Review
Played on: PlayStation 4 Pro
Released: 2022
I reviewed Gran Turismo Sport only a while ago, read it here. This time I'm back to talk about my thoughts on the proper mainline sequel; Gran Turismo 7. Built on the foundation of GT Sport, with almost identical visuals, GT7 focus is on building a comprehensive singleplayer experience which GT Sport lacked at launch.
Although GT Sport received a sizeable campaign through patches, it felt like it missed an overall goal. It was a campaign made of checkboxes, with little effort put into giving the player a feeling of an engaging and personal career.
GT7, I'm happy to say, changes this around completely. Front seat is dedicated to a proper campaign experience, resonating all the way back to the classic GT structure of a town map with a dealership, license centre and auto workshop, among others. This feels as a proper competition to the many solid Forza Motorsport entries in the last two generations of consoles, check out the review of the latest one here.
Let's jump in the driver's seat and take a closer look!
Although the online aspect is very much kept in GT7, it's not the main event. Here the world map takes centre piece, offering the player a proper and well though through singleplayer experience this time in comparison to GT Sport. The result is a well-made, varied and entertaining GT Simulation mode.
It surrounds the "Gran Turismo Café", where you are served menus which are basically a sheet of objectives you need to complete to progress. Usually, they're about completing three races and thus collecting three new cars, often in a theme about a certain brand or car type. Surrounding this collecting are old men at the café talking about the various cars, if you should be interested in picking up some car facts along the way.
I appreciate the return of the GT map screen and the user-friendly guide, called Sarah, which introduces you slowly to all the map features and various racing events, car shops and tuning options as you progress through the café menus. At each map icon spread across the city, there's an expert which owns the building. Whom gives tips or explains in detail things you can do there. Helpful if you're unsure about tuning or buying new parts for your car!
The presentation is a bit on the text heavy and slow side though, and I could've been without the endless pretentious, middle-aged men you can talk with at the café. It's so far removed from any car culture I've ever attended, as if it's aimed at older gentlemen enjoying veteran vehicles. For some odd reason.
Add in some weird mode called "music rally", where you drive to famous symphonies with orchestra music, and the whole thing seems to aim at some odd demography. At least there's a chill vibe and relaxed atmosphere to it all!
With the café system, car collecting and advisors around the in the menus, there's a general personal feel to the campaign. Allowing GT7 to successfully put a meaning behind endless racing, helping it stay making the playthrough varied and enjoyable for the long run. It pushes you into a wide range of cars, ranging from performance classes, drivetrain types and vehicle classes. Although, some car classes are extremely sparse in their selection, there's an overall a wide range of vehicle types. I suspect quite a few have been added since launch too.
It's nice to see that the car types not only focus on insane performance vehicles and hypercars, but there's a range of commercial and everyday cars to drive. All sporting a detailed cockpit view and nicely modelled car bodies. The cockpit view is indeed the preferable way to play it, with sun and headlights from other cars shining into your dashboard, albeit it could need an increased field of view.
Sadly, the outside camera and the bonnet cam are still broken, like GT Sport. Outside cam feels too rigid, like it's mounted on a stick, and bonnet view is too high up and sitting on the roof of most cars.
When it comes to racetracks, it does an excellent job with variety. There's a lot of racetracks that don't normally feature in other racers and I appreciate the balance in variety between scenic and proper racing circuits. HDR makes the colours and environments pop and the handful of classic GT circuits dating all the way back to the first game, is a treat!
Handling seems a little heavier and less twitchy on the controller in compared to GT Sport. Extremely subtle changes, but it feels solid to race without a steering wheel. There're clear differences in the feel of controlling cars when swapping between models or doing performance upgrade. In addition, the sounds of each car seem realistic compared to the real cars and have a growling sound for the powerful ones.
Visually, GT7 looks extremely similar to GT Sport on the PS4 Pro. With only a little extra detail added to racetracks. They've tweaked the contrast and lighting too, increasing the variation when it comes to dynamic daylight. As usual, Polyphony has absolutely nailed the realistic lighting at times. Especially bright and overcast races, while the night races are in a top-level class looking absolutely amazing.
Weather types like fog look bland though, as well as rainy races. Which look immersive in the cockpit view, with droplets on the windows, but the rarin is basically non-existent outside the car. In general, there's extremely little effects going on around the car, smoke and dust effects are laughably sparse. It makes it overall visuals look a little too clean and clinical, if that makes sense.
Just like GT Sport, my PS4 Pro does a solid job offering 1800p@60fps, offering more than enough resolution to make it look sharp on my larger TV. Sadly, it seems the increased level of detail has made it drop frames more often from the targeted 60 fps. While it's fine mostly, it's obvious when three or four cars pile up in front of you and even worse in rainy weather conditions. Which explains the use of rolling starts for each race.
These rolling starts are intentionally used to give space between each car, resulting in less load for the console to work with. In addition, only 12 cars are present in each race. A stark contrast to the rock solid 60fps of Forza Motorsport with starting grids of 24 cars on screen. It's embarrassing they can't do the same in GT7 and the result makes each race feel like your aim is to just pass cars on a predetermined row, like some old arcade racer.
There's no denying that this is fantastic racing package when it comes to delivering a meaty singleplayer career experience. It's classic Gran Turismo with the solid GT Sport engine behind it, resulting in great racing experience for the system.
Still, there's the quirks of GT shining through; rolling starts, unengaging and predetermined A.I. behaviour, lack of rain and smoke effects, and that pretentiousness it can't shake off. Don't get me started on the rally part, it feels like an arcade joke that should've been removed entirely.
Overall, GT7 comes together well; the campaign is well organised, relaxed, varied and fun to play through. While the backbone of visuals, driving physics, presentation and content is solid. After veering off with the overproduced GT5 and 6 on the PS3, where Polyphony seemed to be all over the board with ideas, then missing what the audience wanted with GT Sport, GT7 hits the mark exactly right. There's a clear focus in what GT7 wishes to deliver as an experience.
A godsend and high above anything Forza Motorsport accomplishes? No, it's just really good and in alignment with the latest Forza Motorsport, delivering better on some points, but dated and worse on others. They both have their strengths and weaknesses. Don't believe the fanbase overhype and just enjoy them both if you truly are interested in racing!
