One issue I’ve had with Gran Turismo on the whole is that it always felt too serious. You needed to practically BE a race car driver to understand exactly how to win races. Controls were hard to master and I just liked the arcade racers more because my skill level lent itself better to that style.
While that seriousness is still present, Gran Turismo: Sport on Playstation 4 is a really good racing game that is more fun than I remember them ever being. The AI seems to learn and adapt to your style, so that a move you tried passing with on the last lap won’t work on the next one. You have to constantly adapt as well because other cars are actually aggressive and smart. Decorating your car is fun and customizing the look and feel is something that you can lose hours doing.
While there are a lot of cars to choose from and a number of different locations to race in, the game feels a bit…empty. I played GT:6, and the selection and emphasis on car collecting is missing here. Yes, you can collect them, but the sheer volume of 6 just isn’t here. It seems that with the omission of the number 7 after this game’s title, this game was developed as a stop-gap between 6 and 7, and it feels like that: a stripped-down version of something that could have and should have been just, more.
I’ve been told that the cars of GT: Sport handle very similarly to their real-life counterparts. I obviously have no way of knowing if that’s true, but you can customize them even further with entire screens of ratios, brake systems, sliders…you name it, you can probably tweak it. This gives you almost unlimited control of every aspect of your car and race experience, Gran Turismo has always been good that way.
One issue with GT: Sport is that it requires an online connection to the servers to do anything but race in arcade mode, stopping all meaningful progress until you’re reconnected. That’s it. You can’t take a photo, create a decal, browse your garage, nothing until you’re online again. It’s an annoyance for sure, as even during the review period, the servers were down most of the time.
Though the graphics are really good, there is still the odd edge tear, some pixelated shadows…things that when seen take you out of the moment, but most of the time it’s a pleasure to look at. The game is stunning, even on my standard PS4 – and especially at 60fps – but not as photorealistic as I thought it would be, basing it on the visual progression of the series’ previous titles. The damage modelling leaves something to be desired when you’re expecting a big hit to cause lots of damage but then…it doesn’t; and the completely rigid barriers make it feel a little constrained, almost like you’re playing an older generation racing game.
All told, Gran Turismo: Sport is a great racing game. It’s got enough to keep true race fans coming back for more. It’s challenges and different modes are fun to play, and the game looks great. It does, however, feel a bit empty for a game that was so long in production, and one can only wonder if and when GT:7 does make its appearance, if we’ll get the true game that this one was supposed to be.
Have you played it? Leave your comments below!
