Grand Tour Game – PS4 | Review

If you are a fan of Amazon’s Grand Tour then you should probably buy the company’s new video game, if only for the reason that it gives you a way to own every episode of Season 3. For everyone else, you should probably avoid it with a wide berth.

Grand Tour Game does what it says, it lets you be part of the series, allowing you to take part in all the races and challenges which Jeremy, James and Richard would otherwise be in control of during the show. Of course, this means there are plenty of wacky things going on, like having to drive so bad you make Richard scream, or just racing each other around the track, picking up enhancements which allow you to deploy a purple smoke to stop the other players catching you, or send a text, which comes up on the screen, obscuring the view of others.

There’s certainly a wide variety of racing, seeing you take part in drifts challenges, standard time trials and even a noise test where you have to wheel spin around a warehouse to try and be the noisest driver around.

When you purchase the game you are treated to one episode from Season 1, one from Season 2 and then there is an add on for each of the episodes of Season 3, as they become available. I’ve decided to review the game now because quite frankly I’ve had enough of it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of the series, however, the game is perfectly represented by its lowest award in-game award – a toilet.

To be fair, The Grand Tour Game does have some redeeming qualities. For one, there are plenty of amazing cars and they all look the part. The graphics aren’t too bad either, with cars glistening in the sun and the surrounding tracks certainly looking like they belong on a console. I can’t say the handling is all that bad either, while the action feels pretty smooth, with not a lot of frame rate issues.

The main problem with the game is that’s it just pretty boring. The game is presented as the episode, so if you’ve already watched it then you can fast forward to the action, with around 15 scenes to take part in depending on the episode. There are certainly more cutscenes than action, that’s for sure, so fast forwarding past these bits means you can generally complete an episode in 20-30 minutes, making it feel more like the game would be suited to mobile devices than a console.

The other issue is that some of the action scenes are over in seconds, especially for instance, if you are taking part in a drag race; Do this with each of the presenters and three scenes are over already. And there’s the other problem, sometimes you’ll do the same race three times just so you can take control of each presenter, albeit in a different car.

As an overall package, it’s just not very good and feels more like a cash-in than anything else.

Final Impressions

To be honest, I quite liked Grand Tour Video Game at first, it seemed like quite a novel idea and to begin with it was quite fun, however, the novelty soon wears off and becomes more monotonous than anything else, meaning you’ll probably struggle to stick with it for the entire season – but then you can always just watch the series instead of taking part in the mundane challenges the game decides to throw at you.

*Code kindly provided by the publisher for review*

Developer: Amazon Game Studios / Publisher: Amazon Game Studios
Release date: 15/01/2019
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One
Platform Reviewed: PS4 Pro