F1 22 review – step aside

The year has come to a close, and it’s time for another year in the F1 series, which has been in charge of the British studio Codemasters for a long time. It was clear from the beginning that it would be the first title in which the handwriting of Electronic Arts, which bought the studio last year, would really be written. And unfortunately, I have to say, not entirely in a positive way.

• Platform: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 (recenzovaná verze), Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
• Date of publication: 1. 7 .2022
• Developer: Codemasters
• Publisher: Electronic Arts
• Genre: Racing
• Czech localization: Ne
• Multiplayer: Local and online
• Data to download: 46 GB
• Cena: 59,99 € (Steam)

New generation

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

You can notice other changes in the races themselves. There is a new option to “park” in the right place after the introduction lap and also drive right to your mechanics. Unfortunately, both are only in the form of a quick-time event, where you have to press the button at the right time. So it could definitely be handled a little better, but it is a rather pleasant 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 that I haven’t used it at all, but if you want to get the game as close as possible to what real F1 broadcasts look like, it’s definitely a good option.

The racing is definitely fun and the artificial intelligence is at a solid level. With computer-controlled pilots, you can actually fight wheel to wheel. But the problem remains that the AI ​​is sometimes a bit overly aggressive and just crashes into you. The AI ​​is also quite inconsistent, being extremely fast on one track and terribly slow on another. So you’ll often have to adjust the difficulty each weekend.

And speaking of race weekends, they have also undergone a slight change, of course following the pattern of real F1. So, on some tracks you will now find sprints, which are started according to qualification, and determine the order at the start of the main race.

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

News that no one wanted

As for the cars, all the Formula 1 teams are available, of course, and again also from F2. But unfortunately we didn’t get to see this year’s season there either, only drivers and teams from 2021 are available. However, there is another novelty – super sports. This is definitely one of the strangest news. Don’t get me wrong, the processing of the cars themselves is at a very good level, but you can only drive them in time trials or smaller challenges, and that’s really not enough. Regardless of the fact that, from my point of view, this is a relatively unnecessary addition due to the already mentioned absence of F2 cars of the current year. And I’m not even talking about the fact that Formula 3, in which the Czech pilot Roman Staněk also competes, or the women’s W Series category is still not represented in the game in any way.

The choice of modes is not surprising. There is again the My Team mode, or the classic career, both of which work the same as in the previous year. There is also the already mentioned time trial, individual races and of course multiplayer. It is available again in an online and local version, no changes have taken place here and everything works as it should. However, you would be looking in vain for the story mode Braking Point, which was the main attraction of last year. And while I had a few reservations about him, I missed him this year. After all, it was a relatively pleasant novelty. He’s supposed to be back next year, but it hasn’t been officially announced yet.

However, the developers at Codemasters preferred F1 Life, which is basically the kind of hub that welcomes you right after launch. It is supposed to immerse you even more in the world of F1, but in the end it is a very useless novelty. Here 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, it’s quite bizarre. You can then get new “skins” from the Podium Pass, which returns again. In addition to the free version, there is also a paid version, for which you get even more cosmetic modifications. Fortunately, it really only sticks to those and doesn’t go into the advantages in gameplay.

In terms of graphics, don’t expect any revolution, F1 22 is visually very similar to its predecessor. The tracks and cars look really nice, but the character models really need some improvement. Their animations are often really bad. But I have to appreciate again the excellent optimization on consoles. I played on PS5 where there are two modes: Quality (4K, 60 FPS) and Performance (1440p, 120 FPS). Like last time, I used the second one mentioned and I didn’t notice any frame drops. Of course, the current console from Sony does not lack support for the DualSense controller, which definitely contributes to an even better driving experience.

And it fell again

But the technical side is not perfect, not even close. There may not be a year when the Codies release Formulas that aren’t full of bugs, but this year I thought it was perhaps even worse than in previous years. Items were disappearing from the UI, cutscenes were glitching in all kinds of ways, otherwise the fast loading sometimes got completely stuck and forced me to restart the game, I even got a black screen and the game completely crashed several times. Sure, there are some labor pains, but a title shouldn’t be in this state a week after release.

F1 22 is a solid year that can boast above all a great driving model and a few novelties during the races. You will definitely have fun while playing, no doubt about it. But the other news didn’t excite me nearly as much and I don’t like the direction the developers took at all. Both F3 and the current F2 are missing here, yet the Codies have added supersports that no one wanted.

So the question is, is the game worth it? If you want new cars and want to have an up-to-date list of teams and drivers, F1 22 is of course the ideal choice. In addition, there is a VR mode available on PC, which according to the first reviews is a very pleasant novelty, but it is not available on consoles, so I could not test it personally. Otherwise, it 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.