F1 2021 Review

Well, here we are again, the annual F1 review for the 3rd year running and hopefully will continue to do so. As always, a massive thank you to Codemasters for being legends and providing me with a copy this year for the PS5 and with their patience for this long overdue review but life outside of gaming sucks. But Jamie, don’t you usually request for the Xbox? Why yes, my fellow reader, yes, I do, however there was a massive difference this time that I really needed to try for myself but we’ll go into that later. 

I’m fairly certain by now I don’t need to explain what Formula 1 is but to sum up the sport, fast cars, insane talent, a crash now and then and plenty of characters. I play a lot of racing games and I believe this is my favourite F1 game that we have been given so far, but not just for the gameplay, but attention to detail, the graphics and the amount of effort gone into this game. Especially that for the very first time there is an official campaign so we shall jump into that first.

Braking Point

You are a fresh new driver into the F1 league, where the fastest, most serious teams are placed and the championship is up for grabs. The first thing I loved about it straight away is you can either be Williams, Aston Martin Racing or Alpha Tauri and I chose Williams, because, why not. I was super excited for this mode as I have and always will be the kind of person that well prefers a good story over multiplayer, since I don’t really play games with anyone these days. 

You come from F2 and enter the scary world of F1 with a more experienced team mate that from the start is not a big fan of you, but the story builds from there and in the end its actually a sweet ending. If there is one thing Codies are brilliant for, its for making a character that the player can hate. Thanks Butler! The only thing that really bugged me during the career is the facial animations. It seems that sometimes they are fine but then other times the facial expressions just don’t suit the line or they just look completely emotionless and it is a bit off putting to the eye.

Gameplay

As always, the gameplay itself feels great, Codies have always had a way to tailor the gameplay to everyone with the number of assists and difficulty settings available to everyone, naturally for me I tend to have the Safety car on and have at the races be longer but I don’t have the AI on the hardest difficulty. I’m not that ballsy yet. The rain still terrifies me and will continue to do so as it changes everything up as always so pitting strategy in races like these are more important than ever.

The thing I mentioned at the start with me being on PS5 for this year is because on the PS5, for those still waiting to get their hands on one, the controller has a step up from the rest of the competition with their adaptive triggers. It is hard to describe because these are the kind of things you need to experience for yourself but in the case of F1, if you are turning on a corner you can actually feel the triggers fighting back as if your car is fighting for grip, that kind of thing and it makes the racing so much more immersive.

The obvious thing about this game is the calendar has been changing due to the COVID situation, which involved 3 tracks being added in replacement of cancelled races and the amazing thing is, Codemasters are adding them in and as of writing this review, Imola and Portimao are available in the game and again, feel great to race around!

Verdict

Now as always not every game is perfect, this game however is by far the best entry into the franchise and I know will continue to grow especially with the new generation of F1 coming in 2022 so the new possibilities and confirmed calendar for next year is just going to be epic.