5.5/10
Addendum:
Originally rated as a 6/5/10, I now think this is more of a 5.5/10. That better represents the fact that the game itself is designed horribly, and is only redeemed by the quality of the cars, tracks, and the driving.
Review as written on 1/29/2023
This is a bit of a random choice to talk about now, especially since my hardcore grinding of this game has long passed, but I’ve been playing this game for a bit recently and wanted to write down my thoughts over the past year since its release.
Exposition (skip if you want)
Gran Turismo is one of my favorite franchises, with GT3 being the first video game I ever played, and is largely responsible for my love of cars as a whole. The hype leading up to this release was wild, but the release period was…turbulent. The game came out feeling unfinished, with laughably low payouts, rigged loot box systems, startling lack of quality single player content, and many important/player favorite cars missing. To top it off, the game’s intrinsic “always online” nature proved to be fatal when the servers for the game were down for over 18 hours, during which players couldn’t even race their own cars during the crash. Though I wasn’t outraged at the time, it really dampened the experience for me. I will take the release into consideration for the score, but it won’t have much weight, since the game has since changed a little.
TLDR: GT7 is a laughable excuse for a racing game, but is a fantastic driving simulator. There is almost nothing good about the gameplay loop and progression, yet I come back to this game only because driving feels so damn good. But I can’t look past the flaws.
If you want to know more, here are some of my thoughts and gripes:
Lame Grinding – Though the payouts have been increased, gathering money is still a slog. Most events as well as arcade races give no reasonable payout, making much of the game’s car roster far out of reach if you want to obtain them in a reasonable amount of time. Most, including myself, resort to a handful of 30 min glitched (please don’t patch tho) endurance races that award a sizable amount, but must be mind numbingly replayed to make enough money. Getting an expensive car in the Legends dealership or via invitation is therefore quite stressful, and it doesn’t help that the opportunity to buy these cars is only a few days long, leaving people with any real world responsibilities out of luck.
Shameless Loot Box Scheme – The whole invitation concept is stupid, since it walls out a lot of cool cars, and is only obtainable through a random roulette, and even then you have to pray it’s for the car you want. Good luck getting invited at all though, since 99% of all roulettes default to the least valuable option upon rolling. Enjoy your piss baby 5000 credits, only 7,000,000 to go!
Single player content is eh – There are a few other ways to make money and kill time, with the hyper focused Circuit Experiences as well as missions and license tests, but I personally don’t find those fun at all. Each of those require you to chase a gold medal by finishing the activity in a certain time frame, which has become more punishing with the increased difficulty of driving in this game. Plus, you can make more money doing the same race on repeat in a shorter time than it takes to do master circuit experience. Sad, but true. Luckily, in a recent patch, the game did add the best iteration of car selling in the series, even letting you sell cars that you win for free.
The cafe menus are also a bit weird. They can get you a good car collection with little to no investment, but it’s a short experience in place of a normal campaign.
Bad AI and 2P – The stinky cherry on top is the state of the AI racers. They are truly robotic, as they follow the ideal driving line and seldom deviate from it, even if, say, you simply existed in close proximity to them. You are but an obstruction to their objective, so the AI drivers just push you out of the way and charge forward. Good luck exacting your revenge on them though, as they barely move if you try the same tactic. They’ll just brake check you in return. Racing with AI feels like an obstacle course around concrete walls moving at the same speed.
Doesn’t help that the two player splitscreen is dysfunctional too. There is no escape
But, I still love it – when you put all this aside, and isolate the cars and the road, this is the single best driving experience you can find anywhere in the game world. Each car is delicately handcrafted and modeled down to the lighting assemblies and minute interior details. It is endlessly mesmerizing. Cars look absolutely stunning in every angle, and the dynamic weather and lighting help make every car glow. Customization is also really fun, with liveries, tuning, and engine swapping. Pairing this with the amazing photo mode, and you’ll spend an embarrassing amount of time staring at these cars. I have no shame though 🙂
Each car sounds great, and they all have a distinct driving personality that older games just couldn’t capture. Even on PS4, the game looks brilliant and runs at a smooth 60fps with little to no issues. In terms of realism, this is the single best looking game ever made.
All of this focuses on how I choose to enjoy the game now. These brilliant qualities highlight the beauty of cars, and I find myself spending hours in time trials getting to know my favorite cars and their driving styles. The game was made for this purpose, and for that I applaud it and will continue to enjoy it as they add more cars. Gran Turismo 7 excels at being a driving simulator, but is disappointing as a video game. It gives off the feeling that the developers want you to play how they want instead of how you want. Gameplay aspects are still important, and should have been acknowledged better, but there is a very good base.
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