To the ceiling, to the wall.
I was reminded by my Editor-in-Chief of an old PS1 title called Rollcage. I played it as a kid and remember the aspects of it vaguely. With the release of GRIP, I was reminded heavily of mechanics after playing some races, and Caged Element has taken that formula, added some simple car combat mechanics to it, and really made a pretty fun racing game out of it.
GRIP is a racing game set in the future. With these new race vehicles equipped with overly large tires that span the height of the car, they can gather enough speed to not only go really fast, but grip (see what I did there?) other surfaces like the ceiling, sides of buildings, and other terrain. I usually have the second paragraph for a story rundown of my reviews, but this is a racing game so there’s not much story here other than talking about how these vehicles came to be.
Platforms: PC, PS4, XB1, Switch
MSRP: $39.99
Price I’d pay $25
Think of GRIP as a faster, more agile Mario Kart. There are some simple combat mechanics with power-ups like rockets, machine guns, and a boost that allow players to slow down and take down enemy vehicles. The agile part comes into play with the “drive on anything” mechanic. The tracks are laid out in a way where there can be multiple lanes to take that can lead to jumps or turns that can have the cars going on the walls and ceiling. The more impressive ones are the jumps that send the cars flying and can allow players to start driving on a new surface. It was a great feeling when I could pull this off and really added to the flashiness of the entire presentation. Going at break-neck speeds into a jump, hitting the ceiling of the arena, and continuing to move at the same momentum upside down looked and felt fantastic.
It was not always that simple, though. It took some practice and some precision timing and if I wasn’t doing it just right, I would end up crashing and all that great momentum would come to a halt. If there was one thing that got to me while playing, it was the fact that taking these big risks like the jumps and the wall riding could result in a crash, and crashes in this game feel a little too heavy. While that doesn’t mean I would be guaranteed to lose the race, it would mean I would probably have to at least reset my car. Then, I would have to play catch-up the rest of the race, and the rubber-band AI could make for a sometimes unfair race. I get it, you want to have a fun, close race, but let me blow the doors off my rivals a few times. Maybe it’s the perfectionist in me that hated to crash only to have to restart. If you’re not first, you’re last, I guess.
The game offers a full single player mode with multiple races and events to take on as well as online multiplayer for some hectic fun against other racers out there. I ran into a few hiccups with the online play. First, I ran into a bit of lag here and there and when I was going really fast and needed to make a proper jump, lag was the last thing I needed. On top of that, I don’t know if it was the time I was playing or what, but I ran into the same players twice in a row. I don’t know if that was just some crazy luck, or if those were the only people playing the game. While this isn’t a must have player base game, it really helps to have multiplayer after having your fill of the campaign.
GRIP is a fine racing game. It has some fantastic moments in its fast speeds and impressive maneuvers. While there are some issues here and there with the devastation of crashing, and the online being laggy at times, I find that at its heart, it’s a great racer that tries something that hasn’t been thought of in a long while. It’s a buy for racing fans, but I would hold off until a slight price drop, at least. Maybe by then a few patches and sort out a few things.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
