I was surprised. From what I've heard about the game from fellow racers, this game was rather mediocre and as such I went in with low expectations. I wonder why people don't like it.

The driving model works really well, I had a blast going through the game and it actually emulates the feeling of the original Grid really well, despite the fact it feels a bit slower and more stable. I couldn't ask for more in this case.

The career progression system is not perfect, I'll admit. Even though you're just looking for a grid full of seemingly soulless events though, I found it quite refreshing as I slowly went through most of the tracks with different cars, while being surprisingly entertained most of the time. The level-upping in this game works very as well, and despite the fact this all may seem a bit grindy I still find it to be a step up from the absolute hell (in terms of career progression) that was Grid Autosport.

The variety of tracks and cars is lacking. The carlist was good enough for me, I was glad to see a lot of classics which you don't get to see in a lot of racing games nowadays, but the tracklist was really poor, and you'll be pretty much repeating multiple variations of the same five locations over and over again.

The graphics are amazing. Original Grid was visually really ahead of it's time, and this game pays full homage to that. (yeah, I'm not the type to talk about graphics, it simply looks great okay)

What was missing: Besides bigger variety of tracks, this game lacked a lot of stuff which I really enjoyed about the original Grid. Bigger emphasis on the team developement, the story of making it from the bottom to the top, and most importantly, two certain gamemodes - Touge (my most favourite Grid gamemode of all time) and Drifts (I'm not a huge fan of drift events, but they'd definitely bring some diversity and freshness into this game, which it definitely needed).

and since everyone nowadays goes crazy over optimalization, I have to say I was really pleasantly surprised. I'm running a rather old setup for modern standards (i5 4460, GTX 750 Ti) and the game was running well while looking absolutely fabulous. Bonus points for that.

Overall, I had a lot of fun playing this (and I'm not stopping anytime soon), and I consider this to be the second best Grid as of now (excluding Legends, didn't get to play it yet). It's simply a pleasure to play, to weave through corners at high speeds and that's the most important element of racing games. It took me roughly 20 hours to finish, which is nice playtime for current price (honestly wouldn't be worth the cash back when the game had an AAA pricetag), but nowadays it's worth it, especially on sale.

Recommended.

EDIT: I'm currently near completing the game on 100%, and as such I have two more complaints which I thought I should mention. First one being the AI - it seems a bit too aggressive (I was spun out by the drivers for no reason quite a lot) and acts a lot like you're not there. The second small complain are the curbs - they make you spin out very easily really often for no reason (didn't notice this as I had Traction Control on maximum possible value when I wrote the review).

Still recommended.

I was surprised. From what I've heard about the game from fellow racers, this game was rather mediocre and as such I went in with low expectations. I wonder why people don't like it. [b][u]The driving model[/u][/b] works really well, I had a blast going through the game and it actually emulates the feeling of the original Grid really well, despite the fact it feels a bit slower and more stable. I couldn't ask for more in this case. [b][u]The career progression system[/u][/b] is not perfect, I'll admit. Even though you're just looking for a grid full of seemingly soulless events though, I found it quite refreshing as I slowly went through most of the tracks with different cars, while being surprisingly entertained most of the time. The level-upping in this game works very as well, and despite the fact this all may seem a bit grindy I still find it to be a step up from the absolute hell (in terms of career progression) that was Grid Autosport. [b][u]The variety of tracks and cars[/u][/b] is lacking. The carlist was good enough for me, I was glad to see a lot of classics which you don't get to see in a lot of racing games nowadays, but the tracklist was really poor, and you'll be pretty much repeating multiple variations of the same five locations over and over again. [b][u]The graphics[/u][/b] are amazing. Original Grid was visually really ahead of it's time, and this game pays full homage to that. (yeah, I'm not the type to talk about graphics, it simply looks great okay) [b][u]What was missing:[/u][/b] Besides bigger variety of tracks, this game lacked a lot of stuff which I really enjoyed about the original Grid. Bigger emphasis on the team developement, the story of making it from the bottom to the top, and most importantly, two certain gamemodes - Touge (my most favourite Grid gamemode of all time) and Drifts (I'm not a huge fan of drift events, but they'd definitely bring some diversity and freshness into this game, which it definitely needed). and since everyone nowadays goes crazy over [b][u]optimalization[/u][/b], I have to say I was really pleasantly surprised. I'm running a rather old setup for modern standards (i5 4460, GTX 750 Ti) and the game was running well while looking absolutely fabulous. Bonus points for that. Overall, I had a lot of fun playing this (and I'm not stopping anytime soon), and I consider this to be the second best Grid as of now (excluding Legends, didn't get to play it yet). It's simply a pleasure to play, to weave through corners at high speeds and that's the most important element of racing games. It took me roughly 20 hours to finish, which is nice playtime for current price (honestly wouldn't be worth the cash back when the game had an AAA pricetag), but nowadays it's worth it, especially on sale. Recommended. [b][u]EDIT[/u][/b]: I'm currently near completing the game on 100%, and as such I have two more complaints which I thought I should mention. First one being the [b][u]AI[/u][/b] - it seems a bit too aggressive (I was spun out by the drivers for no reason quite a lot) and acts a lot like you're not there. The second small complain are [b][u]the curbs[/u][/b] - they make you spin out very easily really often for no reason (didn't notice this as I had Traction Control on maximum possible value when I wrote the review). Still recommended.