If you want the finest racing game on mobile and one of the nicest game ever to grace the platform, stop reading and go download GRID Autosport ($9.99) right now from Codemasters and Feral Interactive. Why? Just think of it as a child’s game. GRID Autosport is an all-out premium experience with a ton of content that will keep you busy for years, a wealth of gameplay options, stunning graphics, and controls and difficulty settings that can adjusted to fit each player’s preferences. The game developed by Feral Interactive is well worthy of a place on a home console. The transfer is mostly flawless, but you should prepare for rapid battery depletion and occasional frame drops when the game’s graphic settings increased (even on an iPhone X). Despite these minor flaws, GRID Autosport is an excellent racing game that has long anticipated by enthusiasts.
The 2015 PC and previous-gen console release of GRID Autosport
The 2015 PC and previous-gen console release of GRID Autosport was developer Codemasters’ effort to return the series to a more realistic take on the racing genre after the series’ previous installment, GRID 2, erred a little too far toward accessibility at the expense of realism. Having just driven a few laps in a variety of vehicles, I able to tell that GRID is a hard, realistic racing game that will test the skills of even the most seasoned racers. I’ve trying out several vehicles to get a sense for their handling, and I always surprised by how uniquely different they all are. The speed at which you leave the track in an open-wheel vehicle will astound you if you attempt to drive it like a stock car. What first drew me to this game was its focus on providing a genuine racing experience.
Although GRID’s realistic driving model does a good job of simulating the game’s 100 automobiles, the game wouldn’t nearly as entertaining if players given a variety of racing modes and environments in which to compete. The sheer magnitude of GRID’s material is unprecedented in games of this kind. Where do I even begin? In particular, there are five fields in which you might launch a professional career (Touring, Endurance, Open Wheel, Tuner, and Street). Each job allows you to choose a team (with its own goals, sponsors, and teammates), compete in races, and earn rewards and fame. There is a lot of diversity in the various disciplines because to the wide range of vehicles and course layouts used.
Who needs that responsibility, anyway?
If you don’t want to commit to a career, you may compete in several championships such as the Drag, Touring, and Sprint Cups, create your own custom championships, race in a Time Trial or Quick Race, and much more. Several more exciting game modes are also available to you. They include a demolition derby, a drift hunters drift mode, and a mode in which the last vehicle in the race is removed every few seconds. The greatest thing is that none of this material is restricted by paywalls or time limits. The length and format of your race are entirely up to you.
GRID has over 100 vehicles and 100 courses, all of which are beautifully portrayed, as one would expect from a game with so many distinct modes and ways to compete (as you can see from the various screenshots peppered across this review). Although not every car maker is represented and your own favorite track may not be playable, there is a wide variety of vehicles and courses to keep you occupied for quite some time. It’s great that I can race everything from a Lamborghini to a Mini Cooper, since each vehicle has its own unique racing style and strategy that’s a lot of fun to experiment with.
GRID may seem daunting at this point
This is not some light racing game (the game even reminds you of that when you start playing). The good news for those who aren’t huge fans of difficult racing games is that you can adjust the game’s difficulty to suit your preferences. Custom difficulty in GRID allows you to choose between automatic and manual transmission, many degrees of artificial intelligence, a Race Line, traction control, anti-lock brakes, and a Handling Assist feature.
You may have it drive practically automatically for you, or you can turn off all assistance, use the greatest artificial intelligence, stick to manual transmission, and likely total your vehicle within seconds. Because this is a mobile game and, well, life happens, you also have flashbacks, which let you backtrack to an earlier point in the game if you make a mistake.
I spent a lot of time adjusting the settings until I discovered the sweet spot where the game was challenging enough to keep me interested but not so difficult that I was always ending my races in tragic fashion. Those who are very dedicated to the hobby may customize every vehicle to their tastes by adjusting parameters like gear ratios, differentials, downforce, and so on. The race versus the AI is exciting since it does not just follow the race line (which really bothers me in racing games). It’s still artificial intelligence, but it’s a lot of fun to challenge.
Feral Interactive’s performance and mobile conversion were superb
With GRID, you may use a wide variety of control schemes, from tilt to a gamepad, each of which can adjusted to your liking. It means you can use a smartphone with tilt controls or an iPad with an MFi controller to play the game if you choose. After spending some time adjusting the settings to my liking, I realized that I was comfortable in any vehicle.
The game’s controls generally responsive, with the exception of a few rare instances when I thought my touch input recognized. I’ve been having a great time playing it on my iPhone X, mainly with the tilt controls. You’ll get a realistic sense for driving conditions, from slipping tires to bouncing off of curbs and all sorts of other sensations, thanks to the game’s excellent use of haptic feedback. In addition, Force Touch is available for enhanced command of velocity and braking.
With an iPhone X, GRID runs well, although I have had occasional slowdowns that caused by a high number of vehicles on screen. As even the slightest lag may send you careening off the course at high speeds in a racing game, I hope it just a memory leak or a problem that gets addressed soon. I relieved that we can fix stutter-related crashes with flashbacks. The battery will go quickly, and your phone will heat up, since GRID has demanding graphics. We pay the price for cramming so much content onto such small gadgets. Thankfully, this port has a power-saving mode that reduces the display’s brightness.
In terms of aesthetics, GRID is stunning
Everything in this game, from the vehicles to the environments to the courses, looks fantastic. Sometimes it’s hard to discern whether a video is showing actual gameplay or a cutscene. Apart with the impressive aesthetics, the game’s audio is likewise top-notch, recreating every detail of the racing experience down to the chatter of your race mechanic. Given that the game fills the whole screen on an iPhone X (and no, the notch doesn’t get in the way), it’s the type of app you’ll want to show off to your friends.
Is there no flaw in GRID Autosport? It’s not exactly like that, but it’s close. For instance, it would have been nice if all the options fit on a single screen, eliminating the need for me to constantly scroll to the right and left. As for the size of the text, maybe it might have been a little bigger on a mobile device. If you’re a lover of racing games, you need to get GRID right now on your mobile device. At just $9.99, I almost feel bad about purchasing such a rich and fun game (almost). Apart from a few minor flaws, GRID Autosport is a fantastic version of an already excellent game.
Keep in mind that it needs iOS 11 to run properly and will only run on an iPhone SE, iPhone 7 or later, iPad (2017), iPad Pros, and it will take up roughly 6 GB of storage space on your smartphone. Let me know when you’re ready to go since I have a supercar to race down a long straightaway.
