Where once you had a challenging yet forgiving simulation you now have one which when it bites, it bites hard.
The career mode isn’t easy and once you start turning off the assists and changing the damage model to something more realistic WRC 8 becomes an entirely different beast. If you want an extra challenge you can also choose to qualify for a WRC 2 seat rather than waltzing right into a seat.
#Wrc 8 review full
Your career starts off in WRC 2 where you must show your worth before you’re offered a full WRC drive.
#Wrc 8 review driver
Whilst I doubt any real WRC driver has much to do with the everyday running of their team it adds a little bit of depth to the career mode and makes it something a bit more than just elongated version of its season mode. It’s all very familiar if you’ve played other racing games. They range from performance boosts to rewarding more XP. This time around you’ll need to manage your team as well as pick upgrades through an ever familiar skill-tree. Outside of one-off stages and seasons you can also head off in to a full on career mode. Given my penchant for disappearing off the track I often went with Elfyn Evans but on occasion I would pick Esapekka Lapi more for how awesome his name sounds than anything else (though he is rather talented). If you decided to do a quick, one-off stage or season, you can choose any one of the driver/co-driver pairs from the roster. Should you decide to dodge the career mode there’s representation from all the major WRC teams and drivers. I also encountered a few, seemingly, invisible hazards which is a shame to see.ĭespite the few oddities however the WRC fan will be spoiled for choice when it’s time to hit the stage. Sometimes you can run over that shrub and then again, it can also stop your car dead. It’s was odd to notice but once seen it’s hard to look past as is the haphazard indestructibility of the scenery. Whilst things are looking better it’s not perfect as it seems that, irrespective of surface, the dust kicked up from your wheels is the same, even on snow. From the snow stages of Sweden to the red-dirt laden tracks of Australia it’s all there to be admired.
Lighting is quite lovely and there’s lots of beauty to be had around the various locations and stages of the WRC. Improvements aren’t limited to the handling either, things have stepped up quite nicely in the graphics department. It’s all doable on a pad and makes it fun to play if you’re not a wheel owner. The full-blooded WRC monsters require delicate inputs to manage their insane grip and acceleration whereas others require you to manage the throttle more to coax them round. Depending on the drive-train you’ll need to carefully manage your inputs if you want to go fast. What it lacks in nuance it makes up for in feel and after a couple of decent 10km long stages your arms will certainly feel it! That’s not to say you can’t play on a pad and thanks to the series’ arcade roots it has a strong foundation to build on. Whilst WRC 8 doesn’t quite reach the heights of Dirt Rally it does manage to achieve a middle-ground. Whilst it was still tough and fun to play on pad or wheel, it lacked feel, which is rather important in rallying. When I reviewed its successor earlier this year I was disappointed to find that it had lost out to Dirt 4’s more arcade style handling. It was absolutely sublime with a subtlety that has yet to be matched. Whilst I’m a big fan of Dirt 2.0 for many reasons there’s one thing that I desperately miss, the force-feedback model from Dirt Rally. However, after spending many hours intentionally going sideways, I can safely say that WRC 8 makes a compelling argument to ditch Dirt 2.0 for something a little bit different.
#Wrc 8 review series
Whilst KT Racing’s franchise has been the officially licensed series, it has been in the shadow of Codemaster’s revitalized Dirt series of games. It’s been a two year wait for WRC 7’s successor but it’s finally here and I’m glad to say, overall, it’s been worth the wait.
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