Grid Legends: Release date, gameplay & more

The Grid Legends release date has been announced. Here is that plus gameplay footage and other things you should know about the forthcoming racer from Codemasters and EA.

Details of Grid Legends, the fifth game in the series, are now starting to surface including the officially announced 28^th of February 2022 release date.

Codemasters, the developer behind Dirt Rally 2.0, says Grid Legends features a “deeper” career mode known as ‘Driven to Glory’ with more than 250 events.

Grid Legends also sees the return of two game modes: Drift and Elimination. The former is all about drifting, while the latter removes the last two cars from a race after each countdown until a 1v1 battle for glory ensues.

What else is new in Grid Legends?

In terms of other new stuff, Electric Boost racing makes its debut in Grid Legends. Just in case you fancy some high torque, rapid acceleration of the quieter variety. During these races you can either hug the apex or take a wider line to use boost recharge gates.

Plus there is multiplayer with racing accessible to you and your friends in a mere three button presses. No more lobbies apparently, but you will be able to enjoy cross-platform support and up to 22 participants – up from 16 in Grid from October 2019.

As with previous Grid games, a mixture of real circuits and open-world cruising in famous cities – Project Gotham Racing style – will be available to you at launch. That includes London, in case you want to try and crash into Big Ben. Moscow is another new location.

In addition, Grid Legends offers more than 100 vehicles – more than ever before. These range from modern cars and legendary oldies such as the AC Cobra to mad jumping pick-ups and flimsy, aerodynamically blessed single-seaters. Even big rigs make the cut.

Codemasters says post launch vehicles will be announced after the Grid Legends 25^th of February release date.

What about the career mode?

The Driven to Glory career mode is reminiscent of Codemasters and EA’s Drive to Survive-inspired story mode in F1 2021. It is said to ‘throw you in at the deep end as teams battle for the Grid World Series’ as you take on the role of driver 22.

The story is brought to life by real actors in front of green screens, like how it was in the days of Command & Conquer. Not like the CG-only cut scenes in TOCA Race Driver 3 and Race Driver: Grid. Award-winning actor Ncuti Gatwa of Sex Education (Netflix) fame is one of the Grid Legends cast.

Upon completion of the story, Driven to Glory becomes a more typical career mode affair with a series of new events available for you to race at.

Grid Legends gets a Race Creator mode, too, which lets you host or partake in races of custom vehicle types. Here you will have the option to change the weather conditions, time of day and add ramps and boost gates for added challenge. You can also use randomiser function to decide for you.

Any Grid Legends gameplay?

As you may have noticed, gameplay is taken from a preview build that some influencers (sadly not me) got to play. Your AI opponents allegedly have improved personalities, meaning they should be less like a soulless procession and more inclined to crash and brake test Max Verstappen style.

Grid creative director, Chris Smith, said the idea was to blur the lines between AI and human drivers so that every race is a unique experience. This is why each AI racer has its own personality. To try and humanise them further, a choreographer was used – as done in previous games.

Also making a return is the ability to have a nemesis if you push them around too much (indicated by a red icon). Revenge may not be swift, but it is assured.

The Project Gotham Racing comparison continues because not only are you judged in terms of lap times and finishing position, you get points for drifting and other stuff too.

Still arcadey handling?

There are some realistic bits in Grid Legends. Things like having to pay to repair damage, which should encourage you to drive more carefully, while it appears you also pay if you rent a car such as a Ginetta.

It is also nice to see vehicles realistically fall apart as you crash into other racers, barriers or take jumps a little too eagerly. Plus engines can blow up, which is unusual for a racer. Just do not expect tyre wear, pit stops or endurance racing.

Over the first 12 months of launch, allegedly there will be four downloadable content (DLC) packs. Exactly what we will get is unknown at the time of writing this article.

Unlike Forza Horizon 5, all versions of Grid Legends have the same release date. However, pre-ordering the game gives you the Seneca & Ravenwest Double Pack with four extra cars for the career mode: The Aston Martin Vantage GT4, Porsche 962C, Ginetta G55 GT4 and the Koenigsegg Jesko.

In addition, you get career mode events for the Ravenwest Motorsport driving team as well as team icons, liveries and banners for both Ravenwest and Seneca.

Go for the Grid Legends: Deluxe Edition and there is even more content such as the VW Golf GTI, Audi R8 1:1, Mechanic Pass for speedier vehicle unlocks, exclusive challenges and yet more liveries, banners and logos for the new Voltz team in career mode.

Said deluxe edition will provide access to all post launch content, according to EA. So it makes sense to buy if you want to get the most from Grid Legends. Whether that will be worth doing is unclear, I shall try to get a go as soon as I can.

Worth a look then?

Based on footage I have seen, it does appear that Grid Legends is less punishing than before when it comes to nudging kerbs and so it should be less frustrating and more predictable than its predecessor. Especially if the AI is a bit less aggressive.

What stands out most to me, however, is that intense city racing – something many of us loved in the Project Gotham Racing series. A return to the Race Driver: Grid team management and Le Mans racing would have been nice too.

Grid Legends will be available on PC via Origin and Steam, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S.