have GRID 1 again.