Review – WRC9: World Rally Championship
Thanks to the kind folks at Nacon and KT Racing, Today I’m giving you my thoughts on the latest entry into the World Rally Championship series, with our full video and written review for WRC9. As ever, we’re including the full common sense parent’s guide, and you can find out my thoughts in the video, or keep reading for the extended written review.
The Basics
Even if you aren’t entirely up to date with the franchise, I’d put money down that you have a pretty good idea what you’ll find in WRC 9. Throwing yourself sideways around tracks in various locations, you’ll race against the clock, rising through the ranks until you’re number one.
There are a great mix of locations, as well as surfaces to race on. I’ll be the first to admit that I am absolutely rubbish at the gameplay, but I’ve had a lot of fun at least trying to perfect my play. There’s a decent career mode in the title, where you’ll be managing your race team through the championship
What’s New?
As with all annual titles, I know that the biggest questions for fans of the franchise will be centered around the big “what’s new?”.
There are three new tracks in the title, seeing the return of Rally Kenya, with the savannah and villages providing a wildly different drive even within the same course. New Zealand has also made a return, beginning coastal views through a wildly technical track. Japan is also coming back this year, with tight and technical asphalt roads.
There are also a number of new ways you can customise and save your car setups, allowing for a completely bespoke ride which is tailored to your style. There have been improvements to dynamics and weighting as well, as KT Racing have focussed on fan feedback in order to improve the sim aspects of the title. In order to fully solidify the mechanics, as well as eSports play-testers, they’ve also gathered feedback from rally drivers in order to ensure not only a great game experience, but as realistic a sim as possible, and it’s worked wonderfully.
They have also brought an entirely new mode, with Clubs, where players can create their own clubs with competitions crafted for their friends, or the wider community. With up to 8 special stages, car categories and conditions, players have the opportunity to create their own World Rally Championship, shared with friends or made open to all players.
They’ve also made a commitment to providing free additional content to players, with Finland expansions being added post development, providing more realism and more content. They also plan to bring more game modes, and teams, as well as upgrades to other countries. There’s also a beautiful new Photo Mode, and a co-driver mode being added as an online co-op, which will come within the next few months.
Parent’s Eye View
WRC9 is rated by PEGI at 3 and above, and by the ESRB as E for Everyone. As you likely have guessed, there’s no content here which is troubling, and you’ll just find a rally-sim experience. While it’s not specifically targeted towards the younger generation, if they can get the hang of the technical controls, it’s likely they’ll have a good time with WRC9, tearing around the various locations, and putting some dents in these fine motors.
The difficulty side could pose a problem, and I wouldn’t recommend purchasing WRC9 specifically for young ones simply because it might not give them great value for money. Overall though, there’s nothing which would worry me about the Micro-Bandits getting hands on, and for this reason I’m giving it the green light for family play.
The Run Down
Visuals – Good: The various locations have been beautifully crafted, and even while traversing tracks sideways (and for me often upside down) things are still looking great here. I’ve marked it down, as I would really have liked to have seen a bit more detail when in the driver’s eye view. Inside the cars look ok, but not great, and could have done with a little more detail and polish. If you’re not playing from inside the car though, this won’t make a difference, and outside the vehicles the damage model is superb and if you’re anything like me you’ll see quite a lot of it.
Audio – Great: The music really compliments the title well, and there are some great effects coming into play with completely redesigned engine sounds this year. More noteworthy for me is the fact that even after a number of hours in game, I’ve not become annoyed with the co-driver’s constant chatter.
Narrative – Fair: The career mode in game is nice, and the management side of things have provided some good strategic play. I would really have liked to see more personal touches to bring it more in line with the direction of the Formula One gaming franchise, and while there are some good management options I would have liked to have seen a bit more.
Replay – Great: There’s a huge number of vehicles in game, as well as locations, tracks, and of course multiplayer functions. The fact that KT Racing have committed to providing ongoing additional content at no cost is also great, with even more modes and tracks coming soon. If you’re a fan of the genre, there’s a great deal here to keep you engaged, and it’s one which has managed to keep pulling me back in, even though I absolutely suck at the game.
The Verdict
Overall the Pixel Bandits Throwing a Car Around a Gravel Track Sideways Level for WRC9 is Grab It . Of course this does come with the caveat that you’re halfway interested in rallying, as otherwise it’s one which is not going to be for everybody. Either way, you’ll have to put some graft in to master the title.
For fans of the franchise this is a really solid entry. There have been a huge number of improvements made to the driving mechanics, as well as new game modes and the return of some rally favourites. The biggest deal for me is the commitment to future content, coming for free to all players. I’m really looking forward to the co-driver mode coming soon, but in the meantime this is a great entry into the franchise. WRC9 provides a great gaming experience which fully honours its rally roots, as well as bringing new challenges for even the most ardent franchise fans.
