F1 2014 Preview – Taking the Lead

F1 is a strange sport. Despite the speed of the vehicles involved, and the high probability of a first corner pile up, it can be an awfully monotonous sport to watch if you aren’t vested in the intricacies of team tactics, the upkeep of vehicles and the devastating effect of minute factors.

This makes F1 games a hard sort to talk about. This is especially true when developers Codemasters put the likes of GRID Autosport on the shelf while still making the official F1 game. GRID Autosport feels more exciting, more impactful, and overall more inviting on pure presentational gusto and car variety alone, but to say such things would be to misunderstand F1 2014’s role and reason entirely. It’s a fan’s omnibus.

I’ll also take this moment to say that this preview isn’t here to lament the lack of F1 2014 on Xbox One or Playstation 4. As we know, F1 2015 will be the first “next gen” outing for Formula 1, but Codemasters have stated in the past that they took this decision so that their first F1 game on Xbox One and Playstation 4 will be as good as possible, so it seems pointless to labour the fact here.

So instead we should be asking ourselves “What makes F1 2014 worth it?” Well, let’s ignore the fact that it still includes the usual methods of playing, from single races to Grand Prix, and let’s just accept that, as with all modern racing games, there’s a long list of assists for you to tinker with to help if you struggle with knowing when to break (hint, corners), and that the game features those common crutches such as “flashback” rewinding.

Admittedly there is a nice “test” when you start the game, which is a new Codemasters norm. This test tries to guesstimate what difficulty will suit you best, and is a good way to curb over confidence or assure novice players that they too can competently navigate the corners of Silverstone. But that’s not really what’s worth celebrating when it comes to F1 2014.

What seems to be its strongest asset, from my time with a limited preview build, is the Scenario mode. As with F1 2013, these are small bite size chunks of challenge that ask you to conquer a specific goal, usually under a hindrance or tight time limit.

Why are these so good? Two reasons. Firstly, they let you relive some Formula 1 highlights, a dream come true for any fan of the sport. Plucking from the first set alone, one challenge tasks you with fending off Fernando Alonso as he tries to overtake you, repeating Williams’ famous 2012 win. For an F1 fan, being able to experience moments like this is an exhilarating privilege granted only by this game, a game that understands that its audience would appreciate content like this.

Secondly, they help you develop a deeper understanding for the tactics and difficulties of F1 itself. One scenario early on is simply to do with reclaiming two spaces after a crippling mistake in the rain, but this alone forces you to push an F1 car in slippery conditions. Another in the first set tasks you with “taking advantage” (the game’s own words, those) of Lewis Hamilton’s engine problems and Kimi Raikkonen’s lack of fuel to steal a podium finish on the final lap.

The thing to take from this is that in trying to achieve these things yourself, or hearing about why you could get a podium finish due to other racers having problems, heightens your appreciation and awareness of these things when it comes to the real sport. And that is absolutely F1 2014’s key success, but also contributes to its insular appeal.

For a Formula 1 fan, from the most passive to the most involved, F1 2014 is gold. For anyone else, it’s largely impenetrable. But does F1 2014 care for those people? No, not really. For those people there is GRID Autosport, with its big brash cars and frantic commentators and more crunchy crashes. And that’s exactly why F1 2014 appears to be so good for its intended audience, it’s designed and developed entirely with them in mind.