You just have to have the courage: As the flag bearer of a console brand, you can almost skip a whole generation of consoles. Gran Turismo 6 for PS3 is now nine years old. Has inspirer Kazunori Yamauchi used this time to change course? No, it does what it’s supposed to and delivers pretty much the most complete yet recognizable Gran Turismo experience out there with GT7.
Liar!
What?! And what about Gran Turismo Sport? Wasn’t it on PS4? Correct. But its focus on online racing and eSports has made it such a departure from previous games – and garnered plenty of criticism for it – that it doesn’t count towards the main series. This Gran Turismo 7 once again serves up a vintage single-player campaign, so it feels like a pleasant throwback to the past. Sort of the ultimate throwback to when GT was marketed as the “ultimate racing simulator” and forever redefined the racing genre.
In fact, 25 years after we marveled at those realistic block graphics on PS1, inspirer Kazunori Yamauchi hasn’t really changed much in his formula. Old-fashioned for some, a warm, recognizable bath for others. You still start getting your driver’s license by completing a few simple tests. Then you get a few GT bucks to buy a cheap, almost untrackable used car, after which you have to trudge through the first few races step by step. Win races, get better, unlock better cars and work your way through countless tracks and championships. Until your car collection comes close to that of a Russian oligarch.
Slowly but steadily
Granted, for those used to Forza Horizon’s spectacular racing, GT7 is pretty slow and unfussy. No over-the-top story with helicopter jumps, flashy cutscenes, or overly hip characters trying to convince you racing is cool. Gran Turismo 7 gently takes you by the hand and effortlessly guides you through Yamauchi’s wonderful, almost sterile version of motorsport. You quickly learn that there is a big difference between front and rear-wheel drive, for example. That you have to brake before cornering and that it’s best to step on the brake pedal slowly during a straight stretch. Racing for dummies, so to speak, which we eagerly learned.
In the café (the central point of the map) you get new missions via a dry menu that introduces you to all the features of Gran Turismo, where all the attractions of the Olympic race village are slowly opening. From the tuning shop and car wash (yes, they still exist) to the challenge circus and split-screen 2-player mode. Wait about 3 hours to unlock all options.
At a time when developers are inundating their audiences with content, Gran Turismo 7 forces you to take the time to learn the basics of racing. And this old-fashioned approach is refreshing. Easily count 30 hours to work through most championships. And then loads of challenges, collectibles and online tournaments await you.
Level of Detail: Polyphony
We didn’t expect otherwise, but the presentation on the PS5 is nothing short of unprecedented. Okay, following the age-old GT tradition, the cars don’t have a damage model again. Rough contact with a crash barrier sets off sparks, but not crushed side doors or dented bumpers. Not bad, because Gran Turismo 7 is a kind of fantasy world for car enthusiasts: the resilient, shiny four-wheelers will undoubtedly give many racing enthusiasts erections – especially during the almost photorealistic replays. Just to say that the Japanese of polyphony once again outdo themselves in terms of detail and presentation.
PS5 also lets you choose between two graphics modes: those with ray tracing and those without. With the caveat that Yamauchi doesn’t want a sub-par framerate, as it can seriously disrupt the racing experience. Ray tracing is therefore disabled during the race anyway, so your choice only affects the replay videos. So just opt for ray tracing and marvel at the wonderful 4K graphics at 60 fps. Barring the occasional cardboard viewer getting too close or other objects rendered in low resolution, the replay films approach photorealism. A feature Yamauchi once boasted about during the GT5 press conference but has only now become a reality.
And GT7 really goes a long way in its presentation. The fact that the cars are reproduced so meticulously and true to detail – you can literally smell the leather on the interior shots – is one thing. The fact that you can also show your car in landscape shots and that the photo mode has more options than our SLR camera can only be described as pure car porn. That we sacrificed at least an hour of our precious testing time to take the ultimate snapshot of our new Dodge Viper SRT-10 says it all.
king of the road
Anyway. Presentation is one thing, how it’s played is far more important. Gran Turismo has excelled in terms of handling for years. It’s a nice hybrid of simulation and arcade, suitable for both the mainstream audience and the more experienced asphalt eater. And Gran Turismo 7 is no different. Where you are initially kept on a leash with various assistance systems, you gradually discover (and learn) the subtleties of handling.
The cars are much less forgiving of mistakes: accelerating too much or braking too hard inevitably leads to the gravel box and a spot off the podium. Driving like an idiot will be punished. It’s also better to play with the weight of your car. The rear-engined, rear-wheel-drive Ferrari steers, as it should, in a completely different way than the front-wheel-drive, front-engined Ford Focus RS. If the undersigned – and I’m not a car connoisseur at all – feels this difference in control at all, then you as a developer have really done something right. The search for the right ideal line has never felt so good.
Gran Turismo 7 can be played with either a controller or a steering wheel. On PS5, DualSense’s haptic feedback makes the biggest difference, letting you feel even the slightest touch of the curb. The adaptive triggers work more subtly and, in our opinion, feel less. The main difference between PS4 and PS5 controllers is the haptic vibrations. If you want to heat even more precisely on the track, opt for the steering wheel and pedals, although DualSense allows you to work perfectly.
Ode to the wagon
Gran Turismo 7 is no ordinary racing game. It’s somewhere between a racing simulator, the ultimate toy for car fetishists and a tribute to motorsport. Creator Yamauchi wants to pass on his love of motorsport to the player through GT7 and it shows in everything. From the history lessons on each make, the untold amount of information on literally each of the 400+ car models, to the original designers of iconic models explaining why they chose a particular bumper. GT7 is packed with information and at times feels like an encyclopedic reference book. It can seem overwhelming, especially for those who just want to drive an orange Lambo. But hey, there are other games for that.
The passion for racing drips with GT7. So hard that we can forgive some mistakes made by Yamauchi and his team of perfectionists. The music rally, for example – pretty much the only really new mode – is far from convincing. It’s a kind of checkpoint race to the notes of a music track and adds little to it. Maybe that’s why you can play it as soon as you download the game: intended more as a trivial extra than a full-fledged mode you can pump for hours on end.
We also think it’s a pity: The car parts are very expensive, so you can only tune a small part of your fleet. It’s better to save that money for the more exclusive models because they’re also ridiculously expensive. We understand that you can’t just throw everything away and no one has died from a bit of grinding. But when we see that you can always expand your wallet in the menu by buying GT Credits with real money on the PlayStation Store, we get an uneasy feeling.
GT7 also serves some new routes. Actually not a single new one if you lump all GT games together. Old racers will rejoice at the return of the High Speed Ring, Trial Mountain Circuit and Deep Forest Raceway. All fictional circuits from the old box that have been burned into our gaming memories since the PS2 era. And that’s exactly why this Gran Turismo 7 scores the hardest: a celebration of recognition for old veterans while putting a rock-solid and gorgeous racing game in the racing gloves for the new generation. A balancing act that very few developers can get away with.
Source: invader.be
