Game Review - Formula Legend

Simulation games attract many players across the Globe. The free style gameplay with no definite goals in the game are the reason thousands of players find themselves addicted to this particular genre. When we look at those app stores, we can find many fun filled war based simulation games, but clearly there is no particular developer devoted to ‘Motorsports’.

BeerMogul is attempting to fill the void, and have created ‘Formula Legend’, a mobile simulation game based on Formula 1. We had an opportunity to play with the Beta Version, and we are definitely impressed with the developer and their commitment to dominate this category. We will tell you if this game is a ‘Legend’ in the making.

When we heard the name, ‘Formula Legend’, We were thinking on the lines of actual Racing but this game is more based on Team management and Strategy. You have the option to control the aggression which would affect the tyres and the fuel efficiency. It’s your decision to pick a right value of aggression, to ensure you finish at the top.

The Gameplay:

When you start the game for the first time, You are provided an opportunity to pick a name, this fictional character will be yours until you decide to edit the name from the ‘Menu’. Once you select your name, you will be asked to perform a driver test, you will be required to control the steering, and also the throttle. This is a perfect start to the game, as you normally tend to mistake it for a ‘racing’ based simulation, but then the story lies beyond.

Once you pass the test, you will be shown a list of drives available. There’s an option to skip the test, and if you select this option, you will still be shown the drives available which is very same to the options when you pass the test. We were told that the actual game would enable just a backmarker which is more fitting to the story. In both cases, the top teams require certain benchmarks to be filled by the character, and it would vary from Completing a season to Winning a race.

Upon selecting a team, we are shown a strategy screen which enables us to boost the Aerodynamics, Fuel Efficiency, Exhaust and Tyre Wear along with the option of upgrading our Race Engineer all at a cost. To upgrade a Race Engineer, we will be asked to get ‘LegendBux’, while the other upgrades can be done from the salary and the prize money that we receive from the race.

We were told that the upgrades has no limit and one can carry on until the desired result is achieved over the course of the season. But we noticed that the upgrades that we perform tend to wear out in a couple of races, which is a bit harsh as the upgrades cost a fortune when driving for a back-marker and the rewards are more for those who finish in the points, as the prize money is pretty good.

When we move to the race screen, there is the all important option to control the aggression, the better the aggression, the better the result but this comes at a cost of more wear and drop in fuel efficiency. There is no option to do anything for qualifying as it’s all automated based on the team and the upgrades, and also on the Luck factor.

The start of the race is quite tricky, as one has to press the pedal as soon as the lights go out, if we are slow to press the pedal then we would get the ‘Webber Start’, Ironically, the same is displayed when we press the pedal before the lights go out. We tried pressing the pedal early on few occasions, but we didn’t receive any penalty nor we lost the positions, which is slightly bemusing.

The Race simulation is really interesting, as one has to perform certain manoeuvres over the course of the race, including “master the chicane”, “hairpin challenge” and “avoid the backmarker challenge”. These challenges or manoeuvres are to be done to gain that extra seconds on the race simulation.

The developer calls these challenges as ‘mini-games’ that provides the break from the simulation. The developer further points out that these challenges are modelled on a similar concept in the football simulation game ‘New Start Soccer’, and the idea is to use your gaming skills to influence the simulation. The gain or loss from these ‘mini-games’ depends on the performance, and the gain or loss is one second either way.

There are additional fun concepts like ‘Multi-21’ situation, where you can pass your teammate based on your aggression. If you are behind, and you end up passing your teammate, your teammate will be disappointed with your action, but the team boss will be happy with the debated move.

On the other way, if you are ahead, and the teammate behind is faster then you, the team boss will order you to slow down, and if you ignore the order, your teammate will still end up making the move on most occasions, if not, the team boss will be disappointed with your actions. There’s the odd chance of a collision during the ‘Mult-21’ situation, and on such cases, neither the team boss nor the teammate will be happy with your actions.

The pitstop is done when the tyres are completely worn out, and one has to select both the tyre compounds over the course of the race to avoid a penalty. To force a pitstop, we need to select the tyre compound which schedules the pitstop for the upcoming lap. The pitstop challenge is also fun, and one has to select the highlighted tyres in the fastest possible way to gain the extra seconds, and one can also lose the time in the pitstop if we are slow on selecting the highlighted tyres.

We also have to point out that the game doesn’t use the real names of the teams, although the drivers have their real names. This is probably because the game isn’t authorised or licensed to use the trademarked names. Certain teams on the grid, especially Ferrari doesn’t favour the user-created Ferrari content, including, photos, logos, and names.

In the past, Ferrari have used their lawyers to shutdown a popular browser based racing game, and I’m sure the modern day developers are wary of such a threat. Whether it spoils the interest towards the game would largely depend on the gamers. We had no issues whatsoever with the gameplay due to this particular issue.

Availability:

This game would be available on October 4th on iOS and is right now available on the Android Platforms. The developer has promised to push the game to other platforms depending on the User/Market Feedback.

Our Verdict:It’s a honest attempt by the developers, and the gameplay targets the novice users. If you are looking for a simulation game on Motorsports, ‘Formula Legend’ does its job. We only wish if there were more of those ‘mini-games’, as the title suggests, it could have been more towards racing, but it also depend on what you expect from the title, and the game.

Certain concepts like ‘Multi-21′ and ‘Webber Start’ are catchy. We also have the ability to customise the Leaderboard based on the gap, tyres and number of stops. We can also identify those who are aggressive, and those who are defensive based on the colour in the Leaderboard. These tiny customisations definitely helps the gamers.

Finally, Our ratings for the game would be Three on a Five Star rating.