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F1 2021 Review

Starting with Aiden Jackson after moving up from F2 to Formula One, he signs with one of the lower teams and is accompanied by Casper Akkerman, an experienced driver, and you will guide them through two dramatic seasons

By Jingjing WangPublished 4 years ago 5 min read

Starting with Aiden Jackson after moving up from F2 to Formula One, he signs with one of the lower teams and is accompanied by Casper Akkerman, an experienced driver, and you will guide them through two dramatic seasons.

It's all part of a six-hour story mode in which you play as two drivers from one of Formula One's lower teams battling tricky team-mates, rivalries and the ever-present threat of Devon Butler, a fictional driver that you may remember from F1 2019's short story. The story itself is nothing to write home about, with both locked horns with antagonist Devon Butler and watching with striking arrogance. The rivalry system adds spice to every race in the game, but the differences in personality make this all the more surprising.

There is nothing quite like the thrill of driving for your favourite team or driver, watching one of the twenty-three grands prix each year and getting behind the wheel of one of those animal cars to try and win the championship. For the first time in the history of the series, Formula One 2021 has its advantages, as you can pick up and play at any time during a race, making it more interesting than the actual race and you get a taste of what goes on behind the scenes. For the first time in the history of the series, the game features a story mode that introduces players to what really goes on behind the scenes of Formula One teams. If you have taken enough positions to continue the story of Devon Butler, the fictional driver, you may recall from the short story section of F1 2019 23 seconds later, the motivation will be compelling.

Thousands of new fans will find plenty to help drive a car and survive a big binge of breathless cockpit audio, paddock rancour and peaks of fighting in the corners, but braking points are another video game story mode. That's a big limitation of Madden and NBA 2K Story, which doesn't extend to Formula One's stellar career and team modes. The story of the pre-made characters does not fit the imagination of the driver / team owner of my team, and I do not understand why they cannot continue the career opportunities that exist in the game for their created driver.

In addition to the personalized career and MyTeam modes, there is also a brand new story campaign called Braking Point, a linear story that resembles Madden's Longshot and Fifas Journey, which is fitting given the purchase of Codemasters by EAs earlier this year. The structure of the braking points 16 chapters is the same as before, but their strict linearity is understandable for a story of this kind, but can be a little upsetting if it does not respond to your actual racing performance or acknowledge that you have achieved your goals. It leans heavily on the idea of F1 "s urge to survive as a series, and it's structured around its drama, but in many ways it feels like the first attempt at a story.

Codemasters is competing against its own fictional drama against this backdrop and first introduces a full-fledged story mode to Formula One in the series. The Braking Point Story mode is not the first attempt of the series to introduce a Story mode, as the developer is old enough to remember racing drivers and grids known as F1 2019. While the introduction of some key characters like Devon Butler may feel like a throwaway attempt, the Braking Point Story mode is a satisfying affair. Spread over two seasons, his many stories are told through pretty CGI cutscenes interspersed with familiar faces and voices, and it's enough to justify the ticket price.

The end result falls short of dramatic reality, but it is a well-executed and welcome new way of playing that joins the wide range of existing modes to create an excellent package - albeit one that needs a little more content to bring it into line with the real 2021 season. In light of this, it is remarkable that Codemasters has managed to deliver a balanced game this season, and even more remarkable that it does so while introducing one of the most pleasing innovations of recent years. Codemaster first flirted with the concept of a story mode in Formula One 2019 with its short F2 intro and carefully curated late-race scenarios and first-person cutscenes two years ago.

The Braking Point Story mode is pioneering in relation to new features in Formula One 2021, and despite initial misgivings and a few bumps along the way, it ends up doing well. There are 17 races you can take part in at Brake Point, and many of them take place as scenarios within the scenario mode, such as when you need to catch your teammate on a certain lap to finish a race, or when you have a problem with your car's gearbox. The race feels tight, and using the controller as a wheel is a rewarding feeling, and you will find success in each of the modes you enjoy.

Whether you are a fan or not of Formula One, F1 2021 is a game you want to play and experience and I think that this is the perfect racing game.

F1 2021 is the seventh Formula 1 game running on the 4.0 version of the Codemasters ego game engine, which is to be available on the next generation consoles and is very similar to previous Formula 1 games. As a brilliant version of last year's entry, the iteration of F1 2021 is an improvement in every way. It looks better, it's more accessible, it feels more exciting to play, it comes with content that will delight all sorts of serial fans and there is even a new narrative mode in the form of Braking Point Campaign.

That's not to say that there aren't changes - the new Brake Point Story mode is one of the most heavily promoted additions, but it's not a new experience on which platform you are playing F1 2021 on. It drives itself forward, and it is a new game mode that is a significant step forward from Formula One's brief attempt in 2009 to include fictional characters in the world of Formula One. However, I would advise players to take a look at the additional settings that make the game experience more like a simulator than an arcade game. There are a number of wizards and hidden settings in the game that can change your driving experience.

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