The Formula 1 show returns to video games thanks to Codemasters with F1 2021, and although the English reached excellence with the last edition, they still had several ideas in their hat. The most curious of them: Braking Point , a new story mode designed for the occasion. This season’s star addition? He is definitely capable of making the most interesting grand prizes.
Starting from the essentials, Braking Point does not come with the intention of overlapping the spectacular Professional Career mode introduced in past editions. It is an established narrative story with a clear protagonist, Aiden Jackson , who rises from Formula 2 to meet the big fish of motorsport. The goal: to experience the competition from within through the eyes of a rising promise.
The logical thing is to think that Braking Point is equivalent to El Camino, the story mode that the FIFA soccer saga introduced during three installments, and in a way the premise is not very misguided. There will be some other decision that we will make, starting with the team in which we will start our career, but the truth is that the plot goes smoothly. Never better said.
However, the way to channel the excitement of the premier class of motorsport into a context, that of our protagonist, makes fighting to advance through chapters in which the story of Braking Point is divided becomes really interesting. Because Aiden Jackson is a prodigy who has everything to win, but as we will see, he has a couple of aces up his sleeve. Get ready Lewis Hamilton!
Braking Point, a story mode tailor-made for Formula 1 fans
Without sacrificing either the competitive spirit or the driving sensations typical of the F1 series, Codemasters continues to open its annual Formula 1 offering to all profiles of gamers and motor enthusiasts through new modes and driver profiles. In this regard, F1 2021 goes one step further through Braking Point.
Go ahead that what already had is still in place . The Professional Career mode or the Online alternatives continue to be that coffee for the very coffee growers, and the Personalized Awards or the Time Trial races split-screen multiplayer experiences the excuse to go arrowed for a specific circuit and conditions. Which brings us to the question of rigor: how to contribute something different and totally faithful to the competition?
Codemasters’ answer this year is Braking Point, a narrative and scripted plot with strong cinematic ambitions in which we will not only witness the debut of the young promise Aiden Jackson in Formula 1 on and off the circuits, but we will have to compete in his name at the Grand Prix. Starting with the Formula 2 race that catapulted him to the top motor competition.
Aiden Jackson is not our avatar, as in Professional Career mode, he is a character with a voice and character. With its own context and even a certain charisma. And that, on the other hand, allows Codemasters to establish different types of relationships between him and the rest of the pilots. Including the return of Devon Butler, the antagonist of previous installment campaigns.
The trend of Braking Point is not too mysterious : Codemasters intersperses events – preset – in which we will have to participate with cinematics that advance the plot. But the way to align both is the interesting thing: when we get behind the wheel we will have very specific objectives, so that we will run into races already started in which we have to fight for a position or follow the instructions.
It may be the case that, having reached our goal, we witness a kinematics that forces us to adapt to another circumstance. In fact, it is really curious that the quality of the game in motion on new generation systems is sharper and looks better than these pre-recorded and interleaved scenes with no load times. But what if we fail?
It will be a matter of time – or bad luck – that we do not manage to get a certain position before the stipulated round, so that before having to restart the Grand Prix in which we participate, Codemasters gives the player (and Jackson) an ace in the manga: the option to Flashback , return to a previous point and regain control of the car from there. It’s not the same as the Forza Horizon rewind, unfortunately, but the idea does the job.
That said, Braking Point offers the player different levels of difficulty and three styles of Competition (Casual, Standard and Expert) that will accommodate the level of challenge in the playable parts to any passionate motorist, so that fans for the celebration of The Grand Prix will have assists and aids that will avoid more than one displeasure, while the most demanding with the playable section will be able to accommodate lots of options and approach each line with the skill that the premier category of motorsport deserves.
Thus, Braking Point is fully correct in two key concepts: fully involve the player in an offline competition with specific objectives and characters that interact with our protagonist and, in the process, offer a kind of Campaign without the formalities, elements of improvements of engine and equipment or the obligation to fight all the laps of each Prize in Professional Career mode. A double success by Codemasters, and it is not the only one.
Warming up for the launch of F1 2021
The launch of F1 2021 looms and our initial contact with Braking Point, the first two chapters, has left us with great sensations. Not only in the playable and the visual (remember that it is the first installment of the entire saga to be launched in two generations of consoles) but also in its way of offering an extra variety to the player. Of course, this story mode is not the only novelty this season.
For the occasion, the Southam-based studio brings all official licenses back to F1 2021 and, in the process, classic modes such as My Team or split-screen multiplayer, but will once again bet on integrating Formula 2 into the equation, which will come in handy when launching a Professional Campaign that is accompanied by two interesting novelties:
- On the one hand, we are given the opportunity to undertake a 2J professional career , so that we can start a campaign with another player sharing a team or being rivals. Or both, depending on our trajectory and the decisions we make.
- In addition, Codemasters is right with the beginning of the real season , so that -removing muscle from being the official video game of Formula 1- we are given the possibility of entering without detours or previous races in a season already started that continues the events they are having in the real world season.
Really interesting ideas that, logically, are at the total service of what is truly important: a playability at the level of the license and that strives – for the better – to adapt to the different player profiles and a reproduction of the cars and circuits that it is already to take off the hat. Proof of this are each of our captures of cars and circuits that you can see throughout this text.
It is beyond doubt that Codemasters has done the tasks with this new installment, and the best of all is that very soon we will draw our final conclusions about the work of the English: F1 2021 will be available on July 16, 2021 (coincidence or not, two days before the British GP) on PlayStation and Xbox consoles as well as PC. Three days before if we reserve for the special editions.
- Platforms: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One and PC
- Multiplayer: Yes, online and split screen
- Developer: Codemasters
- Company: Electronic Arts
- Release: July 16, 2021, with three days early access for the Deluxe Edition.
