Sorry for the long break, faithful reader! I have been working on another (paid!!!) video game reviewing project, and as such this blog has suffered. But I have several finished games in the can, and hope to catch up a bit in the next few weeks. On to the review!
Gran Turismo 3 was the second game I bought for my shiny new PS2 (after Marvel v. Capcom). When you're young, and you have very little money, you play games to death and Gran Turismo 3 was my most-played PS2 game for a very long time. I still remember every curve to every track in that game, and despite the fact that I'm not really a car guy, I greatly appreciated the love for cars that oozed out of every pore of that game.
Cut to 2020, and I was feeling a brand new Gran Turismo experience, facilitated by a delightful 9.99 deal for the reasonably new Gran Turismo Sport on Amazon. Sport is considerably different than the other Gran Turismo games, as it's focused primarily on online multiplayer. This is probably a smart decision for the developers, as online multiplayer is the feature that gets people to stick to a game, engage in microtransactions, and, perhaps most importantly, berate their friends until they're playing it, too. Gran Turismo is a smart choice for online multiplayer as well, given the lack of organized esports for racing games in general, the ease of adapting a racing game to a professionalized online sports experience, and the success of other sports simulation games in the same arena (NBA 2K, FIFA, Madden, etc.). The other big change up for Sport is its focus on VR. I don't have Playstation VR, but boy would I like to try this game in VR. It's astonishingly lifelike and beautiful, and I don't know if there's a genre of game with more ability to mimic real life than racing simulations. Give a man a steering wheel, a chair, a copy of Gran Turismo, a headset, and it really would feel like driving an actual car.
Much of the criticism of the game when it came out was for the lack of a serious single player campaign, for which Gran Turismo is well known. This is pretty fair, and is the primary reason why I didn't buy it when it came out. It's not that hard to slap together 50 cups composed of courses you've already developed with cars you've already included, and I think not including a mode like this was a mistake. Following the release, however, they have added this feature in, improving the game's accessibility to a wider range of players, and giving novices the ability to hone their skills before jumping into the online modes. However, slapping a single player mode in the game makes you realize why they didn't do it at first-the game's economy just isn't built for single player.
The old Gran Turismo experience had you starting the game with a beater on simple cups, building up funds to get the car you need for the next cup or earning that car as a reward for clearing cups, and upgrading your cars along the way. Sport features an economy that will be familiar to those who've played primarily online experiences recently-daily login bonuses of cars for those who drive a certain number of miles. What's more, these cars are randomly selected, and apparently done so without the slightest consideration of the player's level. Very early on, I received a $1,000,000 car as a random reward, something that would have been unthinkable in the older games. What's more, there are no longer any specific rewards for completing a cup, likely due to the fact that the existing system is already very generous.
All of this combines to create a game in which you're heavily at the mercy of RNG for which cups to do next, the shop is far less important than it's ever been, and you miss out on the periodic boost of endorphins that comes with finishing a cup. Add to that the fact that the vehicle upgrading system has been significantly simplified to accommodate new players, and you have a single player Gran Turismo experience that feels disjointed and out of sorts compared to its predecessors.
With all that being said, the game is still extremely fun. The engine, as you'd expect, is tremendous. The game is beyond beautiful. There are tons of courses to race on, and the online experience is excellent and generally devoid of the rancor and bullying you'll occasionally find in other games. There's a huge selection of cars for any fan, although the persistent online experience has had some licenses lapse, removing certain cars from the shop. But, they add new ones as well, so this is probably a wash, in total.
This is an excellent racing game, but it left me wanting a more traditional Gran Turismo experience. The game is designed for an excellent online and VR experience, and it delivers on both (I'm having to trust other reviewers on the VR experience). The single player mode is clearly patched in as best they could, but leaves a lot to be desired. I'll give Sport a 8.5/10.
I've already teased my next game to be reTROviewed here, so stay tuned!
-TRO
No comments:
Post a Comment