Developer Codemasters has long been a go-to name for racing game fans. With franchises like Dirt, GRID, and the official Formula One games under its belt, it's no surprise that publishers like Take Two were interested in a buyout, with Electronic Arts eventually winning the bidding war. F1 2021 is the first game released by Codemasters since the takeover, as the real-life sport is heating up.
F1 2021 covers this year's Formula One championship, with players able to run through the real-life races or create their own driver or team to take on the best racers in the world. It's a grueling and heavily technical sport, and this is something that Codemasters has been able to portray well while making the gameplay accessible. However, with major leaders leaving the company, some fans have been tentative about what impact EA may have had on the game.
Thankfully, F1 2021 still feels very much like the excellent games that came before it. That's not to say that Codemasters has not made any improvements, however, as F1 2021 includes some additional features that will be fun for veteran fans, and others that may help newcomers acclimatize themselves to the world of Formula One.
The most noticeable of these, and the one that moves F1 2021 firmly into the EA Sports camp, is the introduction of the narrative-based Braking Point. Much like similar stories in series like FIFA and Madden, Braking Point follows the story of fictional sportspeople, with veteran Casper Akkerman and talented rookie Aiden Jackson thrown into a team together. With F1 2019's perennial villain Devon Butler reintroduced - an Iago with truly awful hair - and even Lukas Weber making a cameo appearance, there's something for even series stalwarts to enjoy as the sparks fly between these two teammates.
Even so, Braking Point is essentially added as a good introduction point to those unfamiliar with Formula One, its complicated ruleset, and the way in which this comes across in video game form. It takes the player through overtakes, pit stops, fastest laps, and safety cars as a crash course through the sport. In a way, it's the gaming equivalent of Netflix’s Drive To Survive and serves this purpose well.
For experienced players it may sometimes be a bit jarring, such as receiving a note of ‘solid driving’ when giving a lower rung team a podium. As such it should be remembered that this is something of a tutorial, and even those who are vaguely familiar with racing games should likely go for a higher difficulty than they would normally choose in order for its story to really hit home.
Braking Point will help set the player up for where they will likely spend the bulk of their time: Career Mode. Once again this can be done through selecting an existing team to stake a claim to be the number one driver in the world, or instead through the comprehensive My Team mode where the player creates their own team within the sport. The former option also gives the player the chance to start out in the F2 feeder series, which is still good to see.
My Team still feels fresh in its core gameplay loop one year on from its introduction, although Codemasters has made a few updates here and there. Team upgrades will sometimes lead to departmental events that require input, such as choosing where the second driver's simulator time should be prioritized, and this makes the player feel more involved in the running of the team. Meanwhile, both Career Mode options benefit from a refresh of simulated practice sessions, with users being able to focus on specific regimes instead of just leaving it as a roll of the dice.
Codemasters included a cooperative Career Mode option here, and this is a neat touch that will no doubt get a lot of love as time goes on. However, it would have been nice to see local coop on this mode via split screen, even with significant hits to frame rate or graphical fidelity. Classics like GRID grandfather TOCA 2: Touring Cars allowed seasons to be played split screen and helped get young players into racing, and such an option here could have helped to give the F1 fanbase a boost.
Something to note is that F1 2021 has fairly limited cosmetic player and team customization options at the start. It's expected that the game's Podium Pass will provide a bump via in-game unlocks at launch, but players may feel disappointed when it comes to helmet, emote, livery, and sponsor options. Given how much the PC modding community jumped into My Team with F1 2020, it's a shame that the base game hasn't seen much expansion here.
Elsewhere, however, customization is king in F1 2021. Assist, simulation, and various other gameplay options mean that the player is able to create a truly fantastic bespoke experience to suit their needs. Career Mode options even come down to how quickly the player will gain acclaim and resource points, as well as creating their own roster of races, which is fantastic to see.
F1 2021 has seen a fair few other quality of life updates. Minor details like being able to ask an engineer for fewer comments is useful for those who found them too chatty in previous games (particularly for Kimi Raikkonen fans who want to tell the engineer "leave me alone, I know what I'm doing"). More circuits will also be added to F1 2021 with time, which is necessary given the impact COVID-19 has had on this year's championship schedule.
F1 2021 on PS5 also makes decent use of the hardware available. The game feels great to play, in part thanks to its solid use of the DualSense controller's haptic feedback and adaptive triggers, meaning that the player will feel closer to unique circuits like Spa than ever before. The game also has quick load times and is visually better than the last generation, especially in the rain, and although it's perhaps not as big an overhaul that some may want it's hardly a slouch.
The same goes for the gameplay, as F1 2021 feels very close to F1 2020. There's only so much variation that can go into an annual racing game, particularly with the rigidity of something like Formula One, and F1 2020 fans will settle right in with how the new game plays. This isn't necessarily a bad thing though, given that F1 2020 is undoubtedly one of the highlights of the series.
That doesn't mean that F1 2021 hasn't had any updates to its racing mechanics, however, and one noticeable element is that a clear emphasis has been placed on the importance of corner exits. Players will need to be much more careful with their acceleration than in previous years, particularly those late maneuvers pulled off with little worry about being caught back a second down the line. In F1 2021 these moves become much more of a gamble, meaning players will have to think more tactically about their overtakes.
That's not to say that F1 2021 is perfect, though, as alongside the aforementioned lack of immediate customization options there are some light technical issues. As just one example, using the flashback option sometimes results in the engineer continuing to suggest a new strategy option throughout the rest of the race, while crashes also may result in the car's wheels glitching out within the physics engine. However, these are minor problems that will hopefully be addressed quickly, and don't detract from the overall experience for longer than a few seconds at a time.
Overall, F1 2021 is an excellent entry in the series, with a number of additions and tweaks that make it feel refreshing to play. With one of the most comprehensive Career Modes available in a sports game and enough options to make it accessible to anyone, F1 2021 is enjoyable for newcomers and veterans alike. Fans may want to keep an eye on outside influences on Codemasters as time goes on, particularly with cosmetic options, but F1 2021 still provides the incredible thrills and deep choices of how to play that the series has become known for.
F1 2021 releases 16 July 2021 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Screen Rant was provided with a PS5 download code for the purposes of this review.