Gran Turismo 7’s damage model is once again a disappointment
After a long wait, Gran Turismo 7 is finally in the starting blocks. Sony’s racing game does very well in the reviews and editor Michael Grünwald is also completely satisfied in our big GT7 test. But there is one thing that bothers him bitterly: the once again minimalist damage model.
With Gran Turismo 7, Sony and developer studio Polyphony Digital achieved a huge success. This is already foreseeable. In my test session , I had a lot of fun racing around various routes around the world with a huge number of fancy cars. But one little thing bothers me, not just in GT7, but also in all other racing games. Why can’t my car be dismantled in an accident?
Gran Turismo 7’s damage model is once again a disappointment
After the botched launch of Gran Turismo Sport and great criticism of the decision to focus solely on racing, the makers have managed to find a good balance between innovation and the tried and tested with the current part of the series. The return of the world mode is just as impressive as the new GT Café, the central theme of the campaign. Car washing and oil changes are also coming back for the slightly older fans of the series. The music rally provides quiet moments in between, slowing down the fast-paced racing action a little. But back to the minimalist damage model. The cars in Gran Turismo have always suffered almost no damage, even in crashing accidents.
This makes me very angry and somewhat destroys the good overall picture. After all, total losses are part of a racing game like jumping around is part of Super Mario.
Once upon a time…
In Gran Turismo 7 (buy now €64.26) the vehicles always look perfect after a race, apart from a little dirt and one or two dents in the bodywork. That was at least a little better before: in GT5, for example, the cars were divided into premium and standard versions. In addition to a more detailed cockpit perspective, the premium cars also had a better damage model.
But even back then it didn’t really dismantle my cars. But at least bumpers hung down, hoods flew off and doors opened. Better than nothing, in my opinion. Even during the GT5 era, significantly more massive damage did not fail because the console could not have displayed it. After all, PlayStation 1 games like Destruction Derby in the mid-1990s showed what was possible even back then. The dilemma still has completely different causes today.
Uptight manufacturers and car nuts
There are four reasons why the damage model in Gran Turismo 7 is again quite marginal and they are sometimes more, sometimes less understandable.
On the one hand, the gaming industry has been fighting for years with certain manufacturers to bring good implementation of damage to the screens. But they don’t like that and resist heavily damaged cars from their brands. A battered vehicle could ultimately reduce the advertising effectiveness and deter customers from purchasing. This assessment is pretty stupid. It should be clear to everyone that every car will be dismantled into its individual parts if it hits the wall at high speed. That still has nothing to do with inferior quality.
Another reason builds on this fact. For some manufacturers, a fully simulated damage model does not pose any problems, for others it does. This is of course not so good for a racing game that should be fair first and foremost. Because how do the developers want to solve such a split in priorities? Some cars with a damage model, others without? That would be nonsense and not in the spirit of the inventor.
This might work easier for “smaller” games with fewer vehicles, but the Gran Turismo series in particular has a huge number of licensed vehicles. As with FIFA, I’m a big fan of realism and don’t want to miss the real brands. Which means I have to continue to bite the bullet and make do with the current damage model.
The third reason: A comprehensive damage model simply requires a huge amount of programming effort; after all, it has to be adapted for each individual car. With several hundred pieces, you can calculate how much time and resources this will take up.
In addition, there are some legendary vehicles available in the GT series that are constructed completely differently than modern cars, so that realistic implementation of the damage model would mean a further, huge additional effort.
The last reason is speculative and Gran Turismo specific. The creator of the series and Polyphony’s director, Kazunori Yamauchi, is an absolute car freak – in the most positive sense! In the past, the Japanese regularly took part in the 24-hour race on the Nürburgring Nordschleife.
When I say Yamauchi loves cars, it’s still an understatement: he practically breathes everything that has to do with them. It’s quite conceivable that he would stand in the way, even if he didn’t have to, and wouldn’t want to see “his” vehicles in a destroyed state.
These four reasons almost completely rule out Gran Turismo implementing realistic damage in the near future, and the first three reasons also apply to the two Forza series, the just released Grid Legends and Co.
There is another way
As already mentioned, titles with less content have an easier time. But even the official Formula 1 game from Codemasters and arcade racers like Grid Legends or Forza Horizon 5 do not manage to increase immersion with a detailed damage model. The blockade of the car manufacturers, or in the case of F1 the FIA, the umbrella organization of automobile clubs and motorsport clubs, always stands in the way.
What is possible today is shown by games that do not have licensed vehicles and instead rely on fantasy vehicles. For example, for a change I like to play Wreckfest , a racing game that reminds me of the PS1 classic Destruction Derby.
It’s not just driving skills that count, but also ramming other players. The deformation of the cars is shown in great detail and no other racer currently conveys the force of the collision so impressively.
Accidents look even more dynamic in the pure crash simulation BeamNG. There the complete physics of the vehicles is calculated in real time. Not only the body, but also the wheels, suspension and engine are included. Of course, I don’t expect a damage model of this extent for a racing simulation like Gran Turismo – and if so, then only as an option.
More: Forza Horizon 5 Game Review
