My introduction to the Grid series was with the third game; Autosport. There was a drastic difference when jumping back to the original game in terms of graphics and style. Grid 2 almost seems like a middle-ground between them which makes the entire series quite confused.
The first Grid game had quite a dark, gritty aesthetic which I thought made it stand out from other racing games. To me, it seems a weird decision to change the aesthetic to a more realistic look. The graphics are very impressive though, and are far superior to the first game. It actually comes close the style in Autosport, but is so far removed from the original game, it does seem weird to brand it with the same name.
Another change that seems weird is the story. Previously, you were creating your own racing team. To do this, you chose a name, some team colours, hired a racing partner, and raced to build up the reputation of your team. You were judged based on your finish, as well as your team's finish. In Grid 2, you are racing solo, but are tasked with acquiring fans to increase the popularity of a new racing championship; World Series Racing. Personally, it doesn't feel as cool, especially when the video footage is showing you how people are talking about you on social media, and features interviews on ESPN. It's actually well done, but also feels a bit cringey at the same time.
You don't purchase cars either. Instead, you just win them over the course of the game. There's different 'styles' of cars; Balanced, Drift, 4WD, FWD and RWD. There seems to be more Drift-style cars than the others, which gears the game to more of an arcade-style racer as you slide around the corners.
I found over the course of the game that I was progressively using the drift mechanic, rather than drastically slowing down like you would do in a simulation racer. This change in handling makes the series even more confused since the original game seemed geared towards simulation with an arcade edge. Autosport that followed had the handling geared towards simulation.
The rewind mechanic is much improved. In the original game, this was a poor feature because you couldn't rewind more than a couple of seconds; which meant you ended up rewinding to a point you already has lost control. Now you can rewind beyond this point, so you can actually undo your mistake.
There's a variety of race types: Race, Endurance, Time-Attack, Elimination, Drift, Touge, and Overtake. I found the difficulty of the Drift races wildly erratic. Early on, I was beating the targets by double, but the latter events I was often finishing towards the bottom, with occasional races finishing in first place. Some events like Time-Attack and Overtake were mostly boring, and Endurance races weren't long enough for them to claim the title 'Endurance'. The 1-on-1 Touge races were always difficult, often being decided on the last stretch. Even if the opponent crashed, within several seconds they would be on your tail as though the game had some extreme rubber banding. I didn't notice this problem in the other game modes though. The normal Race mode is where I found the most fun.
The courses are similar to what is found in Autosport. There's a mix of street racing, circuit racing, and end-to-end racing through windy uphill/downhill scenic routes.
Usually, racing games end up taking upwards of 20 hours at a minimum, but you can get through Grid 2's career mode within 12 hours, so it's a bit disappointing in that regard.
Like a lot of racing games, I think if you like racing games, then there's plenty of fun to be had with Grid 2. When you analyse it on a deeper level though, there seems a lot missing from it. You can't tweak your cars, there's no cock-pit view, lack of optional assists and a lack of real length to the career. Personally, I miss the team-based rivalry which was prominent in the other games and I feel that Grid 2 just doesn't have enough to differentiate itself from other racing games.