GRID Legends "Driven to Glory" Story Preview

GRID Legends returns to the fray with a fully fledged story mode called “Driven to Glory”, in which you’ll take control of the nameless, faceless, and speechless Driver 22 with your sights set on the GRID World Series. Using virtual set techniques that are the same as those seen in Disney’s The Mandalorian, a combination of real actors and CGI backgrounds are placed together to create a world that embeds you in the thick of it.

In the video above, I run through the first six events (roughly 40 minutes) from the latest preview build of the game, which gives you an insight into how it gets off the ground and introduces you to a few of the characters; like series favourite (or not) Nathan McKane, number one driver for team Ravenwest and Valentin Manzi (played by Ncuti Gatwa, best known as Eric from Netflix’s Sex Education) who drives for Voltz Racing. You’ll be pitted against these drivers and others to ensure your place on the grid is justified.

Being nameless, faceless, and speechless puts you fully in the place of Driver 22 in the story, it was an intentional decision of the GRID Legends development journey that allows anyone to feel like they are the driver at any given moment. Regardless of things like age or gender; there’s no defining attribute that forces any particular traits to the player character. This works to GRID Legends’ advantage as during the initial playthrough there was a deeper feeling of connection with the storyline because of its lack of forcing words or ideas into the players head.

Still don’t like Nathan McKane though.

The video shows the game running on a 2060 Super, at the Ultra graphics setting, with HDR enabled, using a Fanatec Podium DD1, WRC rim, and Clubsport V3 pedals. Usually, there are questions about how a setup like that details the force feedback, but for a title like GRID Legends—a full balls-to-the-wall arcade racer—what matters more is that it is fun with a wheel and pedals, rather than having the most realistic feedback. Safe to say, I had some great fun with the opening stages and now I’m looking forward to diving into the full story come the game’s release on 25th February, 2022.