Gameplay Happily, WRC 6 is an improvement over WRC 5. For the third time around, I went through a full career starting from Junior WRC all the way to becoming a WRC champion with no assists, using an Xbox One controller, in first person, using manual gearbox on hard difficulty. Sadly, the number of retries is still tied to the difficulty level. Having more experience with Kylotonnâs rally physics, I did give Expert a chance again to test myself, but the endeavour became frustrating as soon as I noticed that the A.I. are competitive on some stages and, at least to me, impossibly quick on others. As such, I still completed most of the career on Hard. This time, I worked on setups. Halfway through the WRC2 class I realised that some of the default setups weren't good enough. I started by working on gear ratios and then moved to other options as my confidence grew. I recommend fiddling with the setups, as the UI is quite newbie-friendly and doesnât overwhelm with numerical values or 50 adjustable steps for every parameter. We finally have some functional physics to play with. Braking still feels too safe, but itâs not entirely foolproof. Damage does affect the carsâ handling and performance before the components of the cars are absolutely ruined. Most notably, the cars can become greatly unsettled after landing jumps if the suspension is damaged and engine damage results in noticeable power losses. The handbrake is still somewhat useless, but can be improved by adding a tick or two to its strength in the setup menu. I did that for every stage in the game, regardless of the road surface. Lastly, the cars feel much closer to their real-life performance compared to WRC 5. Overall, the physics are a big improvement, but they are nothing to write home about. There are good news on the stages front. Compared to WRC 5, they actually vary in road width and some are actually somewhat bumpy. The differences between driving surfaces are much more pronounced and somewhat simulate what they might feel like in real life. Rain also has an effect on overall grip. Whatâs worth mentioning for WRC 6 are the SSS stages. These were missing entirely from WRC 5 and are a very welcome addition. They are challenging and, when theyâre not the only stage in a day in career mode, force you to rethink your setups, making the whole experience surrounding them even more engaging. On the weirdness front, addressing some issues in WRC 5, tyres finally âlastâ more than 3 km, which certainly helps one feel better, as seeing that damage bar empty after a stage in WRC 5 makes one feel as if youâre doing a poor job conserving them. Secondly, âgoes hardâ is gone â the co-driver actually specifies how much tighter or wider a corner becomes. No more guessing whatâs (literally) coming around the corner. I recommend keeping the calls on 'very early'. Sadly, the turbo pressure bar under the speedo in the UI doesnât have any purpose â it just fills up at the beginning of a stage and stays like that until its end. Lastly, the dirt buildup on the windscreen is just atrocious. The dirt builds up almost instantly, even on asphalt, forcing you to drive most stages with the wipers on permanently. The single-player modes also include a driving test that is a cool challenge for when youâre newer to the game. Functionally, itâs meant to suggest what assists you should leave on, but I donât trust its judgement too much. Multiplayer still works peer-to-peer. This time, I didnât find anyone online via matchmaking and had to resort to the community tab to find fellow drivers willing to help me with the multiplayer achievements. Judging by the look of the main menu, the game also used to have some sort of events which are now defunct. They would have been a welcome addition, had they still been functional. Local multiplayer is also available in either hot seat or split-screen mode. Both are very welcome features as far as Iâm concerned. Visuals Good news - the game can actually be minimized as intended this time around. Everything is alright in the visuals/graphics department. I had no performance issues and didnât spot any weird visual glitches or artefacts. There are clear graphics improvements over WRC 5 that include better-looking distant foliage and environments, markedly improved lighting and higher fidelity car textures. Visual damage is still there and it still looks good. Audio On menu music â there are some actual beats playing when starting the game that fade into the background as you navigate the main menu. They are appropriate and make you feel excited to play the game. As for the rest of WRC 6, there is no music during replays or while sitting in service. In the latter situation, that leaves space for crowds and other cars to make noise, which helps the overall immersion. Some music also plays during the rally-end podium sequences. On car sounds - there is little improvement over WRC 5, sadly. Surface sounds are great, tyre sounds are great, the exhaust pops are still there, even the carsâ turbos sound good when relieving pressure in external cams during replays, but the carsâ engines still sound unbelievably boring, samey and uninteresting no matter the class. Pretty disappointing. Extras Achievements. 100% completion of achievements is impossible unless you have the âSpyâ in-game accomplishment already. Overall, the accomplishments system seems completely useless. A worthy mention is the âNavigatorâ achievement that requires one to drive 5000 km in total. This is, without a doubt, the most dull and outright soul-crushing achievement I have ever run into. For the record, I think I was on around 1200 km total after playing four full career seasons, with two of them taking place in the WRC class. I think that was after 35 in-game hours. I have now reached 59 in-game hours and have barely passed 2400 km overall after finishing all the other âDrive X km on surface Yâ achievements. There are no words to describe how grindy this achievement is. Actually, I am writing this review because I have already moved on to WRC 7 and am starting to forget what 6 was like outside of this mindless grind. Luckily, 100% accomplishments is not possible for me, which saves me from going for the extremely grindy accomplishments requiring hundreds of both offline and online stage wins. The rest of the achievements are plain and uninteresting. DLC. I cannot recommend the calendar and WRC+ bundle. The calendar has a big watermark ad in one corner and WRC+ is now defunct as a service, so the code for it is useless. The Yaris test car is a great addition for quick stages/multiplayer. Sadly, at times, itâs missing the rubber lining around its windscreen, side windows and back window, both in third-person and first-person view. Immersion. Once again, great improvements over WRC 5. Podium celebrations are back. They are a bit soulless, but their presence is appreciated. The only negative aspect are some car enginesâ idle tones covering up most of the sound made by the crowds. Iâm not sure why the carsâ engines have to be on during the podium ceremony... Also, short pre-stage scenes are present showing the car before the playerâs taking off at the start of the stage. It helps make the game feel less lonely, especially with all the people around. The addition of manual wipers and headlights is welcome, too, although it feels like the excessive dirt buildup on the windscreen was included to create an artificial challenge and 'advertise' this feature. Conclusion I think WRC 6 is what WRC 5 was intended to be if given enough development time. It feels like a finished game. Itâs functional, fun, has fairly in-depth mechanics, some very time-consuming achievements and random difficulty spikes on the highest difficulty. I recommend purchasing it if you want to play âa rally gameâ. If youâre looking for a good or great rally game, maybe look somewhere else.
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