The console and PC hit racing game has now been ported to iPhone, thanks to Feral Interactive. As expected from the developers who successfully mobile-adapted some of the biggest titles in gaming, Feral has produced yet another demanding and polished port. In this review, we consider the major aspects of GRID Legends on iPhone, disclosing where the game excels and stumbles and why this game is a powerful addition to mobile gaming.
Gameplay Experience
In its essence, GRID Legends is an exciting and spectacular racing game accompanied by a set of modes for passing. Everything from the lengthy career mode to the online multiplayer races is available, and there’s no shortage of content to go through. This game comes with a unique story mode, “Driven to Glory,” that is a dramatic account interwoven with racing challenges. This mode is the kind that offers depth that is missing in most racing games, giving the players a documentary-type feel in terms of a racing team’s journey.
The mobile version retains the depth and variety of options, but its real strength is that its controls are perfect for a touchpad. There are a couple of options in terms of the control scheme; players can use touch arrows, tilt steering, or a virtual joystick. Other features include auto-accelerate, auto-brake, and steering assist to help less experienced players to get into the game without undermining difficult challenges. For those who want to stick more to the base game format, there’s full controller support with even haptic feedback for the controllers. Nevertheless, the element of the adaptive trigger functionality that is present in consoles is missing in this mobile port.
Visuals and Performance
On the graphical front, GRID Legends is simply stunning if seen on the mobile devices. The game employs Metal 3.0, the same API used on the Mac version, making the environment and characters fancy, bright, and with a good flow of animation. Players can choose from three optimization presets: Graphics, Performance, and Battery Saver, which means that the priority of the individuals using the device differs.
Graphics Mode is intended for video quality, as it only operates at 30 frames per second, but with higher quality texture and effects. This mode is perfect for those who would like to have the game looking as great as possible, especially on devices like the iPhone 15 Pro and iPads with M1 or M2.
In Performance Mode, it concerns frame rate for up to 60 FPS on compatible devices. Although there is a slight loss in visual quality, this mode helps to provide a slick and fast experience ideal for competitive play. Battery Saver Mode aims for 30 FPS and cuts down all graphical elements for as long as gaming on the go is needed.
The compatibility tests also showed that the site’s performance is equally good across different devices. In Graphics Mode on an iPhone 12 Pro, the frame rate of the game did not drop significantly, but because of the lack of Performance Mode on iPhones, I could not access this feature. On the other hand, the iPhone 15 Pro and new iPads demonstrated the app can run well, even on tracks with high complexity. Only a couple of laps exhibited frame pacing problems, for example, Strada Alpina; otherwise, it was not too much of a problem.
Technical Features and Compatibility
GRID Legends has been designed to run across a range of devices, and Feral Interactive has done a good job making this possible. It is optimized enough to support iPhones as old as the 12 Pro and iPads with M1 chips onboard. Play and switch between iPhone and iPad with cloud saves while cross-save with macOS is not supported here.
One more important milestone, a statistically significant one, is the decreasing of the game’s installation volume from 35 GB to approximately 12 GB, which can be convenient for the products of mobile platforms. However, to those players who have devices that are below the 8GB RAM mark in terms of their devices’ RAM, there will be something that they cannot get to see: HD vehicle texture. There is no HDR support, and during the testing, this option negatively affected battery charge and increased temperature. Feral has only said that HDR might be implemented in the future, so for now, this feature is out of the question.
User Feedback
Most of the feedback about GRID Legends on iPhone that originates from the App Store remains positive. The game’s console-like graphics, smooth gameplay, and extensive offering of control settings are appreciated by most of the players. One of the focal benefits that many users enjoy is the capability of setting up individual style controls and setting them up to personal tastes and the presence of such racetracks and vehicles.
However, some criticism can be noted at the moment. The absence of adaptive trigger support and HDR are areas that users complained of most. Also, the bulk of the users has no issues with the frame rates, but sometimes they may lag on certain tracks such as Akuto Sprint. These problems are not very critical but should be mentioned at all, especially for players with the old generation devices because of the potential performance issues.
Conclusion
GRID Legends, as an iPhone game, is an object lesson in what can be achieved with console-caliber visuals, control, and game performance. It may not be perfect by any means, including the lack of adaptive triggers and the odd dips in frame rate, but the overall package is smooth and engrossing. The best part of all of this is that, judging by the final product, Feral Interactive knows what it’s doing, and if you’re a racing game fan or someone who wants to see what the potential of mobile gaming is, this is one game you need to play. Those who are looking for a captivating, fast, and furious racing game that demonstrates the performance of the latest iPhones and iPads—they must try GRID Legends!
