When I initially read first impressions on this game from critics, I planned on having an initial impressions post on my thoughts based on their reviews, followed by a final impressions post on my own thoughts on the game after I had an opportunity to play it. I quickly realized after playing the game for myself that I had so much to discuss that it made sense to break up my thoughts into two separate posts. This first post will focus on the game itself, whereas the second post will focus specifically on the racing aspect of the game. It is one of my favorite all time gaming franchises, and 7 is the first Gran Turismo game I've played since Gran Turismo 6 on the PlayStation 3 (released in 2013). The following paragraph is from my "Initial Thoughts" post.
I've been a fan of Gran Turismo from the first edition. When the game released initially on the Playstation 1 in 1997, I had never seen anything like it. It had so many cars and configurations, it was mind blowing. It was praised for its physics model and car handling characteristics. By the time Gran Turismo 5 came out in 2010 on the Playstation 3, however, I thought the series was getting stale. Although I thought Gran Turismo 6 was the best version of the game released at the time in 2013, the series seemed in dire need of an overhaul. I skipped 2017's Gran Turismo Sport because it was mostly an online game. After playing Gran Turismo 7 for the past couple of months, I have a few initial thoughts. This game looks and feels like all previous versions of Gran Turismo, except better.
The game looks fantastic, which isn't surprising considering it is running on PS5 hardware. All cars have an in-car view, and the lighting effects look great. Everything from the car models, to the tracks down to the detail of the SAFER barrier and marshals waving flags, to the pre-race flyover, all of it is visually appealing. Even the photo editor mode creates visuals so realistic that I can't tell if it is from a game or a real picture. I could continue, but trust me when I say the game is visually stunning.
It sounds fantastic as well. Going on memory, it seems like cars in previous versions all sounded the same. This is no longer the case, as thundering V8s sound different than turbo six engines, etc. Playing the game with a surround system is rewarding as well, as the sounds lateralize to the left and right speakers based on car location. The sound is where the weirdness begins, however. Or maybe quirkiness is a nicer term. I either forgot how weird this game was, or didn't realize it at the time, but this game is weird. In the menu system, the game plays banging songs like Pachelbel's Canon and other songs from my kid's bedtime album. The music choice is just bizarre. It doesn't harm the game, but adds to the quirkiness of its charm.
Following this logic, the strange map-based menu system returns. I watched an online documentary on the history of Gran Turismo to remind myself of previous versions, and this menu system has been used for all of the games. On the one hand, I understand the choice because it provides some visualization to go along with what would otherwise be a large, mostly text-based menu. The challenge that I have with this is that you have races and events scattered all over the place. Some are in Missions, some are in World Circuits, some are in the License Center. If you want to pop into a GT3 car and find all of the GT3 events that are available, there is no easy way to do this beyond navigating to various parts of the map and searching. At least they make switching cars at the point of race entry an option, preventing having to navigate all the way back to your garage.
Of course, one of the funnest parts of this game has always been collecting and tuning cars, and that is a big part of this as well. I've recently heard of this game being referred to as a Car-PG (as opposed to an RPG). This term is new to me, and though I've never thought of the game in this way, it makes sense. There is a level of satisfaction with collecting a car and tuning it to make it as fast as possible. I like to do time trials with my cars to rank how fast they are. There is a healthy number of cars on the game, though the car selection is somewhat odd. Most of the cars are kind of old. On the one hand, a 458 Italia is a cool car regardless of what year it came out. Same goes for the McLaren F1. On the other hand, why does this game feature the C7 Corvette but not the new C8? Seems weird. On aspect of the cars that I have really enjoyed, however, is the livery editor. I've enjoyed taking a car that I have custom tuned and adding the official colors of my race team (green and blue) to the car, along with decals and racing numbers. The editor is pretty robust and adds an extra layer of uniqueness to your car.
Briefly, the track selection is solid. There are a handful of real-life tracks, though sadly IMS is not one of them. I am hoping for a future update where it becomes available. But I'd really like to say kudos to the team for the fictional tracks on the game, many of which have been on multiple previous versions and are quite good. Seeing them again on GT7 is quite nostalgic.
I enjoyed the introductory Cafe missions. Previous games had the license missions required to advance, but I don't recall the other games having such an in-depth tutorial. Oddly, this game also has licenses but I'm not sure what they are used for. In previous games, you needed a certain license level to participate in upper echelon races. So far I have not come across this restriction on GT7. Maybe they are used for online races? Back to the Cafe missions, I enjoyed them as an introduction to the game and it is a great way to build a solid car library. There was a lot of discussion on the web about the grind it out nature of this game, meaning you had to race the same races multiple times to have enough money to purchase cars. To some extent, all of the Gran Turismo games have been like this. The Cafe missions do a good job of rewarding you with cars that you need for additional missions. Several hours into this game I have only purchased a few cars. If you're going to be a major car collector, however, you will likely need to grind out some races.
Gran Turismo 7 is a fantastic game that I have really enjoyed thus far. I'm glad I didn't let some of the (what appears to be false) reports of grinding out races prevent me from buying the game. It looks, sounds, and plays terrifically. It also maintains many of its quirky characteristics, which have stuck with the game since the beginning. It truly is a fantastic driving game, and it is a game that celebrates cars and car culture. Throughout the Cafe missions, it retains many of the aspects of racing that I previously thought was making the series stale: rolling starts, easy AI drivers, lack of penalties, etc. However, this all changes once you finish the Cafe missions and start entering upper echelon events. While some aspects remain (rolling starts), the game mostly transforms into a racing beast, with significant upgrades compared to previous Gran Turismo games. In my next Gran Turismo post, I am going to focus completely on the racing portion of the game.
