Formula Legends Review (PC): Steering Way Off Course

I grew up on NASCAR, so racing has been a bit of a lifelong love of mine. It’s not quite an obsession, but certainly an ongoing fascination. F1’s spike in popularity has drawn my attention, and naturally, this means that Formula Legends would too. Racing in F1 is much faster and much more precise than something like NASCAR. If NASCAR is Mario Kart, then F1 is F-Zero. It’s even the namesake! Formula Legends aims to capture that high-octane precision, be completely faithful to the history of the sport, and wrap it up in a surprisingly cutesy art style. These are respectably lofty goals, but despite everything it has to offer, I think Formula Legends stops short of the finish line.

Sacrificing Multiplayer for a Great Story Mode

Formula Legends has two clear selling points. First and foremost, the game’s story mode is extensive and impressive. Featuring a whole swathe of different eras for players to try out, the campaign is a clear love letter to the sport itself. It’s always nice to jump into something relatively niche, and see that it really was made by the fans, and for the fans. Secondly, the developers knocked the visual presentation out of the park. The little racer that sits in your car is a cute representation of the player. Both the cars and the environments feel appropriately stylized without the aforementioned historical inaccuracy. Unfortunately, attention to detail isn’t enough to compete against the game’s setbacks.

Formula Legends seems to have built such a rich story experience at the expense of other crucial game modes. I would’ve liked to say the game is content-rich, but for every nice thing the story mode provides, you can find another two things that are inexplicably missing. Most importantly, despite marketing itself as an arcade racer, Formula Legends doesn’t allow you to play with friends. Whether you wanted to hop online or on a couch together, you’re forced to ride solo. The real consequence is that you’re always racing against computers, which happen to be unfathomably more efficient at racing at almost all times. This would just be disappointing on its face, but instead it piles on to what is by far Formula Legends’ biggest problem.

Formula Legends’ Core Gameplay Screeches to a Halt

The handling of your car is absolutely out of control. Acceleration is beyond finicky, especially at the beginning of a race. No matter how delicately you steer, you always seem to swerve unpredictably and crash right into the wall. It certainly doesn’t help that the game is all too eager to punish you for even a slight slip off the track. The game then adds insult to injury with the aforementioned computer opponents, which pretty much never make any of these mistakes. 

For a game about speed and precision, it’s way too difficult to pick up any speed without losing all control of your vehicle. The car’s delicate handling is actually explained in a tutorial, but this doesn’t really make the system itself any more intuitive, or any less difficult to come to grips with. Developers did offer one anchor, thanks to some skid marks that seem to show players the optimal path they should stay on. However, despite trying three different controller layouts, even a direct guide couldn’t overpower how clunky my car felt.

Final Verdict

Formula Legends’ difficult handling seems to be entirely intentional, likely meant to capture an additional degree of realism. It’s certainly not unheard of for arcade racers to have difficult handling. However, it’s hard to make excuses for how difficult it is to even play as a beginner, let alone how difficult it must be to become a master. 

Formula Legends has a story mode that would keep fans entertained for hours and hours, but I really can’t imagine sinking the time it must take to trudge through that many races. Despite being an arcade racer, it’s a bit lacking in variety. It’s as if attention to detail is standing in the way of letting players off the leash. With the addition of co-op at the very least, and a complete overhaul of the handling mechanics, it might be a bit easier to recommend Formula Legends. Until then, for now, I’d suggest that you steer clear.

Formula Legends was reviewed on PC with a code provided by 3DClouds. It is also available on Nintendo Switch.

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