It’s lap 13 of the Spanish Grand Prix at Circuit de Barcelona. A certain promising, young McLaren Honda driver managed to secure a solid 12th place in qualifying and now finds himself up in 7th with only two laps to go. The team has been struggling early on and a result here would be crucial to all involved. With Alonso already out, it was all up to Perry to secure some vital championship points. He’s crossing the line for the penultimate lap and disaster strikes! *CRUNCH* The gearbox implodes, the car spins out and he flies into a wall, wheels gliding through the air. Out of the race. Disaster. No, more like complete and utter BS!
Okay, okay. I promise this is still a review, not some weird opening chapter of an autobiography, but the events you’ve just read detail my exact experience in a recent career race. I was bloody livid as, for a third race in a row, my team’s incompetence had lost me the opportunity to perform well. God knows why I thought racing for McLaren Honda, who are infamous for running go-kart engines, on one of the game’s hardest difficulty settings was a good idea. Talk about setting myself up for a bad time. Mind you, it does bring to light how simulation games can become so immersive that they make you experience very real emotions in response to events. Well, good simulations anyway. We won’t talk about some of the “‘Insert generic word here’ Simulator 2017” shovelware titles that seem to pop up now and then.
Thankfully F1 2017 is far from a shovelware title but rather the latest addition in Codemasters’ successful Formula 1 racing game franchise. Aiming to replicate motorsport’s fastest machines and give the average person a chance of experiencing what driving an F1 car truly feels like. One thing I found interesting in this regard is that previous F1 titles often lean on the side of arcade-simulation but F1 2017 feels far more like Project CARS than it does Forza Horizon. Once those assists get turned off you’re in for a really tough time just getting around the track without spinning out. It becomes easy to lock the brakes, lose the back-end, recklessly spin the wheels, damage the engine with poor gearing, miss a braking zone. There’s a lot to concentrate on at the same time. This isn’t the only way to enjoy F1 though. Turn on your ABS, racing line and traction control and you’ve got a relatively accessible racing game. Dirt 4 did a great job of offering a range of choice in how the player can enjoy their drive and Codemasters have done it once again here.
When it comes to reviewing racing games the opening question is always the same. Does the driving feel good? This is make or break as without a good driving system, there can’t be good racing. F1 2017 feels pretty good with there being a nice balance between you being able to drive however you want whilst retaining that difficulty wall you need to overcome to get quicker. I can’t say F1 2017 quite stands up against market rivals with the likes of Forza Motorsport 6, a game that came out two years ago, feeling superior in almost every way driving-wise. I suppose the F1 cars in F1 2017 feel better than Forza’s but then again Forza has everything else that F1 doesn’t. I’ve had this issue with the F1 games for a while now. I can’t help but think the very concept of F1 makes it inferior to other racing games because you can only drive F1 cars. The addition of classic Formula 1 this year helps a little bit but there’s still a huge gap between this and the majority of its market rivals in terms of content depth.
Content is a matter I feel needs discussing because the lack of creative exploration in F1 2017 is clear. There are 10 modern cars, 12 classic cars and 20 track locations. Of those 20, F1 2017 also features four short versions including Silverstone and COTA. These numbers are decent enough but I wish Codemasters tried to be a little more inspired in their design choices. The 20 base tracks are cool but would it have been possible to throw in a few non-F1 calendar tracks? What about circuits used in off-season such as Mugello or old F1 tracks like Brands Hatch and Nürburgring GP? Additions like these would have added so much to what is already a pretty solid game. Whilst on this topic, why stop at just F1? Sure, maybe people don’t want GT cars or LMP but perhaps GP2 and F3 could have been added. I just feel variety is always a good thing and as good as this game can be, it always feels like it should have been better.
I felt I needed to get that off of my chest but let’s be clear when I say F1 2017 is a really solid racing game that offers most of what you could want. Its performance is stellar with no frame rate drops ever occurring during my playtime and the game just generally looks refined. For those who are looking for some online action, I can happily report that it runs without a hitch and the servers are good enough to deliver seamless steering inputs. I did notice though that on occasion the AI cars in online lobbies will twitch around unpredictably and this can cause lag related accidents. This isn’t an overly big problem but I’d like to see this addressed in the future with a patch. Unlike some previous titles, more advanced features such as safety cars seemed to work fine and operate just as well as they do in single player.
Summary
At the end of the day, F1 2017 is basically what you expect it to be. A Formula 1 simulator that does a solid job which will likely serve many for hours on end. I can’t see it pulling in many new players but it certainly should suffice for the existing fanbase. It would have been nice to see Codemasters take it to the next level with lower tier Formula cars and non-calendar tracks but it is what it is. Give it a try if you’re an avid racing game fan but otherwise there are currently many more accessible titles out there for getting into the genre.
Kurt contributed 8 articles to ICXM in 2017, covering game reviews, and Xbox news with a focus on hands-on impressions and verified-source reporting. Their bylines on the site span the Xbox One X launch year and Microsoft’s wider Play Anywhere / UWP gaming initiative. They post on X as @kurtjp35.