Dropping a mainstay of racing games, practicing on a track until you learn its turns inside and out, Grid 2 adds a new feature which changes the tracks as you race them; pushing the game into twitch racer territory.
The new mechanic, LiveRoutes, is on show in the trailer below.
So long as LiveRoutes isn’t an always-on feature I think it could be a wonderful little addition to the genre. It will force you to drive in a whole new style, taking each lap cautiously, not assuming you know what speeds you can take the straights. Though, I’d miss static tracks if they were taken out of the game.
Steve’s hand a go at Grid 2 and says much the same thing: “It’s an odd sensation, racing several laps of a track but gaining no familiarity for the corners, and it’s not one that I’m absolutely certain enhances the multiplayer racing experience. […] Because the tracks are changing, you’re left without a map in these races. And without pace notes, it’s only the environment and barrier colouring that’s left to suggest (to the inexperienced racer at least) how severe the next corner will be. The environment tends to make a poor co-driver. […] On the flipside the system certainly works well in AI races, where the morphing routes lend races an exciting frisson of the unexpected, demanding on the fifth and sixth laps the same cautious racing style normally only seen on the first.”