Parents' Guide to GRID Legends

Though it doesn't offer anything new or different, and is fairly typical, this real-world racing game still managed to be engaging. In GRID Legends, players get to test their steering skills in a variety of races set on the closed roads of Paris, Dubai, Yokohama, and other cities. Like most racing games, this allows you to go up against other people online or, if you prefer, you can race against the computer in the game's progressive career mode, some one-off races, or in the game's "Story" mode, in which you race the events talked about in a fake "documentary" about a racing team. Regardless of who or what you're competing against, though, the game has the all-too-common options for the brakes, steering, and traction that allow you to play this as a realistic sim or something far more forgiving. It even includes the usual racing line and ability to rewind when you need a do-over.

In other words, this offers the same features found in every major racing game these days. But what it does generically, it also does rather well. The controls are smooth and intuitive, and put to the test by tracks that are nicely curved and varied. That variety carries over to how the "Story" and "Career" modes feature different kinds of racing (including time trials, elimination events, and multi-lap races), different kinds of motor vehicles (Formula One, trucks, and muscle cars, to name a few), and even different race conditions (weather, time of day). Granted, this doesn't have the depth of Forza Horizon 5 or Gran Turismo 7, and adding a mechanic that identifies when a computer-controlled driver becomes your nemesis seems to be a meaningless gesture. But as generic as it may be, GRID Legends still provides enough speed to satisfy that familiar need.