REVIEW – While the game is not an easy task for beginners, this year’s Formula-1 game adaptation continues the recent trend of Codemasters’ high quality. Sure, DiRT 4 wasn’t perfect, true, and F1 2017 isn’t a 10/10 title, either, but it’s still wonderful, or, dare I say, ADDICTIVE, thanks to the updated career mode!

I don’t need to introduce this year’s F1 game’s basics. It is based on the 2017 season with the wider cars, the longest season ever, and, unfortunately, with only ten teams, as Manor has gone belly up, thanks to Sauber, this year’s backmarkers. I’m saying this upfront: I’m throwing the story out of the rating and replace it with the physics – it’d look stupid if the story got a 0, limiting F1 2017 to an 8 out of 10 at best.

McLaren

Fine, there is a bit of story here, as there are cutscenes between the races. Our manager (who happens to look better when she’s angry than she’s fine) will be the first person to greet us, but there’s also our race mechanic, plus the guy who is responsible for the invitational events (I’ll get back to these). You’re going to see a first person perspective during these cutscenes with no way to communicate with them.
The career mode takes a step forward, and I forgot to say that you can start out with any team (including the Mercedes, but where’s the fun and challenge in that?), and even then, you’ll have the chance to upgrade your car. Holy crap, the development tree is in-depth! Over 170 upgrades are waiting to be installed, which means you will simply not max out your car in a single season.

Why? Simple: the upgrades might fail during testing. Indeed, you may spend hundreds of research points on the engine, only to waste your points, as you’ll get to spend roughly half of the amount again just to see it finished. (Your engineer looks the same in all teams, lol.) It can cause quite hilarious moments with McLaren because it’s one of those shitboxes this season along with Sauber. The game’s not easy, and it will look quite tough to get around R&D, as you can tune the chassis, their longevity, the powertrain, and so on.

Sauber

During your career, upgrading your car will be necessary to keep up the pace, but at least the practices provide some fun before the quali and the race. With the best driving style, you can get a good racing strategy, and with a solid fuel usage, you can have the optimal one – it is enjoyable, and you will also get some research points for doing your best. Also, there’s your rivalry with your team mate or another driver, plus the team’s rating of your skills is always changing from race to race. The more you are in purple, the better! There are also the invitational events, where you can drive classic cars, which is a refreshing touch, and they also provide you valuable points to spend on your car, if you are successful.

What about the physics? Well, I don’t think Codemasters has anything to worry about on this front – they have their bases set right in DiRT as well, and here, cars break down, tires, spoilers break, and you might find yourself retiring as early as the first corner. Nicely done. What about online? It ran fine, but don’t drive in Monaco. You’ll get traffic jams. A LOT.

Toro Rosso

Still, I cannot give this game a 9 out of 10, as it has several flaws. I think the user interface isn’t as nice as in F1 2016, but the bigger issue here is how the beginners don’t get a helping hand. All you get for tutorials are videos. That’s somewhat lame in my opinion. The game got a massive promotion (Spa had large boards featuring F1 2017, so the marketing was there), and yet, the first steps of beginners are mostly guaranteed to be failures. Well done.

The weekends are bookended by Sky Sports F1‘s commentators, but they just disappear throughout the races, while a PS1 game, namely F1 2001 (which is a buggy piece of shit, even if you disagree – try running into an AI car when it is heading to the pits. Watch how it will drive through the pit wall, then slow down mid lap, and if you run into it, the car will just disappear under or above the track… and I did it on a real console, not just emulation) had it, featuring Murray Walker, who has made plenty of weekends memorable for those who watched F1 on television.

I’d also point out the graphical mishaps. Sometimes, I just noticed the pilots’ helmets not loading properly (pixelated mess), and I don’t like how most of the drivers look both on the HUD and on the podium. I think there’s also just one victory animation in F1 2017, too.

Recommended!

F1 2017 is recommended. If you skipped 15 and 16, it’s easily worthy of purchase. There are other track layouts than the regular ones, Monaco at night, as well as an addictive career mode. If you love Formula-1, get it before those stupid halos show up on the cars next year. (What if it breaks off the car? The car behind will be in danger, and its suspension, wheels could be badly damaged! There are better solutions…) For fans, it’s a 9/10, for others, a strong 8.5/10!

-V-

Publisher: Codemasters (distributor: Koch Media)

Developer: Codemasters

Genre: F1 license-based game adaptation, Honda engine explosion simulator

Release date: August 25, 2017