When sports fans think of popular motorsports, they often think about ones like Formula 1, NASCAR, and IndyCar. The most common form of racing, however, is actually Grand Touring (also known as GT) despite its lack of mainstream popularity in the United States. GT Manager, from the team at The Tiny Digital Factory, attempts to put players in the shoes of a GT team owner as they rise up through the ranks.
GT Manager is an expanded port of the mobile game that shares its name. Real drivers and teams are licensed and there are 12 real-life tracks in the game. Players take the reigns of their own new team, choose from one of a handful of real-life car manufacturers, and start building the team from the ground up.
Get BWT in your inbox!
Get BWT in your inbox!
The onboarding process is really simple, making it approachable for new players. Most buildings and upgrades are made available over time, with many not appearing until after the first season is complete. This gives players a chance to slowly learn the ropes without being overwhelmed.
The simplistic approach feels very much like a mobile game though, which makes sense given the game’s origins. The issue is that it takes so long to get to the core of the game that it feels like a pretty big letdown by the time you do. Everything is built on timers, with projects and upgrades happening over time and very little for the player to do in between. Being an early access game, there is still plenty of time for this to grow and change, and hopefully, it breaks away from that mobile game mold.
Races in GT Manager follow the same general format. Players choose which driver to send out for each of their two cars for qualifying, select between a soft, medium, or wet tire, and choose how much fuel to use. Again, this is really simple, which can get old over time but does make it easier for new players to learn.
What stinks is that, so far, races are limited to either 15-lap sprint races or 30-lap endurance races once you unlock the more advanced racing series. Having real-life tracks is great, but there is very little variety between the races and what happens during them. Once you get a hang of how to choose when to pit and what setup to go with, winning races becomes pretty straightforward.
There are only two camera angles during the race, either a zoomed-out look at the action on the track or a view of the track with the cars represented as circles with their position number. There is also only the option to fast forward to one speed or pause the race. It would be great to see more choices here to immerse players in the race.
The good news is that the balancing issue and expanded gameplay can change over time. For a game just launching into early access, there is a solid foundation that shows the developers at least have a good understanding of the sport. The question is whether or not they can build on the core gameplay loop to make it worth returning to.
One last major thing that will hopefully be updated over time is the game’s visuals. The races look pretty drab and can blend together very quickly, and the surrounding areas and fans in the stands look barebones for now. Even as a pretty massive motorsport fan, it became hard to distinguish some of the less famous tracks. Enhanced visuals that showcase more of the scenery and make the cars feel more lifelike would go a long way to making the races more entertaining.
GT Manager is a good idea that needs plenty of polish to become truly great. Still, it is clear there is some real love for the sport behind the game, and, with time, this could become a really great sports management simulator.
GT Manager releases in Early Access on Steam on September 18th.
