Recent reviews by KYUCII

Sadly as much as I love Group B and really wanted to enjoy this game it is impossible for me to recommend in good faith. Even though this game markets itself as some sort of homage to the golden age of rally many elements of the game design seem to contradict this and this review will list my main gripes. However I will start out with a few positives as I don't want anyone to think I have something against this game or believe it's all bad :P.

TLDR: A quite decent game with a great concept is undercut by invisible walls, poor attention to detail and a somewhat strange handling model leaving it somewhere in between a relaxing "zen like" tribute to the greatest form of motorsport and a rage inducing nightmare with frustrating map design, invisible walls and a lack of the finer details that would have made this game the love letter to Group B and rally fans it claims to be.


This game features a wide variety of rally cars from all different eras from the 1960s through to the 1990s as well as a parallel universe class known as "Group S" which is the developers interpretation of where rally development would have gone if Group B was not discontinued. Really this is one of the games main strong suits as it most certainly has a wider variety of cars than you would first expect (including my favourite the Ferrari 288 GTO EVO which never actually got to race as it was developed right as Group B ended). However a few let downs were the engine note of each car being far, far too similar and a few famous liveries being left out of the options, although these can mostly be overlooked.

Another main selling point of this game is its somewhat unique low poly / cartoony artstyle this in my opinion works quite well with the semi arcadelike feeling that this game was going for with its more striped back approach. Overall I like it quite a bit (especially how the different time of day impacts the look of each stage) however some of the stages / maps have textures clipping into each other and other details which undercut what is otherwise a really appealing clean artstyle. The worst part is the new Indonesia maps don't have this problem which tells me that it is absolutely fixable and it is just a product of the devs not putting the effort in to get the game polished on release almost making the game feel a bit rushed when it should be leaning more in the labour of love direction, considering how this game is supposed to be a tribute to Group B and all.

Another positive of this game is the inclusion of different modes which can suit different play styles / moods and can add variety to the gameplay they are as follows:

Career
In this gamemode you play linearly through the history of rally starting in the 60s and working your way through chronologically until you reach Group A rally (Group S is slotted in between Group B and Group A and it is required that you play through Group S before reaching Group A). The career mode is broken up into the years each class of rally took place in (eg. Group B in the 80s and Group A in the 90s) you play through each year completing multiple rallies competing not only in each stage but each rally and also for the overall championship for the year. Throughout the career mode you will unlock cars and (if you have at least one restart remaining at the end of the year) bonus liveries which add a small sense of progression on top of the fact that you are progressing forwards in the history of rally after completing each year. this is my favourite game mode purely because it adds a sense of competition through the AI and it is such a satisfying feeling progressing into a new era of rally as the cars feel completely distinct across classes.

Time Trial
This game mode has you compete against the clock in the car/stage/conditions of your choice nothing more nothing less. You can try to work your way up the leader board or just improve upon your own times using either the world record ghost or the ghost of your fastest time.

Freeroam
Freeroam allows you to freely travel across a map (eg. Finland, Japan, Sardinia etc.) collecting the letters R, A, L, L, Y, to progress to the next map as well as collecting points of interest (which are spots where you can get a scenic view of your car against a backdrop of the map) and cassettes which unlock different songs for the soundtrack. All of these elements are hidden across the map encouraging you to drive around and explore, this gamemode is pretty good to unwind to as there is no real pressure to preform and you can just drive your favourite car as you wish through each map.


For example there are a lot of invisible walls right next to the road on all stages, this means that for some tight corners for example cutting the corner close to the road is absolutely fine but for other corners you'll clip into an invisible wall which will send you tumbling through the sky ruining your stage and breaking any immersion / flow state you may have been in. This isn't only an issue when it comes to corner cutting however sometimes if you find yourself drifting slightly off of the marked road / track you will come head first into an invisible wall which will not only take away all of your momentum but if playing with damage turned on will ruin your car. I must stress that these invisible walls are RIGHT NEXT TO the road in a lot of areas and are in no way consistent making some stages feel like a game of random chance instead of a test of skill. What I will say however is this seems like it may not be as bad in the new stages added in the Indonesia update or at least it doesn't feel that way.

As much as this is personal preference for me the handling in this game exists in a sort of 'no mans land' between being completely arcade like and being semi realistic almost as if the devs weren't sure in which direction they wanted to go and instead went straight down the middle. It definitely could be worse though and it is something you just get used to after a little bit of playtime, however I still sometimes find myself surprised when a car behaves unexpectedly relative to the road surface (tarmac, snow, gravel etc.) which can sometimes feel a little counter intuitive the main one that sticks out is the lack of grip on tarmac for example.

As much as I want to love this game it is the smaller details and the frustrating at times gameplay that let it down for me, for any die-hard Group B / Rally fans I would still recommend picking up this game on sale as there are definitely a few details (especially the cars) that I'm sure you'd enjoy to see in a game like this. If you are just looking at this game for an arcade like rally experience I am sure there are better options out there that are worth looking at as it would be a bit harder to overlook the more frustrating elements of this game.

Much love to anyone who read this review hope this helps you make the right choice for you! Have a great day! :)