Gran Turismo 7 is, even before being a game, a software with a style, a mood, a philosophy of its own.
A bit like in the old Ridge Racer, or the first Pro Evolution Soccer, every line of code has been infused with an elegance that we could almost define purely Japanese, a visual and sound recognition that smells of home, nostalgia, of good times past. with the first Dualshock in his hands, in the company of those angular and grainy images that followed one another on the screen that already made us jump and conclude that photorealism was right there, in front of our eyes.
Several generations of hardware later, it seems like a paradox but it is not at all, little or nothing has changed. In the reactions, first of all, because this time the simulation really seems to surpass reality; in the game itself, secondly, anchored to stylistic and playful figures with such obstinacy as to drag the debut episode on PlayStation 5 almost out of time.
Gran Turismo 7, in many ways, is anachronistic, forced into a skeleton that many will find largely outdated, even unbearable, especially looking at the evolutions made by other sagas, Forza Motorsport above all. It is useless to go around it: if Polyphony Digital once dictated the line and could rightly nestle around the claim of its IP, that " real driving simulator " that contained the very essence of the game, you want for a driving system that does not present who knows what novelties, either for a physical engine that stubbornly scoffs at almost all the forces that come into play in collisions with other cars and with the conformities of the track, this chapter also imposes rather evident conceptual and playful compromises.
On the track, the Sony production behaves exactly as we would expect. The sense of speed is contained, the opponents proceed along a predetermined trajectory, managing braking and acceleration involves reactions of the car for which long-time fans are well prepared. In short, for better or for worse, in Gran Turismo 7 you drive broadly like in all the other episodes of the series. It is not a sim racing at the levels of an Assetto Corsa, but it keeps well away from the excesses of a Forza Horizon and even from the arcade hues of the most recent, and balanced, GRID Legends.
Driving clean is imperative. There is no room for smears. Better to slow down more than necessary than to end up with two wheels in the grass. It is better to preserve the perfect grip of all four wheels, than to hope for useful slippage to earn precious tenths. It is essential to protect the ideal trajectory to defend against opponent attacks and get out of corners as fast as possible. All always valid, of course, unless it is convenient to exploit the cars controlled by the AI to literally bounce and perform in very effective overtaking, however far from elegant. A penalty system, active above all online, but optionally selectable also in single, acts as an effective deterrent, but, exactly as in the past, it will certainly not be the driving system itself that will penalize you from taking advantage of this trick.
Gran Turismo 7 (among other things, here is a practical link for immediate purchase on the GameStop shop ), in short, imposes a big compromise on the gamer and no longer being able to count on the aura of the past, on the effective monopoly of a genre which practically did not exist on consoles or which was proposed with less attractive competitors in terms of aesthetics and the amount of content offered, at the dawn of 2022 can only be considered a product in many ways elitist, destined for a few, but very passionate car enthusiasts, even before video games.
Yes, because so far we have outlined the contours of a product that could almost appear listless, patchy, derivative. Nothing further from reality. Gran Turismo 7, a bit like any Soulslike, sets its conditions, it does not bow to design rules that we could define as modern, it proudly confirms the DNA that has always distinguished the brand.
There is a Gran Turismo style, as we said in the opening, a cross and a delight at the same time as the creature of Kazunori Yamauchi and his companions, an aesthetic and playful language that has made history. One may not accept it or consider it outdated, but as Gran Turismo 7 reconfirms it, it has an almost magnetic, hypnotic, ancestral charm.
The first screen with which the software welcomes you is enough to be charmed. The lounge music, the clean screens, the blaring sound effects. Everything is extremely elegant, refined, classy. Experienced users will immediately feel at home, newbies will feel like they have just crossed the threshold of an exclusive supercar dealer.
Much of the magic of the saga and of Gran Turismo 7, after all, is consumed and revealed at the edges and beyond the circuits.
Shapes, for example, allows you to take pictures of all the cars you own in dream scenarios. Brand Central is more than a place to buy new cars, but a veritable library full of texts and videos that trace the history of the main car manufacturers around the world. GT Auto and Tuning are the two items in the menu that will allow you to upgrade and take care of your fleet. The Garage, as the name implies, is the hub through which you can admire the specimens in your possession and play with all the parameters, there are so many, which influence performance on the track.
Gran Turismo 7, in this sense, is pure pornography. Between photos to be taken, replays animated by an excellent digital direction and modes that allow you to go around the car on duty, and to study its interiors in detail, thanks to the amazing graphic sector flaunted on PlayStation 5, soiled here and there by a pinch of aliasing and some tiny uncertainty of the frame rate, it is not uncommon to stop and admire the sinuous lines of a Ferrari, a Lamborghini, but also an old Civic. The maniacal care with which every detail has been faithfully reproduced testifies to the obsession of the team led by Kazunori Yamauchi for perfection.
You cannot enjoy Gran Turismo 7 without a boundless love for the world of four wheels. If you do not have the natural propensity to admire the details that characterize the models that make up the fleet made available, if you do not have any curiosity about the history of the brands and individual cars, you cannot feel empathy towards a product that you it is more like a sort of virtual museum where track tests are allowed, rather than as an authentic video game in the strict sense.
The consideration just expressed is valid, despite the excellent work done by the developers in making Gran Turismo 7 as accessible and attractive as possible even for those who simply want to enjoy a pleasant driving simulation.
GT Café, in this sense, represents the most successful novelty, much more than Rally Musicale which at the moment is nothing more than a time attack marked by the bpm of the track in the background, instead of the normal flow of seconds. Beyond the licenses and the numerous championships and dry races that will be proposed to you in the special menu, you could live the whole experience punctually primed by the small goals that will be entrusted to you in the elegant virtual environment that serves as a meeting place for customers with passion for the four wheels.
In addition to being able to chat with the NPCs, who are also generous with anecdotes and curiosities about the automotive, through the appropriate menu item you can select from time to time some missions that, beyond representing in all respects a sort of diluted tutorial to the functions made available to the user, they offer generous rewards in cash or other invoices, such as spare parts or new cars.
Nothing transcendental and truly innovative, of course, but GT Café succeeds in the task of guiding and enticing even the laziest user, who could feel disoriented by the simple sequence of tournaments and competitions that represent the classic skeleton of the brand.
It doesn't stop there, because there is no shortage of licenses, of increasing difficulty, further missions and medals to be earned not only by winning the aforementioned races, but also by trying to break records in the individual sectors of all the circuits present in the game.
If we add to this the local multiplayer with two players, the online one, to which we will dedicate a specific article in the coming days, and, above all, the possibility of getting your hands on 400 cars belonging to each historical era, you will have the dimensions of a racing simply colossal game, which feeding on further updates, which will certainly not fail, and e-sports seasons, has all the credentials to occupy the SSD of your PlayStation 5 (or the hard drives of your PlayStation 4) for a very long time.
It's worth going back to the guidance system again for two reasons. The first is the good use that Gran Turismo 7 makes of the peculiarities of DualSense. In terms of trigger resistance, Polyphony Digital has knowingly opted for a soft approach. The feedback is there, but nothing so strong. The contribution of the vibration that is felt not only during gear changes, but above all in conjunction with the roughness of the track, is more sensitive. Holes, hollows, curbs, but also the loss of grip of the rear, everything is reproduced by the DualSense, a feature that will help you to better manage the vehicle, especially when exiting corners, where opening the gas too early, or too hard, can prove fatal.
On the other hand, it is necessary to say more about the guidance system in relation to the use of a steering wheel. During our PlayStation 5 tests, we juggled a Logitech G923 TRUEFORCE, a peripheral that has done nothing but confirm how much the driving system of Gran Turismo 7 prefers cleanliness, precision, measured maneuvers, even when you find yourself on the dirt road in a Jeep. With a steering wheel, the experience becomes even more fun, exciting, meticulous. All the limits of the physical engine remain with regard to bumps, of course, but tackling a curve at the right speed, controlling oversteer with rapid acceleration, feeling the curb between your fingers thanks to the peripheral feedback, makes smudges even more acceptable, superficial, forgettable.. In addition, the differences between vehicles are even easier to notice. Driving an old FIAT 500 of only 17 horsepower obviously involves a totally different management of the vehicle compared to a very powerful Camaro zl1.
As we have already suggested here and there, Gran Turismo 7 boasts an amazing graphics sector. From time to time a thread of aliasing pops to the eye and in performance mode the fluidity stumbles for a moment (only a moment however) in rare situations. In any case, this does not mean that the spectacle offered by the game simply leaves you speechless. A few small details are still missing in the background and on the track to be able to deceive yourself that you are dealing with real images, but tracks and cars have very little to envy to their counterparts.
The sound was also applauded. The soundtrack will immediately invade your Spotify playlists, with songs purely, but not exclusively, lounge and chillout that go well with the mood of the production. Most of the sound effects are amazing. The skidding does not fully convince, but the performance of the engines is excellent.
Conclusions
Frankly we didn't expect this from Gran Turismo 7. In both good and little evil, the creature of Polyphony Digital reconfirms itself as a majestic museum dedicated to the automotive industry, even before being a real video game.
This does not mean that it is not fun to go out on the track, quite the contrary. Between GT Café, multiplayer, dozens of tournaments and hundreds of different cars to try, each with different and specific behaviors on the road, you will have your work cut out, becoming passionate about a driving system that prefers precision and cleanliness.
The management of collisions remains controversial, but it is a compromise that must and can only be accepted by fully understanding the philosophy of the title. If Gran Turismo 7 does everything to meet the tastes and habits of users, with a large number of aids that can be activated and deactivated, from this point of view it is absolutely uncompromising: even with active damage, a collision at two hundred kilometers per hour will not produce who knows what effects; hitting an opponent will not result in big penalties. Realism suffers, of course, but playing Gran Turismo also implies having a certain behavior and attitude on the track.
Played with a steering wheel, on a good 4K panel, with a sound system worthy of the name, Gran Turismo 7 is simply pornography, a product packaged by enthusiasts for enthusiasts.
Those who hoped for a revolution will be disappointed. Those who couldn't wait to get back behind the wheel of the Polyphony Digital saga, finally in 4K (and maybe 60fps fixed), will breathe the air of home from the first screen of the software and immerse themselves in a splendid, long-lived, very deep racing.
You May Also Like:
Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection - Review
Dying Light 2: Stay Human - Review
