art of rally

This game used to be on Xbox Game Pass, which piqued my interest. It's got a beautiful art style, graphics and sounds, but the controls are too delicate for me (or the physics are too in-depth). Instead of jumping the gun to a Group A car, you have to go through the paces in the career to learn and develop an appreciation for the handling. However, the limited number of restarts is a dealbreaker for me. Playing the game at any difficulty lower than Master is unrealisticly forgiving for making mistakes as you drive, so you have to have some kind of trade-off.

The game is exactly what I was hoping it to be, and it's done really well. So it's a 5/5 for me. I'm an avid rally- and offroad gamer, enjoying everything from Gravel and MXGP to sims like Dirt Rally and WRC. This game was on my wishlist from the onset it was announced, and I'm extra glad it came to GOG. The most striking thing, that hits you first, is the visual design, which looks luxurious despite its minimalism and simplicity. It's colourful and very pleasing to look at. While the physics is arcade at first impression, it actually offers a nice level of technical challenge, and each car handles uniquely. There are different difficulty or simulation options as well. So there's much more to the game than pretty visuals, there's solid gameplay mechanics behind it. It's a proper racing game. What surprised me was the designs of the rally stages, they are actually longer than I expected, adding to the sense of substance and material in the game. There's a very good selection of locations. Of-course there are some iconic location types missing, like a Monte Carlo-eqsue location, but this can be expanded upon. Still, for the asking price, you get a great amount of content. To me this is easily something I can spent 30+ hours on, right from launch. It's a one-man dev team more or less, so 'yes' I feel like I should rightfully be surprised by how good a racing game one person can make.

This game is easy to get in to, looks good and the cars handle very nicely. This game works incredibly well if you have a controller the drifts are effortless and just overall fun, it seems like it will be a good game to sit down listen to some music and relax with.

...but still hampered by its physics First, I got it set up with kilometer per hour, but you can divide that with 1.6 to get miles. I am writing this review due to the massive positive reviews given and so here goes the negative aspect since I have had a drivers license for about four decades. How likely is it that hitting a hilltop driving 60 to 80 kilometers an hour for the car to do a jump? (not very likely) Still, in this game it does and that means moon gravitation to me. Rain seems to be even more slippery than ice and since I drive on ice every winter, that is simply not true. Gravel is not as slippery in the real world as in the game and so we're back at moon or mars gravitation for that as well. All in all, this game falls between two chairs...It does not have physics enough to be a simulator and it is not fast enough to be an arcade racer. As it is now, it feels more like guiding a sled on a path to the finish, it has potential though.

It is a really fun game with a great art style and soundtrack. It takes some time to get used to the different cars but once you master a car it feels great.