World Rally Championship 4. To some of you this game will spark old memories of games of a yonder year like the Colin Mcrae Rally franchise which was a hit my house. (Well, my room anyway). So when WRC 4 arrived at my door I felt a wave of nostalgia and hoped for the best. It soon became apparent that this may be harder and more brutal than I thought on my childhood.
When booting up the game for the first time, WRC asks you to create your character, and also allows you to tinker with the 2nd co-driver (Who we’ll look at later in the review). Changing the name, nationality and gender. Standard stuff, quite nifty as well you can change your registration plate, the little things can make the biggest difference!
With 13 different location countries and 4 different racing classifications WRC boasts an interesting and extensive line up for rally games. This is nothing like F1 games, how can it be, so it’s hard to compare WRC to another game in the market. The features within WRC include a career mode broken into a junior classification, WRC, WRC2, 3, 4. Also included is a traditional time trial, standard across all racing games of course, Rally Mode which allows you to play various stages at different locations with up to 9 races in a ‘Rally’ option. As well as this you have Championship Mode which allows you to customise the calendar in order to play certain events at certain times. Plus ‘Multiplayer’.
Multiplayer is, hard to find a player in. First few attempts at matchmaking were met with long waits to find a game and when I did the max amount of players were 2. This is obviously disappointing because the online provided a fun and refreshing experience from what is a lack lustre competition offline. Online consists of single stages in which times are compared to find an overall winner, the game runs a ghost system so that you can see your opponents progress rather than having chaos on one track with lots of cars. Playing online offers the chance to level up which in itself is tough when you do play, first level was 2000 XP to level up yet for winning my first race I got the whole of 70 XP, long haul ahead then!
The game does a good job of keeping you in check should you drift out of bounds, this is impossible in some areas on narrow tracks with rock walls on either side posing a different type of challenge. Obviously when I crashed it affected my time but one thing I noticed was the amount of affect that crashing has on the car. Hardly any in all honesty, the bumper and back will fall off if you hit something at 100 miles an hour (duh, I hear you say) but the sides which took the most pounding show signs of wear and tear and no particular damage. Only when you really throw the car into trees and other hard objects does the game show any real performance loss.
So what’s it like to drive I hear you ask! Driving on solid untouched tarmac provides a good test of the base level that WRC operates at. To be honest it’s a dream to drive because it offers little in the way of annoying over sensitive handling. But as always this can get boring, fast. The true challenge is turning all the aid off which, as I found out sadly, doesn’t end well at all for your podium chances. The games weather and terrain system offers an interesting test, when you stack each individual terrain and weather up against each other the difference is noticeable but it’s not massively different. Driving in the snow compared to a wet road feels more challenging but you’re not really put to the test as if you would if it were reality.
Followers of the sport will find a challenging and realistic version of events, with in game competition (Aside from one Robert Kubica! Who is heads and shoulders above the rest of the AI on the game) not offering the greatest of challenges but the course itself poses the hardest task. The game doesn’t make much of your success, plays it down almost. It offers a small cut generic cut scene with a podium and allows you to move onto the next stage of the competition or location.
Uniquely for WRC 4 you’re not alone in your quest to become World Champion. The game provides you with a co-driver who conveniently talks you through the various corners and challenges that each stage has to offer. Eventually he/she (you get the choice!) started to grain on me, especially when things weren’t going to well and I found that some of the calls seemed to be a bit off. Calling corners that were not really braking zones and some that needed one I found myself flying off the track. But I have to stress the majority of the calls are accurate and as you go on your assistant really does help!
Graphically the game provides an impressive back drop especially overlooking mountains in Italy and the coastline in Greece, it’s often hard to keep your eyes on the track. But in some of the other locations for example Germany, the game around the track looks rushed and lacks detail that some of the other areas in the game boast. But having never been to Germany this actually might be a realistic representation!
All in all WRC provides a realistic experience to an already intense sport, with better refining of graphics and more locations around the world, WRC could offer a real contender for Forza and F1 to worry about in the racing market.
Personally wouldn’t value the game at £35+ but if you can pick it up for Rent or cheaper than £20 than I’d say go for it, especially if you’re a racing game fan
