To me the arcade racer draws a nearly perfect line between us hardcore action gamers and the more casual gamers. While I will not invite the FIFA series into my house, arcade racers like the 2010 Hot Pursuit, Burnout and the like are more than welcome. Why are they welcome? Because both me and my friends will enjoy them.

I’m sure when I say racing games everyone’s thoughts jump to the Need for Speed series, and why shouldn’t they? EA had the strongest reach during the 90s, very few racing games were as easy to acquire or get into so obviously Need for Speed was the only choice and let’s be honest they were great games.

However, times have changed since the 90s. The racing genre has exploded with tons of games each taking their own view of the genre. Digital stores like Steam have made sure that every game is equally acquirable. Need for Speed itself has grown and to a large extent forgotten its roots. This is all good for consumers since we get a ton more choices. One of those choices is the GRID family, so let’s take a look at GRID 2 since unlike its predecessor and successor it’s more arcade than simulation.

Story:

The game kicks off as the player, a driver who is chosen by Patrick Callahan who wants to form an international mixed racing league called the World Series Racing (WSR). The player’s job is to get clubs to join the WSR and to get fans to notice it.

The player is kept company by his mechanic who doubles as the games narrator giving out advice and notifying him about events and opportunities in the menu or damage and position in races.

The story is mostly a thinly veiled attempt to keep a relation between the events.

Sound:

 I love the fact that the menus and loading screens have a different background tracks. The loading screen has this track that I feel like it is the start of a fight in an action movie, while the menu has a more relaxed track that while lite, is still keeping you prepped. Even the sound from the start menu to the mode you choose has the sound of a car accelerating and it works.

In race there is no background music till the last lap. In the last lap the music decides you need a swift kick and pumps to some really awesome instrumental tracks that shoot your adrenalin through the roof. Sadly, this music is not there in some modes like the checkpoint or endurance mode which doesn’t really have a set ending.

Graphics:

Let’s start this section easy with the menus. At the start of the game your menu is a desktop in a run-down garage and it makes you feel that you are an amateur trying to make it. Later you have a full garage and a huge screen that makes you feel like some kind of pro ready to take on the world. The graphics are not static in the menu either, they are 3D with stuff like solar flair and reflections going on, so the game doesn’t have you go from one look in the menu to something completely different in game. It is all max all the time.

The tracks are really nice to look at too. While most tracks share a similar street racing theme they each have their own unique little touches.  These little touches range from buildings in the background that make the city you are racing in obvious to the cars in the crowds at the side of the roads. The game has shadows, dynamic lighting and the works which is pretty surprising for such an old racing game but I’m not complaining.

The cars too are well done and they should be in a game like this. They have reflective surfaces and real time reflections which are nice, they throw out smoke from their burning tires. The best part of the cars is the damage, when you hit a wall or another car, pieces fly off and the damage is easily visible on the car itself, it helps the feel really well.
I would call the graphics the gateway drug. They try to look like a sim while doing everything you expect from an arcade game including a fuck ton of smoke during drifts.

Gameplay:

Before we begin I would like to say this: GRID 2 unlike the other members of its family is not a sim. It’s a gateway to sims.

The gameplay makes you regret your choices from the get go: From the race you chose to the car. There is a perfect car for each track but no one is going to choose it because everyone has a favourite car and they will pick that. Since each car’s handling is unique the game is going to screw you over and you’re going to thank GRID for it.

Since most tracks are city based they have dividers set up, this gives you a place to side ram while you learn the ropes. There are tracks that have hills or mountains on the sides and these will flip you over if you hit them too hard. Don’t worry though, once you learn the ropes you can just about attack any track except Corte De Azure which is a huge pain in the butt.

The biggest difference between GRID and Need For Speed is that each car in GRID handles very uniquely. While most racers put some obstacles that you can simply memorize and get around, GRID 2 adds something very unique: the driving itself. Each turn starts out simple and you can slow down to take it but to take it at high speeds you need to drift. The drifting is not simply holding down a direction and turning, it’s like playing a song on the piano, at very point in the turn you need to handle the cars power, weight and angle so make sure your layout is set to be able to break and accelerate very quickly. Like I said before, every car feels different so you need a per car attack plan.  This makes the drifting some of the most challenging and at the same time fun I have ever had in a game.

GRID 2 does give something to help beginners ease in though and that is “Flashback”. It lets you rewind time during a race so that you can un fuckup a turn, a collision or get payback to that arse hole that tripped you. While limited, it is awesome.

I won’t go into the different race types GRID 2 has since they are a lot except for the track racing which is just plain annoying and easily the games lowest point. The tracks are annoying since they have a lot of run off area, the cars you get aren’t driftable so until you get to cars like the Ariel Atom they are infuriating races.

Conclusion:

GRID 2 is fast and good fun, it doesn’t have any combat but as a racer it nails the job.

Final Score 8/10