There’s been a lot of talk about story modes on the recent F1 games, but some confusion as to which of them have a story mode and which don’t. Does F1 23 have a story mode? If so, how does it work and how has it been received?

F1 23 features the return of the Braking Point story mode from F1 2021, with 17 chapters and around 7 hours of playing time. You start as Aidan Jackson in the new Konnersport team and play through a series of race scenarios and cut scenes in between races.

In other words, yes, there is a story mode that picks up largely from the last time this mode was featured two years ago, and has the same kind of idea of playing through race scenarios where you’re set targets, with a nice dollop of drama, politics and conflict in between these races as well.

What Is The Braking Point Story Mode?

In the Braking Point story mode, you play the incoming rookie Aidan Jackson alongside team mate Casper Akcermann in the new Konnersport team.

It actually picks up during the F1 2022 season, and you’re given a bunch of race scenarios you have to progress through and achieve certain objectives (though the overly easy difficulty of these objectives is a sticking point we’ll come onto later). And you progress onto the F1 23 season, with more objectives/scenarios to complete.

As you move through the mode, racing incidents, politics, drama and conflicts starts emerging with your team mate Casper and others, that you have to navigate through. Some old characters from the F1 2021 Braking Point storyline also re-enter the picture, and it’s basically a dramatized, hyped of version of real F1 racing, with more emphasis on the inter and intra-team politics and in-fighting.

It’s like an episode of Drive to Survive, but with the drama and tension turned up and exaggerated even more.

F1 23 Braking Point Official Trailer

How Long Is The Braking Point Story Mode?

In total, the story mode has 17 chapters, and players are looking at around 7 hours of playing time to run through the entire Braking Point story mode.

Here are some playlists of F1 YouTubers playing through the entire Braking Point storyline from start to finish (spoiler warning):

• Tom97 Braking Point Playlist
• GameDec Full Playthrough in one video (no commentary)
• Aarava Playthrough

Who Might Like The Braking Point Story Mode?

Honestly, Braking Point is really more for beginners and total newbies to the F1 game series than for more experienced players.

Here are some people who might like the story mode:

• Totally new players to the F1 games – the story mode can be a good way of easing into the game handling and rules while having the races weaved into a storyline that adds some context. The easier difficulty makes it good for beginners.
• People that are just bored of doing standard career mode and want something extra in between the races and not just drive the car (though there is the My Team mode that offers extra stuff as well).
• People that like the drama and politics and “juicy-ness” of game story modes in general. There’s plenty of spats, plenty of tension and games that need playing for sure.

Good Things About Braking Point

Honestly, for experienced players, the reception to the Braking Point mode on F1 23 has been mixed at best, but there are some good things about it.

Cut scenes/animation – The cut scenes in between races/objectives are superbly animated, with the characters looking closer and closer to real life in terms of texture, general movement, speech and so on. They’re really well done on an aesthetic and graphics level.

Media interaction – Like in the standard career mode, how you handle certain situations and respond to certain questions will impact on what happens to you down the road. Things you say to the media can come back to you later on in a positive or negative way, so there’s a good political/strategic element to the mode that means you have to consider your answers/responses very carefully and think about what consequences they’ll lead to down the line.

Criticisms Of The Braking Point Story Mode

Now let’s get to some criticism of Braking Point, of which there have been a few big ones for the F1 23 version.

Playthrough Time – Braking Point is not nearly as in depth as story modes on other games. It total, you’re looking at about 5-7 hours of playthrough time for the whole mode. Which is OK, but not as in depth as what you’ll get on other games. It’s something you can whisk through in several hours, but it’s going to keep you occupied for weeks or months for sure.

Difficulty – This has been another huge sticking point for more experienced players who’ve played the story mode through, and even moderately skilled beginners. It’s far too easy in terms of difficulty and isn’t really a challenge for players with any kind of experience on the F1 games. Even on the hardest difficulty mode, any half decent player will complete the objectives easily and finish way ahead of the opposition. It’s not a challenge for even moderately skilled players and you’ll find yourself getting bored with it.

Repetitive – There’s also been complaints about a large amount of the races/scenarios being pretty much the same without much variety. There’s hardly any wet weather running, the two new tracks (Qatar and Las Vegas) aren’t featured, no red flags (though in fairness they were bugged on game launch anyway). Mostly, you’re just starting outside the top 10 in dry conditions, and you’ve to move up to a certain position by race end. Not too many different scenarios to mix things up.

Script/Dialogue – The general writing and script of Braking Point has also come under criticism for not really being of the best quality. Put differently, the writing and dialogue in Braking Point is definitely not on the level of top notches series or films. It’s more like what you’d find on Sunday afternoon dramas, or some straight to video film. It’s a bit basic and even “clunky” at times, not what you’d call sharp or creative or gripping. Some players also find some of it annoying and for people that just want to focus on racing, the storyline is more of a distraction and you’d be better off playing normal career mode or online.

Negative review of Braking Point F1 23 (Spoiler warning)