I’ll make this clear from the start, I’m a HUGE Gran Turismo fan. I’ve owned every copy of the franchise in their 20 year history and still have them all in my collection.
As soon as the pre-order’s went live for this I had my name down for the Limited Edition with my local game store and over the 18 month period have paid bits and pieces off it through money left over from game trades and built up points.
Polyphony Digital put a years delay on the initial release of the game as they weren’t happy with it. This, I can just about forgive. Too many game developers release games full of bugs and rely on updates to correct their mistakes.
But has my 2 year wait for the game been worth it?
It’s beautiful; there’s no escaping that fact. Polyphony have always pushed the limits with graphics whichever generation of PlayStation they have used, but graphics aren’t everything when it comes to a game.
Photo mode offers some nice touches
Everything in fact about this game is nice, but it doesn’t offer the same feel as previous versions. The car count is considerably less than has been boasted before. 162 cars are in the released version which is a huge difference from the 1197 which featured in the base release of Gran Turismo 6 in 2013. I am just hoping there will be more added to the list in future updates.
Then there are the tracks; 40 variations in total over 11 Polyphony created tracks and 6 real world venues. Again, thats down heavily on GT6 which boasted 40 seperate locations with 107 course variations.
However, this is a racing game. Gone are the bog standard 1 liter cars. The 162 cars that do appear are pure racers. However, the game is seriously geared toward online play; and that’s where it fails massively.
Yes, the online is running smoothly enough and there are scheduled races that start every 5 minutes or so, but if there is scheduled maintenance then the offline part of the game is none existent. There is a career mode which still incorporates the good old driving school part of the game, but other than gaining extra cars as a reward, it fills no purpose.
Also, if the servers are down when you start the game you get a warning to say that your game will not save in offline mode. So, other than being able to do a couple of rather poor races against AI vehicles, this game is severely limited in what you can actually do.
The annoying thing however, is that there are some fantastic touches that have crept in to the game. If you skirt over the fact that Lewis Hamilton is a named sponsor for the game (love him or hate him), within the Brand Central menu is where things get exciting. Brand Central is where you go to purchase new cars with your winnings, but within the manufacturer menus you now have a channel. Go into that for a nosey and there are videos about various cars and details from the manufacturer.
There’s a lot of nice touches in there, but the game just doesn’t measure up to anything that has been released in the past. I, as well as millions of others, have waited a long time for this game and it has failed on so many levels, but then pulls something back in other touches. I’m still to fully make my mind up on what Polyphony have released. I have hoping that they improve on the lack of cars and tracks in various updates, but they have promised so much before that never got released on earlier titles.
I want to tell people to avoid the game, but I am a fan and always will be. On the surface of things, it is a weak game, but with official online FIA races due to start in November, it offers lots for those who have a PS+ subscription.
I will give the game a 6/10. It needs some serious content work before that score can be any higher. A game can’t survive on graphics alone, but they are certainly amazing as they always have been. If Polyphony add more cars, more tracks and variations on those courses, and a better career mode, then I will come back to this review and update the score. Until that point, if you want to go out and buy the game, don’t say that I didn’t warn you
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I’m a huge GT fan and too disappointed with the finished product. Why can’t you have a non online career mode? It just spoils your chances to race your new car that you can now decorate to your liking. So many great tracks missing too…Shame!