GRIP: Combat Racing

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Hours played at review time, across 823 reviews with recorded playtime.

positive critical· bar length = how often the theme comes up

GRIP (whose logo is impressively equally legible upside down as it is upright), hooked me through its thematic resemblance to my beloved childhood duology -- Rollcage. Those games captured my imagination as a young boy, and this game honors its apparent inspirator through even further usage of the gravity defying, gyroscopically ambivalent vehicles race at hundreds of miles per hour in futuristic cityscapes and outlands to a bumpin' drum and bass soundtrack. In that regard, it absolutely succeeds as a spiritual successor. However, it also modernizes this formula (racing pun unintended) by way of inspiration from so many of its contemporaries between that original Playstation title up to now. The DNA of INCREDIBLE racing games are all present here, including the incredible feeling of speed, verticality, and sheer quantity of available routes within each circuit as you'd see in a Motorstorm title. Even further back, the captivating feeling of manhandling the tight controls to master the lofty skill ceiling reminiscent of F-Zero GX on the Gamecube. Heck, it even adapts the hovercars from F-Zero and I wouldn't be surprised if the developers have fond memories of playing Aero Gauge on the Nintendo 64. While there certainly isn't a playerbase large enough to make use of the online functionality on any given day (without the help of like-minded friends, at least), there's more than enough singleplayer content to chew on if you're looking for an immensely satisfying arcade racing experience. In terms of its detriments, I do caution that there isn't much here for players who prefer a structured experience. The "Campaign" is a series of maybe a handful of preconstructed races that don't differ in any way from the selections on offer from the singleplayer racing menu. There's no narrative, additional content, or really any reason to participate in this mode of play whatsoever. In fact, it is so poultry that it can be completed within the span of one singular hour and has no reason for you to revisit ever again. In addition, the vehicular combat feels like a total afterthought, the weapons in the arsenal at your disposal all feel as if they were added to be placeholder elements until something more creatively inclined was able to shine through -- which seemingly didn't happen. Almost all of the power-ups are some form of gun, most of which are a variety of missile ranging from "one missile" to "many missiles" to "missiles that attach to the opponent and explode after a 1 second delay for some reason" and then, of course, "missile that is a perfunctory mirror of Mario Kart's blue shell that hunts down player in the pole position". The only power-ups to speak of outside of the realm of "gun" are the standard speed boost (which disappointingly is an on-demand button press and not a resource to be gained through skill expression, as more recent racing titles have begun to do, adding to the thrill of mastery through player skill involvement), and the most frustrating power up: "place all of your opponents into slow motion while you remain at full speed" which I can guarantee you will be on the receiving end of more often than not and it is total murder of the otherwise breakneck pacing and disappointingly even mutes the BANGIN soundtrack. There's even a supplementary mechanic where you can sacrifice one of the two power-ups you are able to hold at any given time in order to upgrade the other to its more upgraded form. This is even more disappointing as you realize that the result is even more variations of "more missiles", aside from the slow motion powerup I just spoke of. All-in-all, the presentation on display here as well as the actual racing itself are all extremely attractive as a package, and if it hooks you like it did me, will keep you coming back for quite some time with a generous assortment of varied and interesting circuits that are specific to their respective celestial bodies. However, the aspects of this title that are merely serviceable do leave me wondering what could have been even greater if it was given just a bit more time in the oven.