Gaming Editor Kyle Moffat excitedly races through F1 2020, to discover how Codemasters have innovated in their newest release
For the past several years, Formula 1 games have felt like updates rather than brand new titles. A new circuit or two, as well as a couple of new drivers and graphical improvements arrive, but little else. Codemasters boldly break this cycle with F1 2020. Customisation is upgraded massively along with classic game-modes. Best of all, we now have the chance to create an F1 team!
My Team is one of the most content-filled game modes ever in a F1 game! Players are gifted with the freedom to choose a second driver and create a livery fitting for their team. You also choose an engine provider, up to five sponsors and more. Not all of this arrives at once because you must earn acclaim and cash to build your team. Thus, My Team has much more depth and replay value than the classic Driver career.
Success is not instant in My Team. Carefully making decisions and correctly spending cash are crucial. Unlike Driver Career, you cannot move to a top team and guarantee success after a couple of seasons. Instead, patience is a virtue, as it takes several seasons to fight the likes of Mercedes and Red Bull. There is not one specific formula however, as you can vary your focal points within the team.
Due to becoming the eleventh team, up to 22 drivers can now take to the track! While a small feature, it can provide more competition and fun. Multiplayer has also benefited from this change as you can now race 21 other players online (with multiplayer cars only).
Codemasters have additionally improved the Driver Career. We can now choose to play a full season of Formula 2 if we wish. This feature is interesting as your performance affects how F1 teams perceive you. Some drivers you face in F2 will also make their way up to F1. This is due to the likes of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel being able to retire. By doing this, Codemasters have somewhat fixed the unrealistic driver transfers present in F1 2019. It was fun to see Vettel at Mercedes or Lewis Hamilton at Red Bull, but having young drivers make their way into F1 provides immersion for both career modes.
Success is not instant in My Team. Carefully making decisions and correctly spending cash are crucial.
Moving away from single player, the reintroduction of split-screen is welcome. Once again, we have the chance to race people in the same household. It is great to see this return as split-screen has been missing from recent F1 titles. Online racing on the other hand is as chaotic as ever! Unranked races particularly include people with the single objective of spinning out opponents. Ranked races are much better for avoiding this but unfortunately, they can occupy this space. Sometimes however, these chaotic races are very fun and are a break from the often intense gameplay across most modes. Leagues and Weekly Events are great alternatives to ranked and unranked, allowing players to test their lap times and consistency on different circuits.
I must praise the HUD imrovements. It looks much cleaner than in previous games and all your required information is on screen. You can also move the different displays around, such as the circuit map and the track positions of drivers. Codemasters have introduced the overtake button into the HUD this year and its very welcome. In F1 2019 ERS was irritating to manage as you were constantly changing modes while focusing on the track. Fortunately it is now as simple as pressing one button to activate and deactivate ERS.
Several circuits have seen much needed adjustments that add realism and improve the flow. Curbs have been flattened for example to remove unrealistic bumps and spins. I find that mainly Spain and Hungary have benefited from this. Other circuits such as Monaco have experienced widening of certain corners, again to improve realism. Both new circuits (Circuit Zandvoort in Netherlands and The Hanoi Street Circuit in Vietnam) are welcome additions to the game as both provide a new challenge to players. Hanoi particularly was difficult to master but once you learn how to take the sweeping corners and hairpins, decent lap-times are possible!
Choosing a livery is enjoyable due to a multitude of sponsors and styles to pick from.
Apart from My Team, aesthetic items are the biggest innovation for F1 2020. You level up and earn new items from gaining XP. Included are podiums celebrations, livery designs, gloves, and helmets. A podium pass is also available to unlock additional items but is not forced upon you. Codemasters have created a good system that at no point becomes pay-to-win. Plus, you are given plenty of customisable features through ordinarily earning XP.
Choosing a livery is enjoyable due to a multitude of sponsors and styles to pick from. Customised cars feel so much more alive as a result, adding immersion. My light blue, white, and black livery now feels much more authentic and satisfying to see on track! By no means is this feature perfect yet, as you cannot choose the size and specific placement of sponsors. However, the improvements are very obvious!
Codemasters have effectively improved the experience from F1 2019 to 2020. Customisation has been greatly expanded and My Team is a very welcome addition, allowing a career mode to still entertain after the first couple of seasons. Some circuits have seen some huge updates and overall feel better to race on. There are still several bugs early into the release that I am sure will be patched later so keep that in mind.
My only real complaint that Codemasters are unlikely to fix is the quantity of driver retirements. No more than two retirements occur in offline races, being somewhat unrealistic, especially when you look at the Austrian Grand Prix in 2020. Nonetheless I believe F1 2020 is one of the best Formula 1 games to date due to its amount of engaging content and is a title I will still be playing in several months.
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