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It may not come with the glitz and glamour of the F1 circuit, but if you’re after motorsport thrills and spills, there’s possibly nowhere better to look than towards the World Rally Championships. It’s here in the WRC where some of the most skilled of drivers ply their trade, jumping behind the wheel with co-driver in tow, before feeding their vehicles through the eye of a needle, millimetres from disaster. When it works, it’s great; one of the purest forms of motorsport you can get. And when those drivers get it wrong? The crashes are on another level.
It feels right then that the WRC licence is one that is front and centre in the gaming world. And that’s been the case for many a year, with the rights to the official video game of the World Rally Championships passed from pillar to post, from one dev to the next. It now lands at the feet of Codemasters, under the stewardship of EA, to deliver the finest WRC game of recent times. It’s that which they’ve done too. In fact, EA Sports WRC is probably the most well-rounded rally game currently on the market.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: If anyone knows how to make a decent racing game, it’s Codemasters. A team who have honed their skills for decades, you can be sure that any racing licence that drops into the hands of Codemasters will be one that is used well. That’s the case for EA Sports WRC as players get the chance to prove themselves in the cut-throat, against-the-clock racing scene.
EA Sports WRC manages to recreate the intense action found in the real world WRC brilliantly. It does so with some genre leading visuals in tow, as cars, tracks, locations and more are well replicated, perhaps not near the level of a Forza Motorsport, but well suitable for our modern day console systems. The detail is high, felt mostly as you careen along some of the tightest of tracks, navigating your way through tree-lined pathways, across fields and more. Only spectator and marshall character models knock it down a notch visually. But hey, do we care about those in a racer?
The cars you are driving can be ripped to shreds too, with body panels flying off as you bump from this place to that. Staying on the straight and narrow is never an easy task and so delicately playing with the throttle and brake is essential to any success found in WRC. Fail to hone those skills and you’ll fast discover yourself sliding off track, down ravines, into valleys. With a fairly decent auto-reset dropping you back on track with penalties applied to your time, you’ll quickly learn that sometimes it is best to go slow, in order to go fast.
Camera angles are plentiful and so you can pretty much get involved with EA Sports WRC as you see fit. For us, we’ve always been of the opinion that getting as close to the front bumper as possible is the best way to ensure optimum feel, but a cockpit viewpoint is equally immersive. Of course, the further towards the front you are, the less you can see the damage occurring, left to instead feel your way through any such issues as best you can. Yet when all goes to pot, total write-offs are a fairly common occurrence. An issue though? Those bits of bodywork do seem to happily float in mid-air once removed from the car. We’ve had bumpers, bonnets and more slip alongside us as they are ripped from the carcass of our car.
As you’d expect to hear, all the accessibility options you can want are available too. Manual or auto boxes, car set-ups, assists, AI difficulty levels and more will let you set up EA Sports WRC to your preferred levels.
Just as much variation is found in the locations you’ll be racing. WRC takes you global with your racing needs, from the iconic roads of Monte Carlo and Kenya, out to Japan, the Nordic forests, Chile or more. Each of those comes with their own unique tests of driving skills too, with various weather effects and track structures mixing things up massively. And you’ll be doing that in the cars you would expect. Whether it be the more modern offerings of the Hyundai i20 N, Peugeot 208 or Fiesta, or those that have delivered much love from years back – can you have a rally game without an Impreza, Evo or Group B monster? – EA and Codies have you covered with a mass of great rally cars.
There are also a host of gameplay modes. A full-on career allows for utter depth, as you take a team and head off on a quest for glory. If you’re fully immersed in the WRC scene, this is probably going to be the option for you, as you bring together engineers, staff members and more. Is it a bit too deep for all? Maybe, but that’s where the other options come into play; perfect for the less WRC savvy or the gamers looking for quicker hits.
We’ve personally found the new ‘Moments’ mode to be a real highlight. These let us get behind the wheel of various cars as we tackle some of the most historic, iconic and nostalgic of moments from the World Rally Championships, ripped from the fifty year history of the sport. There’s some real joy in being able to partake in these, ensuring you get a feel for various cars and locations. When you consider this to be an ever-evolving, fast-moving segment of the game which will provide new Moments as ‘Seasons’ progress, it makes it even more exciting.
Alongside that are the usual racing staples. A Championship will let you race in WRC, WRC2 or Junior WRC vehicles across multiple events, whilst Quick Play Solo does similar, just with even more depth and personalisation. Throw in Time Trials and it’s more than possible to fire up EA Sports WRC for a quick rally fix whenever you may find yourself with ten minutes to waste.
There’s obviously a Rally School available if you wish to go right back to basics too. This provides you with a few tests and objectives, from the simple – fire her up and shoot down a straight before braking in a certain area – to more complex mission types; keeping to set speeds, racing lines and more. If you’re new to the virtual racing scene, EA Sports WRC does its best to tempt you in. All before absolutely battering you from there on out. Similar thoughts concern the vehicle Builder. It’s all great for those that really want to dive into the depths of the WRC world, but frankly, we are just happy to be dropped into the driver’s seat and left to race.
In less positive news – at least for us – a Rally Pass progression system will only appeal to the minority, with the temptation of a Premium lane giving further cosmetics not really something that floats our boat. Thankfully it’s fairly hidden away and never really in your face, so can be ignored as you get on with the stopwatch racing.
If you need more, then multiplayer action is also possible. Of course, as is standard, WRC is very much one person – and their co-driver – against the clock, but if you tire of attempting to hold on to the coattails of the AI, then the online world awaits. It works well as a standalone multiplayer experience, but personally we’d prefer to find the whole ‘Clubs’ side of the action integrated right into the game. We’ve never been fans of being pushed to an external site, App, or tasked with QR Code reading. Again, that is very much personal preference and once set up, all is fine. But it feels like it possibly could have been integrated a bit neater.
The thing is, no matter how you play EA Sports WRC, it’s the on-track action that really does allow it to excel as a rally racer. A proper test of a driver’s skills, there’s no doubt that your first races, perhaps even your initial opening hours with WRC, will be fairly brutal. That ramps up as you move from surface to surface, losing the traction of the asphalt in hope of gathering up some grip on gravel or snow. You’ll no doubt find yourself smashing into all manner of track furniture, hoping that the chance to reset won’t push you too far down the timesheets. Slowly though, EA Sports WRC starts to come together. You’ll understand that you can’t always floor it, that you need to tease the throttle as much as you need to dance on the brakes, all whilst considering steering angles and the instructions of your co-driver. It’s then when this WRC racer starts topping timesheets, delivering as much depth to the race enthusiast as they want.
Helped along by good visuals and the most detailed of audio, taken as a rally racer, EA Sports WRC is probably the best there is. Begin to understand the need to be fast but cautious and any fan of the World Rally Championships should look to get behind the wheel of this one at the earliest of opportunities.
And with EA and Codemasters holding the licence for the foreseeable future, the virtual WRC scene is likely to just get even better from those lights out to that finish line.