On the recent subject of completions that have been a long time coming, the Uncharted 3 DLC seamlessly brings us into GRID Autosport.
When you consider the fact that I unlocked my first trophy in this list in June 2014, it'll be just over 5 years since I started this journey, and whilst the main reason for this has been due to breaks from the game, this is still a seriously challenging set of trophies.
The list of 51 trophies is mostly split into 2 areas of the game. These include the Single Player, which focuses on the Career mode, and the competitive Multiplayer, which contains one of the longest online leveling grinds I've ever encountered.
There are also a small collection of miscellaneous trophies attached to other game modes, such as custom cups and split-screen, but these are nowhere near considered to be a main focus.
The "I've got what Rick Scott's got" trophy, awarded for Winning each discipline's most prestigious driver's championship for Ravenwest, is exactly what you'll work towards throughout the main Career, which contains a series of events spread across 5 racing disciplines. These include Touring Cars, Endurance, Open Wheel, Tuner and Street racing, and this trophy is effectively split into 2 parts.
Firstly, you'll need to win the final event within each of these 5 disciplines, through completing a series of smaller events, and gradually working your way up towards the top event. It's a pretty standard progression model for racing games, and even though you won't need to beat all of the events in each discipline to unlock the highest one, some of these Championships can contain a lot of events, and the final event in each discipline branch always has 10 events, which will easily take a couple of hours each to complete alone.
Secondly, the only way to unlock a contract for the Ravenwest team, is to beat the top event for the first time with any other team. This means you'll have to win the top event for all 5 disciplines twice in order to fully beat the Career mode and unlock this trophy. It's a little bit of a cheap way to add longevity onto the game, but the trophy specifically requires you to beat the top event, so you'll have to repeat the longest Championship in every discipline twice if you want the Platinum, so be prepared for a long journey.
The "A True Legend" trophy, awarded for Winning the "GRID Legends Series", is also another aspect of the Career mode which adds longevity to the game. As you complete more Championships within each discipline, you will obtain experience points for that discipline. Once you hit level 3 in each of these disciplines, you'll unlock the first GRID series to compete in (Grand Slam). You will also subsequently unlock the Masters series at level 6 for each discipline, and eventually, the Legends Series at level 10 for each discipline. You'll also need to win the previous GRID Series Championship in order to unlock the next one, meaning you'll need to win each of these Championships along the way.
Level 10 might not seem like much, but this amasses to 1 Million experience, and you'll unlock an individual trophy for reaching this milestone for each of the 5 disciplines. You'll manage to reach this as you progress towards the end of the Career on your way to fulfilling the requirements of the "I've got what Rick Scott's got" trophy, but these Championships, just like the final Championship at the end of each discipline within the main part of the Career mode, have 10 events, which will take a couple of hours each to beat. It all adds up, and this trophy is effectively the epilogue to the main Career mode, so just bear in mind that you're not quite finished once you beat every top Championship again with Ravenwest.
All of the other Single Player trophies are tied in to natural progression, and you'll get these along the way, providing you stick to the task of the above 2 trophies being your main focus. Nothing else requires you to go off the beaten track, so at least that's one thing about this list that's straight forward enough. There is also nothing that ties you into completing anything on specific difficulty levels, so you're allowed to go through the Career Mode at whatever pace you please, though the challenge is certainly there on the harder difficulties if you want it. I ended up playing through on hard difficulty, which caused me some challenges along the way, and even though you may need to replay races often, it's a good challenge, rather than a frustrating one.
However, the Multiplayer portion of this games makes the Single Player look like a warm up, despite the Single Player trophies coming with challenges carrying solid merits.
The "I've stopped counting" trophy, awarded for Reaching a total Online level of 250, all disciplines combined, is the longest online leveling grind I've finished to date, and by some distance too. The leveling system online works as follows;
You can compete against other drivers in lobbies specifically focused on all 5 disciplines, and your performance within any given race will award experience points towards that discipline. Each time you level up within that discipline, this will contribute towards an overall combined level, which relates to the 250 levels required for the achievement of this trophy. You can also complete weekly "Racenet" challenges, which are a series of challenges that award bronze, silver, gold and platinum medals depending on how well you complete them. There is 1 challenge set each week for each discipline, and this changes every week to a new challenge on a rotational basis, so there are 2 methods upon which you can earn experience points.
Level 250 will require a whopping 5 Million experience points, and in theory, the quickest way towards that is to reach level 50 in each of the 5 disciplines. The Racenet challenges are an absolute Godsend here, because if you earn the Platinum medal for a challenge, you'll bag 10,000 experience points, which may not sound like much in the bigger picture of 5 Million experience points, and in reality, it's not, and you'll have to chip away every single week re-visiting and keeping on top of these challenges to gradually level up over time, but I also dread to think how long this would take you without them. You can also jump into competitive lobbies and attempt to place well in races, but this has the shortfall of not awarding as much experience for the time input compared to Racenet challenges. This is, of course, offset by the limited opportunity of only being able to take advantage of earning the Platinum medal once per week, as opposed to the unlimited cap of competitive races against others.
In theory, you could just come back and play through the Racenet challenges week on week, and you would get there eventually, but this would be a very long term project, and I ended up having to deploy this method after I had finished all the other online trophies and only needed to reach level 250. It's not as tedious as some previous online grinds I've done, purely because it's naturally broken up by the fact you can only come back once a week and earn a Platinum medal from challenges, but this also means it takes way longer than it should, and technically earns the title of the longest online leveling grind I've ever completed.
The "FTW" trophy, awarded for Winning 100 Online races, is just as matter of fact as it sounds, and should be the foundation of your quest to reach level 250. Some racing games will count a podium finish as a win, but here you'll need to place in first position. It's not really as daunting as it sounds, purely by virtue of the fact the "I've stopped counting" trophy exists, and completely eclipses this trophy, but you'll need to be a reasonably good driver to notch up this amount of wins throughout the game.
You can use your own cars, purchased through the car shop, and also spend winnings on upgrading them and using them in races against other drivers, which will give you an edge as you get deeper into the online journey. This will help you out towards winning races, and of course, any experience, win or lose, will all go towards hitting that 250 milestone required on your way towards the Platinum trophy, so no losing effort ever feels like it's being done in vein.
However, this trophy is definitely the biggest skill related trophy in the game, and 100 wins is still 100 wins at the end of the day, so you'll need to brush up on every ounce of driving skill you have if you still want to achieve this trophy. After all, you could still, in theory, hit level 250 before you win 100 races, and you certainly won't want to be playing this game beyond reaching that milestone, so make sure the wins are ticking over nicely. I'd consider driving games one of my stronger genres, and I still had over 500 races finished by the time I got 100 wins, so be warned about the fierce competitiveness of this game online.
The "An icon in the pit lane" trophy, awarded for Advancing a car to level 99 in Online, requires you to max out the level for any purchased vehicle. Throughout the Online journey, and during competitive races, you'll be loaned a vehicle if you do not own the specific vehicle required for that particular race, but you can also acquire these vehicles for yourself. Racing owned vehicles will level them up and unlock performance upgrades for the car.
The benefit of this is the fact you can make them more powerful than a loaned vehicle, which will always remain at the minimum spec. Reaching level 99 will also take some time, and it was actually one of the final trophies I unlocked, even coming after I had reached level 250 collectively. This may have been down to the fact I never really focused on purchasing vehicles initially, until I realised I'd need to max one of them out for the purpose of this trophy, so it's important to get a headstart on this as soon as possible.
Racenet challenges will go some way to upgrading your vehicle significantly, but the events each week are always predetermined, so there's always a chance your cars don't become available for selection. However, if you buy as many as you can, and work on them on a simultaneous basis, you'll have enough in your rotation to level them up consistently enough to reach level 99 with at least one car sooner or later. The one thing you absolutely don't want to do is only own a couple of vehicles, so as long as you avoid this, you'll be OK.
The "Sofa, so good" trophy, awarded for Completing a Splitscreen race, is in here purely to reference the fact you'll need a second controller for this Platinum. Anything that requires you to own additional peripherals deserves to be called out, and there are actually a couple of other trophies within this list that can only be unlocked in local Co-op.
This is the most difficult racing game I've finished since Motorstorm : Pacific Rift, a whole 8 years ago. That was a 10/10 for a similarly grueling Multiplayer component, which had a unique regressive leveling system, and whilst GRID Autosport does not, the grind to level 250 is for the seriously dedicated. However, the Racenet challenges deny this being a 10/10 Platinum, purely because they take the intensity away from the grind. Don't underestimate this leveling journey, but the Racenet challenges, and the fact you don't have to play hours straight on end to achieve level 250, takes the edge off considerably.
If you'd prefer to hammer out races in public lobbies and accumulate the experience points at a faster rate, something you'll need to do to a lesser or greater extent anyway, due to the fact you'll need 100 wins, then you can take this approach, but completing the Racenet challenges each week will give you a much longer, but leisurely journey that just requires ample patience. It's good to have options, and you may find you want to combine both methods to maximise your progress.
When you add on top of this a Single Player Career mode, which is not only lengthy, but can also contain a strong challenge if you're that way inclined, then you have a big task on your hands.
The collective timescale is easily 200+ hours, and that's even when taken as a very low end estimate. The fact you can play on a weekly cyclical basis through Racenet challenges will aid progression, but the 100 race wins redresses the balance to ensure this isn't just all about time, and that you'll need to display some strong driving skills to get this list over the finish line. It's the ultimate mix of long and hard, and very close to another 10/10 Platinum, stopping just short by virtue of the fact the Racenet challenges will throw most people a lifeline during the grind to the top.
It's a very high end 9/10 though, and it feels good to get a credible Platinum trophy back into the collection.
Notable Trophies -
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| I've got what Rick Scott's got - Win each disciplines most prestigious driver's championship for Ravenwest. A True Legend - Win the GRID Legends Series. I've stopped counting - Reach a total Online level of 250, all disciplines combined. FTW - Win 100 Online races. An icon in the pit lane - Advance a car to level 99 in Online. Sofa so good - Complete a Splitscreen race. |
I've stopped counting
Reach a total Online level of 250, all disciplines combined.
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