‘Gran Turismo 7’ game review: A love letter to serious motorsports enthusiasts

Even as more and more legacy franchises are trying to appeal to the Fortnite-edged crowd with colorful skins and noisy quest markers, Gran Turismo sticks to its tried-and-tested simulation formula. The latest version in the series, the Gran Turismo 7, can be seen as a love letter to serious motorsports enthusiasts. Barring a few aspects, the game is a perfect experience.

The manufacturer, Polyphony Digital, takes you down memory lane with an introduction to the history of the motoring world. If you have played the previous versions of the franchise you will feel nostalgic. Once you get to GT Cafe, you can start racing, earning and buying cars. More nuggets of motorsports history await you when you hit the menu. However, once the game starts, there are no story, voice overs or cutscenes – it’s just you, the wheel, and the tarmac. And, that’s all you need. The game reminds you of old school racing before all the open world and career modes hit.

The number of menus you have to go through is tedious at times. GT Cafe regularly hosts races and challenges so you can earn more credits for tuning your cars.

You can take part in online races or compete with offline racers. Simulation gives you the feeling of driving a real car. Haptic feedback is excellent through the Dual Sense 5’s adaptive triggers. A wide range of car and race selections will excite casual racers while GT loyalists will love the customization and simulation options. Rolling starts, which put you far behind in the race, can spoil your experience. Don’t worry, a quick search will reveal that you can switch on Grid Start from Settings.

Once you start earning credits, things start to get clingy. Everything is very expensive – paint colors, gradations and other things. You have to grind a lot to spend anything. Or, you can use real money to buy credits. In a game full of exciting cars to buy and earn, the GT7 really works for you collection. Once you unlock the car, you’re greeted with a detailed history of the vehicle’s lineage, manufacturer, and more. The presentation of the history could have been coherent, as some are cutscenes and others are on text boxes.

Gran Turismo 7 is gorgeous everywhere. The cars look so real, making you want to set the menu on fire to admire their beauty. Out on the track, things get even more dynamic, as the time of day changes during the race. While some of the tracks are lackluster, the rest are spectacular – they take you from sunny European villages, to the charming high tech Tokyo Expressway and other stunning places.

If you are a serious e-motorsport racer, you will love this game.