The march of Codemasters' relentless evolution of the Formula 1 games continues. F1 2019 brought brought overhauled graphics and mechanics/physics to the mix, but left the core singleplayer experience largely similar with some welcome tweaks. We saw the introduction of multiplayer car - a much requested feature for people being able to race their own cars. This year, this has been expanded to singleplayer for a brand-new My Team experience.
For the very first iteration, F1 2020's My Team is surprisingly in-depth and sophisticated. You start off, as most new F1 teams do, with a very limited budget and a rather slow and unreliable car. From then, it's as much a F1 management sim as it is a F1 racing game. You have to strategize your finances, hire the right second driver, and of course, plan the development of your car. For example, to start out with, it might be best to sign on for modest sponsors where you have a better chance of achieving the ongoing bonus goals, rather than be tempted by a large signing bonus up front but make very little money through the campaign. Similarly, you could hire an experienced driver, even if they are not so fast. Experience is crucial at the beginning at developing your car faster. Or, you can save money with a newbie driver fresh off Formula 2, and build them up over the years to be a race winner. Instead, use that money to invest in the aero department. Or, maybe years down the line you spent the big bucks on hiring Lewis Hamilton, but now he's better than you and you can never with the Driver's Championship. What do you do?
You are offered a great deal of freedom in building exactly the team you want, and it is surprisingly well balanced. This is the F1 team management fantasy we had all been asking for, and F1 2020 delivers in spades. Of course, this is the first iteration, and I would like to see a lot more details going forward.
Elsewhere, F1 2020 feels a lot like 2019. It already looked and felt great, and 2020 cleans up some of the minor niggles. The downshifts are much better now, and the car feels less "floaty". It's still not quite there - I imagine it's a bit of a quirk of the Codemasters EGO engine. It works great for Dirt, Grid and other games, but F1 requires can do with a bit more raw feeling of grip. It's hard to explain, but it's a common issue. Of course, we are nitpicking here because the experience otherwise is so great. Pro sim racers will have further criticisms, but personally it's almost there. The AI is class-leading, just like 2019, though I'd still like to see them being smarter at the starts. Interestingly, there's a new casual mode introduced. The F1 2019 game so a huge bump in popularity due to the COVID-19 lockdowns, and the much publicized eSports races in lieu of the real thing. I imagine many of these people are new to driving games, so it's a great addition for them. I'd say that the regular handling is easy enough, so hopefully the newcomers will graduate to it quickly. As a side note, people often ask why the F1 games release well after the season begins. We can see why now, this being the first time the game and the season start together - the cars and liveries in the game are more reflective of the testing designs. The most striking mismatch of course being Mercedes' switch to an all-black livery in support of ending racism. They have committed to updating these, of course, but it's not quite up to date with the real series.
A word about the multiplayer - unfortunately they haven't really touched this. The same issues remain with the Ranked races - it's too hard to find enough people to race against once you're at an "A" safety rating. That leaves you with going for Unranked which is carnage as usual! I'm not much of a multiplayer gamer, but if there was one game I'd want to put some time into multiplayer - this is it, so I'd like to see them overhaul the multiplayer system for F1 2021.
It's pretty incredible how the F1 developers at Codemasters can churn out great releases year after year. Every year brings significant additions. If you look back 3 years - which would be the average time between other series - F1 2020 is significantly better than F1 2017 in every aspect. Thanks to My Team, this is probably my favourite F1 game yet. Can't wait to see what enhancements F1 2021 brings!
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