Gran Turismo 7 [PlayStation 5] | REVIEW

Gran Turismo is arguably the most iconic racing series of all time, with Polyphony Digital’s ‘real driving simulator’ setting the bar for immersion, content, and visuals ever since its debut in 1997. Whilst some entries haven’t always hit the heights that the series is known for, there’s no denying the impact it has made across the whole of gaming. It has been nearly nine years since we had a proper new entry in the series (Gran Turismo Sport was more of a spin-off), so what better way to celebrate twenty-five years of the franchise than with the release of Gran Turismo 7?

I’m happy to report that it manages to re-capture the brilliance the series is loved for, with the content-rich single player, the outstanding visuals, and sublime driving all coming together to offer a brilliant Gran Turismo experience.

Check out a gallery of screenshots down below:

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Whilst a lot of the hallmarks of the series are present in Gran Turismo 7, it changes up its single player campaign into a more objective-driven experience. You’ll still be able to collect hundreds of cars, compete in challenging events, and earn your licenses by completing a variety of tasks, but progression is guided via the in-game Café and the completion of menus. No, no, you won’t be eating and drinking your way through a typical café menu – instead, each menu gives you a selection of tasks to complete, whether that’s unlocking specific cars, completing a certain event, or completing licence challenges.

Interestingly, completing a menu doesn’t only reward you with in-game bonuses, new areas to visit, and new events to complete, but also teaches you about the cars related to that menu. It was something that I thought might get tiring given that I’m not actually that invested in car history and information (as long as it goes fast I’m fine), but I soon found myself looking forward to learning more about the heritage of the cars. Gran Turismo 7 prides itself on its encyclopaedia knowledge of the history of automobiles and the way that information is presented made it genuinely interesting to learn.

There are an abundance of events to complete in the game, with some requiring certain prerequisites from the player to enter. You might need a specific car type, a set amount of credits, or even a car with adequate Performance Points (PP) to compete, with the player having to manually select the correct car before they try to enter. Admittedly, this could be a little tedious at times and it would have been nicer if there was a streamlined way for the game to automatically allocate one of the vehicles out of your garage for you, though the fast load times ensure it’s never too much fuss changing things up.

“Gran Turismo 7 makes it easy to completely invest yourself in your driving career, whether that’s when proving how skilful you are on the racetrack or when simply gushing over your ever-growing car collection.”

That being said, Gran Turismo 7 is guilty of having overly elaborate menus. Whilst the World Map setup of moving between Events, Licences, your Garage, the Café, and so forth isn’t too bad, there’s a lot of menu browsing within each one that can feel a little fiddly. Fine-tuning your options to find specific vehicles in your Garage never feels too flexible for example, whilst Events are broken down into specific regions rather than listing what’s directly available for the player. It felt unnecessarily cumbersome to do specific things at times, and whilst you will get used to it, I always felt it could have been better.

You know what though? That’s my only real complaint about Gran Turismo 7, with everything else in the game feeling sublime. The events and licences are varied and send you across all sorts of beautifully designed tracks, the sheer selection of cars is ridiculous and there’s plenty of freedom offered in tuning them up and changing their appearance, the Café Menus are a lot of fun to complete and bring with them a genuine sense of progression, whilst earning credits to purchase those ridiculously fast cars you’ve been fancying NEVER stops being satisfying. Gran Turismo 7 makes it easy to completely invest yourself in your driving career, whether that’s when proving how skilful you are on the racetrack or when simply gushing over your ever-growing car collection, whilst the sheer amount of things to do means you can easily spend a ton of hours with the game and not come close to experiencing everything.

The attention to detail is absolutely on point too, with cars’ interiors and exteriors accurately re-created to give players the most authentic experience possible. When racing, there are things like the dynamic weather that changes up mid-race, puddles forming and also drying on set points of each course, or even the stars in the sky accurately placed to represent their real-life counterparts based on the time and place of the world you’re in. It almost feels a little silly to have this much detail, but it’s something that Gran Turismo 7 prides itself on. The game just looks and feels stunning throughout, with it easy to mistake replays for real-life racing at times (especially when playing with ray tracing active).

“Besides the adaptive triggers responding to all of the accelerating and braking to make you feel the impact your driving has on your car, the haptic feedback will make you feel every bump on a track, every shunt with another car, and even the gear changes up you speed up through the course.”

It also helps that the racing feels really good, of course. The controls feel responsive throughout, whether you’re drifting across tight corners, pulling off slick handbrake turns, or weaving your way through opponents, whilst there’s a real sense of speed when driving some of the more powerful sports cars. It does a good job of making each vehicle feel completely different, whilst each tune-up you give to your car can be genuinely felt between races. The racing just feels super satisfying, whilst the AI offers enough challenge that you’ll be jostling for positions and that no race is ever a foregone conclusion – I won more often than I lost, but I felt pushed for first place without it ever being frustrating. Those who are having a rough time will be happy to see there are various assist options in place though, with each fine-tuned and enabled or disabled with ease as you get more comfortable with the game.

One of the best things about playing games on the PlayStation 5 is the DualSense controller, and believe me, Gran Turismo 7 takes full advantage of it to make the racing feel more immersive than ever. Besides the adaptive triggers responding to all of the accelerating and braking to make you feel the impact your driving has on your car, the haptic feedback will make you feel every bump on a track, every shunt with another car, and even the gear changes up you speed up through the course. These might feel like small details, but they go a long way in making Gran Turismo 7 the best racer to play with a controller.

There’s just so much to love about Gran Turismo 7, and I haven’t even touched upon things like the Music Rally (that challenges you to race to specific music tracks), the online multiplayer which offers both casual and serious racing, or the photo mode that doesn’t only let you capture images mid-race but also lets you take your cars across the world. This is a game packed to the brim with content that complements the slick racing action, whilst the promise of more cars and tracks in the future means it’s only going to get bigger and better… I can’t wait.

Developer: Polyphony Digital
Publisher: PlayStation Studios
Platform(s): PlayStation 5 (Reviewed), PlayStation 4
Website: https://www.gran-turismo.com/gb/