GRID 2 Demo

The first GRID game turned out to be quite the pleasant surprise for the fans of the racing genre, because it felt different from the rest of what was out there. As such, even if the gameplay was still arcade, it featured a rather impressive physics engine and quite the punishing controls, which made it that much more challenging and exciting.

GRID 2 did not have to do an awful lot in order to get people interested, because the franchise is quite appreciated by racing fans all over the world. However, the doesn’t mean it’s necessarily good, or even better than the first part, because mistakes do happen. Hence, Codemasters seem to have gambled a lot on the popularity of their game and decided to go a bit overboard in a variety of ways.

To start off with, everything has been coated with an even thicker layer of arcade mechanics, because the game feels much more libertine when it comes to handling. Thus, you can now basically slide into the corners much easier, almost regardless of what vehicle you happen to be driving. A lot of AI problems have arisen in the meantime, which severely break the immersion when you need it the most.

If you can get past these annoyances, a lot of fun and excitement await you. There are many different race modes to try out during the career mode, including some that may be familiar from the first episode. Plenty of new ones are available as well, such as the Checkpoint, which has you performing laps until your time runs out, while trying to overtake the opponents that got a head start.

As always, the game impresses from an aesthetic point of view, because the graphics look amazing and they certainly make the experience feel more real. The damage model is excellent as well, since every piece of your car is liable to fly off if you happen to touch the environment. The physics engine is quite realistic, even if the actual gameplay mechanics are very much arcade.

All things considered, GRID 2 has its fair share of flaws and it comes with a few major annoyances that can ruin the experience for slightly more serious players. However, if you just want some fun and a bit of speed, this is definitely a game worthy of a shot, especially thanks to the beautiful graphics and the exciting race modes.