Gran Turismo 7 Review

Gran Turismo has always been a very up-and-down series for me. Many people seem to love this series, while others seem to despise it and not enjoy it. I have a slightly different opinion. It’s always been kind of a guilty pleasure game for me. It’s one of those games that I would never say is one of my favorites or anywhere close to that, yet it’s still one that I can play all afternoon and enjoy thoroughly. This is very much the experience I had with Gran Turismo 7, albeit with a few more hiccups than I would have liked, in all honesty.

The Game You Expect

Gran Turismo 7 does what it sets out to do. It plays as close to driving a real car as you can expect on a video game console. This is the REAL driving simulator, after all. This is the first numbered Gran Turismo game since Gran Turismo 6 back in 2013. Sure, there was Gran Turismo Sport in 2017, but it was a bit of a spinoff game. I think that’s part of the draw of these games. We don’t get many versions of them. Polyphony Digital doesn’t milk this franchise every year or two like it probably could, and I appreciate them for that. This series is better off polishing as much as possible and providing a substantial amount of racing content with every new release.

Graphics

This is one of the best-looking racing games I’ve ever seen, even after the beautiful Forza Horizon 5 was released late last year. There are two display modes: Scapes Mode and Frame Rate Mode. I chose Frame Rate Mode because I prefer a higher frame rate when playing racing games, but I did dabble with Scapes Mode, which has Ray Tracing enabled, and on a 4K TV, there isn’t much that looks better. The 420+ cars look almost photo-realistic, but I wish there were more up-to-date cars in the game.

Even without Scapes Mode enabled, the game boasts numerous subtle details that are great to see. The ones I noticed the most were how the dashboard’s details would reflect onto the windshield in specific lighting, just like in real life. The other was how realistically the rain would hit the windshield, depending on how hard it was pouring down and how fast you were going. It’s one of the few games that accurately simulate actual weather, whether cloudy, sunny, or rainy. Night driving was equally impressive and might have been my favorite way to race (mainly because of the astronomically accurate star systems that dot the sky). The tracks themselves didn’t strike me as all that impressive environmentally. They were good recreations of their real-life counterparts, but most felt lifeless.

No Car Damage/3D Audio Tech

There still isn’t any damage to cars, and I feel like for a game that claims to be a racing simulator, that’s a pretty big miss. This is 2022, not 1997. The level of polish is so high in this game that I can’t understand why they haven’t added damage models. I know the team wants clean racing, but things happen, and it shouldn’t just be omitted like that. Conversely, the 3D audio tech means you can hear much more than in previous games. An odd example that I have is the confetti that falls from the ceiling when you win a new car. It sounded like it was raining before I realized you could hear the light ticking of the confetti hitting the vehicle and the ground. The motor sounds are pretty hit-and-miss, and the soundtrack doesn’t pump me up to race.

Story Mode

Gran Turismo 7 features a unique story mode that feels somewhat out of place. It takes place at the Café, where the friendly owner Luca gives you a specific set of challenges in the form of menu books. Completing each challenge unlocks additional tracks, features, or cars to add to your collection. Most of the time, this is as simple as completing a race, but occasionally, you’ll be asked to wash your car or tune a vehicle. It familiarizes players with how Gran Turismo 7 works quite well, so it has its place, but it’s a bit underwhelming. I would have preferred some voice-overs instead of plain text conversations to help humanize the game better.

Luca has a cast of friends who will also help you on your GT7 journey, and they are equally as quiet, with little text bubbles telling you everything you need to know. Sarah guides you around the world of GT, telling you about all the different spots, much like a tour guide. GT World Racers act as your instructors on license tests, which was a nice touch, but they were all reasonably campy, so it felt more forced than anything. I would prefer it if Polyphony added some life to this game because it’s still stuck in the early 2000s in terms of interface and design. The hub world wouldn’t be out of place on the PS2 regarding how it’s presented to you. They can do better.

Car Collection

Players will quickly gain a nice collection of cars, especially if you complete Luca’s challenges, but tracks take a bit longer to roll out, with 34 tracks in all and 97 total layouts. I liked the pace of GT7 because I never felt like I was being rushed to grab a bunch of cars to race in a different style of race before I had enough money, as I’ve felt in some games. You can sometimes be rewarded with roulette tickets, but in my experience, you always receive the worst-value prizes every time. I’ve gone through many of these things and never seem to get anything good. With the crazy pricing on microtransactions, I wouldn’t be surprised if that is designed to entice people to buy cars with real-world money. Either way, I don’t feel as rewarded as in a game like Forza Horizon 5.

Gameplay

Racing is as you’d remember if you’ve played a game in the Gran Turismo series before. Races have a recommended Performance Point level that indicates how competitive the race will be, depending on whether your car is highly rated. Of course, you can send your vehicle to the tuning shop and purchase some powerful parts to enhance your car’s performance and surpass most other vehicles initially. This becomes more difficult as you advance through the game, so don’t expect to breeze through.

It’s pretty cookie-cutter, like most racing games, where you pass one pack, close the gap to another, and then struggle to overtake the top 2 cars. I don’t get why you have to start from the back, even during championships, whether you placed 1st in the previous race or not. The AI is pretty good at driving defensively and not giving you an easy pass; they do occasionally screw up, giving you an opening, so it doesn’t feel too robotic. The challenge was a perfect level for me, and you can tailor the driving style to get the most enjoyment out of it, from braking to assists to difficulty.

Handling

License tests make a return, as mentioned earlier. If you don’t have a particular license, you can participate in certain events, so you’ll need to tackle them as needed. These tests help make you a much better driver in Gran Turismo 7, and although they can be frustrating, I feel like they’re a necessary evil. This isn’t some arcade racer where you can go barreling into corners or lift off the gas mid-corner. This also applies to wet conditions. Racing tires are useless in wet conditions as they’re super slick, so learning how to control your sliding is imperative. The DualSense provides feedback when your front wheels are struggling, offering an additional way to gauge your vehicle’s handling. This is precisely the type of feature that makes the DualSense such an impressive controller.

Music Rally Mode

There is a fantastic new Music Rally mode in which you try to go as far as you can for the duration of the song. This is more of an arcade-style race, as you’re hitting time gates that add an extra 30 seconds every so often. Not only are you racing against the song, but you’re also racing against the clock to hit the next gate. It’s a fun mode that I wish Gran Turismo would experiment more with. The one issue I have with it is that it exists outside the world map for some inexplicable reason. It would have fit in well as an extra piece of the map. It’s a pleasant diversion, with six songs so far and more promised in the future.

Online Racing

Online racing in Gran Turismo 7 features a lobby system, allowing you to select your preferred race settings and either join an existing lobby or create your own. It’s pretty barebones in 2022. The Sport mode races are scheduled at set points throughout the day and require you to own an eligible vehicle to participate. Sport races keep cars on a level playing field and frown upon collisions, so if you want a fair race, that’s the best place to go. I appreciate having two options for those who want to have fun and those who prefer serious competition. That being said, you’ll still have people who try to ruin the experience, regardless of the mode you choose.

Always-Online

It wouldn’t be fair to review this game if I didn’t mention the always-online factor. There were a couple of days last week when the servers for GT7 were down for maintenance, and you couldn’t access the game at all. I went to play it, but I was unable to. The team at Polyphony awarded 1,000,000 in-game credits to anyone affected, but this highlights the fact that when the game’s servers are shuttered, the disc version becomes nothing more than a paperweight, while the digital copy becomes unusable. It’s not a good look for a primarily single-player game, and I question the necessity of this approach.

Final Thoughts

Gran Turismo 7 excels at what it has always been exceptional at: racing. The presentation needs an extensive overhaul for a game in this era; it just doesn’t feel like anything is connected or that you have a purpose for each race besides chasing a medal. The gameplay is top-notch, and everything around it should be equally best in class. If you’re a fan of the series, you’ll love this one as it’s more of the same, which isn’t bad. Don’t expect much innovation. Be wary if you have a shaky internet connection!