F1 22 review – step aside

The year has come to an end and it’s time for another year in the F1 series, long run by British studio Codemasters. From the very beginning, it was clear that this would be the first game that would actually have the signature of Electronic Arts, which bought the studio last year. And, unfortunately, I must say, not quite in a positive way.

• Platform: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 (Remastered), Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
• Publication date: 1. 7. 2022
• Developer: codemasters
• Publisher: electronic arts
• Genre: Race
• Czech localization: Not
• Multiplayer: Local and online
• Data to download: 46 GB
• Price: €59.99 (Steam)

New generation

The biggest change is, of course, the cars themselves. The real Formula 1 has undergone a big change in the rules, the cars look and behave differently, and this also seeped into the game. The cars are well thought out and the driving model is again very good. First of all, I have to praise the behavior of the tires, which are also new (switched from 13-inch to 18-inch). When you leave the boxes, and they are still cold, you have to be very careful and gradually warm them up so that you can start to go fast. In short, you really have to take care of the pneumatics.

You may notice other changes in the races themselves. There is a new option to “park” in the right place after the introductory lap, as well as drive straight to your mechanic. Unfortunately, both are only in the form of a quick event where you have to press a button at the right time. So it definitely could have been handled a little better, but it’s a pretty nice novelty. If you want to make the race a good spectacle, there is a TV mode for the safety car and in the pits. I’ll admit I haven’t used it at all, but if you want to get the game as close as possible to what real F1 streams look like, then this is definitely a good option.

The racing is definitely fun and the artificial intelligence is at a solid level. With computer controlled pilots, you can really fight wheel to wheel. But the problem remains that the AI ​​is sometimes too aggressive and just crashes into you. The AI ​​is also quite fickle, being very fast on one track and terribly slow on another. So you often have to adjust the difficulty every weekend.

As for the race weekends, they have also undergone some changes, of course, on the model of the real F1. So, on some tracks you will now find sprints starting by qualifying and decide the order at the start of the main race.

The range of schemes is not surprising. All tracks that are racing this season are available. So Vietnam fell out, and compared to last year, for example, Portugal is missing. But who knows, maybe later we will see additional tracks. The offer is still very solid.

The news no one wanted

As for cars, of course, all Formula 1 teams are available, and again from F2. But, unfortunately, we did not manage to see this year’s season there either, only riders and teams from 2021 are available. However, there is one more novelty – supersport. This is definitely one of the strangest news. Don’t get me wrong, the handling of the cars themselves is very good, but you can only drive them in time trials or small trials and that’s really not enough. Regardless, in my opinion, this is a relatively unnecessary addition due to the already mentioned lack of current year F2 cars. And I’m not talking about the fact that Formula 3, in which the Czech driver Roman Stanek also competes, or the women’s W Series category is still not represented in the game.

The choice of modes is not surprising. There is again a My Team or Classic Career mode, both of which work the same as last year. There is also the already mentioned time trial, individual races and, of course, multiplayer. It is available online and locally again, no changes have been made here and everything works as it should. However, you were looking in vain for the Braking Point story mode, which was the main attraction of the past year. And although I had a few reservations about him, I missed him this year. After all, it was a relatively pleasant novelty. He is due to return next year, but this has yet to be officially announced.

However, the developers at Codemasters preferred F1 Life, which is essentially a hub that welcomes you right after launch. It should further immerse you in the world of F1, but in the end it is a very useless novelty. This is where you collect new super sports and customize your room. Yes, in a racing game from the world of Formula 1, you get a new sofa and other furniture, which is rather strange. You can then get new “skins” from the Podium Pass, which is back again. In addition to the free version, there is also a paid version, for which you get even more cosmetic modifications. Luckily, this actually only applies to them and does not apply to gameplay benefits.

In terms of graphics, don’t expect any revolution, the F1 22 is visually very similar to its predecessor. The tracks and cars look very nice, but the character models really need some work. Their animation is often very bad. But I have to appreciate the excellent optimization on consoles again. I played on PS5 which has two modes: Quality (4K, 60 FPS) and Performance (1440p, 120 FPS). Like last time, I used the second one mentioned and didn’t notice any frame drops. Of course, Sony’s current console is not without DualSense controller support, which definitely contributes to an even better driving experience.

And fell again

But the technical side is not perfect, not even close. Maybe there won’t be a year when kodi release formulas that aren’t full of bugs, but this year I thought maybe it was even worse than previous years. Elements were disappearing from the UI, cutscenes were buggy in every way, otherwise fast loading would sometimes completely freeze and force me to restart the game, I even had a black screen and the game completely crashed several times. Sure, there are some labor pains, but the title shouldn’t be in this state a week after release.

F1 22 is a solid year that boasts, above all, a great driving model and several innovations during racing. You will definitely enjoy the game, there is no doubt about it. But other news didn’t excite me as much, and I don’t like the direction the developers are taking at all. Both the F3 and the current F2 are missing here, but Cody has added a supersport that no one wanted.

So the question is, is the game worth it? If you’re looking for new cars and want an up-to-date roster of teams and drivers, the F1 22 is of course the perfect choice. Otherwise, this is a less important year that you can skip with a clear conscience. Let’s hope that next year Codemasters will focus on more substantial news.