Gran Turismo Sport is an adrenaline fuelled, pedal to the metal experience that will satisfy your need for speed.
I haven’t played a GT game since Gran Turismo Prologue on the PS3 in 2008, so it was a pleasure to give it a go and see how the series has moved on. I had the opportunity to play on the PSVR and the old fashioned way, on the TV from the comfort of my sofa.
The title was developed by Polyphony Digital and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment especially for the Playstation 4, and hosts a modest amount of 162 drivable cars across 40 tracks. It doesn’t quite match the variety available on the title’s current competitors on the market, but the attention to detail is incredible. Whilst in the vehicle (if, like me, you play in first person), you really do get to appreciate how much effort has gone into making it feel as if you are in the driver’s seat of a real vehicle.
The game sets you off nicely with everything laid out in front of you. I started off on the tutorial mode, which was so in depth, offering you the ability to practice everything from the very basics to highly advance driving techniques. In my opinion, this is brilliant. If you are new to driving games or even if you are experienced (as all games handle differently), you get to master the art of racing and find your driving style. One point to mention with the tutorials; once you complete the set task, you get some epic completion music with a slow motion playback of what you have just achieved. This in itself can almost be seen as patronising and comical, when some of the tasks include driving in a straight line. I for one was laughing at some of these. Once the 24 tutorials have been completed you unlock the advanced tutorials if you wish to perfect your ability further.
So the tutorials are complete….well, what next? You then have a choice: arcade mode or missions.
Missions have you doing certain things such as hitting cones or starting in last place and making up as many positions as possible. The arcade mode lets you choose any of your unlocked tracks, choose an unlocked car and off you go.
The main thing I feel is missing from this, and it is a big point; there is a severe lack of career mode. I can’t speak for everyone but I really enjoy getting stuck into a career mode with racing games, where you start with the very basic races, through tournaments, earning the ability to buy new cars as you move onto higher class racing. The title doesn’t captivate you to play it. You have to really want to. You have your base cars that are unlocked from the moment you start, then you have your garage that contains your rewarded cars (achieved from tutorial and missions). You have to earn credits from arcade mode racing and missions, that then allow you to buy more cars, but some of these are highly expensive and would take a long time to unlock. You could essentially play the same track with the same car over and over to achieve this.
The title handles beautifully and you are able to set your difficulty from beginner, which has all the assists and auto braking on, to highly advanced, which adds a fair bit of challenge but feels so nice. Being someone who has been lucky enough to have driven some high powered cars in the past, the experience carried over seamlessly.
The VR mode is really good fun. You can use all of your unlocked cars and take a VR drive tour of any of the unlocked tracks. This in itself is essentially the same as arcade mode, but I think the VR gives you a different sense, as you feel even deeper immersion whilst in the car. I know I have mentioned it previously, but they really have gone above and beyond with the detail inside these vehicles that, paired with the VR, makes an awesome combo.
In addition to the VR racing mode you also get the VR garage now. This is something spectacular if you love your motors. You get to see the vehicle up close, move around it and inspect every little feature. The attention to detail on this is ridiculous and although it’s not technically a game mode, I would recommend giving this a go just to appreciate how much effort has been put in by the developers. It almost feels like I’m at a car show and seeing these first hand!
In summary, a very good game that looks good, feels good and in VR definitely gets the adrenaline going. For any hardcore racing game fans this is one to add to the collection, but at the same time this can cater to the casual player, with the ability to start it up, jump on a couple of races in arcade, and turn it off until you return. I am glad to have this in my collection and will be putting many more fun filled hours in.
Until next time, keep your car fuelled and put the pedal to the metal!
