1 person found this review helpful
Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 1,193.7 hrs on record (604.3 hrs at review time)
Posted: 25 Jun, 2020 @ 7:04pm

This game is excellent. I'll be breaking the review into 2 portions, the first for the game itself, the second for its VR implementation.

Overall the game is a solid 8.5/10. Its got a great variety of cars that are all a lot of fun and quite unique to drive. Ranging from the tiny 1960s mini cooper, through the 1970s legends like the Lancia Stratos, to the absolute monsters that are the Group B cars of the 1980s, to the classic Group A cars that Colin McRae hooned around in the dirt to the more modern WRC 2000cc, R5 and RG-T rear wheel drive beasts of the present day. There is good variety within the car classes and they are for the most part quite balanced. In a few classes there is some discrepancies in terms of performance, or rather ease of performance, but that's how it was back in the day too. In the less balanced classes there is a lot of variety and character to the cars. They've also got a wide variety of RX cars including the latest 2019 RX super cars.

There are a lot of different stages. They all present their own challenge. Some are insanely fast, where one mistake sends your cars rolling dozens of times or spins you into a tree instantly destroying your engine. Some are slower and more technical with lots of tight corners you have to precisely place the car through. Some are smooth, some are very bumpy, some are in between. There's gravel, tarmac and a mix of both. You'll definitely like some stages more than others at the start, but they all eventually grow on you for the unique challenge each one brings. There's a ton of replayability with all the different stage and car combos you can run.

The career mode is fairly basic, but that's not really where the draw of the game is. The meat of the game comes from the daily, weekly and montly challenges where you face off against the times set by other drivers. Its a lot of fun to see yourself slowly becoming faster, climbing up the daily leaderboards as you improve. There are also club events, timed events that you or other people can customize to create your own custom rally championships. These are a lot of fun and provide a lot of additional organic content racing against your peers for the best times. There are even some real rally drivers who put on their own championships.

The game also has time trial leaderboards where you can try to place yourself at, or more realistically, near the top. There's a lot of really fast drivers so even getting into the top 500, 100 or 50 feels like a big accomplishment. The game has multiplayer as well, you can race against other players on custom championships. In the rally version you don't race against each other directly, you can't see the other drivers, but you race at the same time and once the first driver reaches the end a timer starts and you have to get your car across the line before they do. Rallycross allows you to directly race against each other, so watch that you don't get punted into the walls.

The game's visuals are stunning and the sound is superb. If you want to hear one of the best sounding rally cars ever fire up the Group B Audi Quattro S1 and try not to hit a tree. That inline 5 with a twin turbo sounds absolutely incredible.

The VR implementation is a 7/10. Its solid, but not stellar like Project Cars 2. Its better than Assetto Corsa because you can access all the menus in VR. Overall the performance is decent, but remember that its not going to run as well as on a flat screen as you're pushing more pixels. I'd advise to run a higher super-sampling rate so that the objects in the distance are clearer. You really get a sense of speed and can place the car well. They also offer camera adjustments so you can get a comfortable seating position. My gripes with it are mostly minor, like the fact that you can't adjust the steering wheel itself which leads to some cars having their shift lights or indicators blocked unless you move the seating position to a slighlty unnatural position. Also on occasion a piece of dirt will fly through the car at your face which is a bit jarring.

Overall the game is excellent. I'd recommend buying the GoTY edition, especially if its on sale. Having all the content is well worth it. Do note that with multiplayer you can play all the DLC content for free if the lobby creator has access to it, so if you're always going to play with a friend that may be the route to go. That's also why the game downloads and installs all the content regardless of whether you've purchased it or not.

On a final note the final DLC, the Colin McRae pack is awesome, Its more a career mode than the default career mode as you go through a lot of the highlights of his amazing rally career. The challenges vary in difficulty, and have good replayability as you can always come back later and play them on a harder difficulty.
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1 Comments
76561199764813797 7 Sep, 2024 @ 4:26pm 
OMG, your review is like, super detailed and awesome! I totally love how you explained everything. You're amazing! 😍✨