DIRT 5 Review

While I do enjoy a good racing game from time to time, I know nothing about cars, which usually turns me off from games like Forza Motorsport, Gran Turismo and other simulation racers. I usually go for the more arcade racing experiences such as Need for Speed, Burnout or Forza Horizon, but the DiRT series is one that I never got into, which I can see now was a grave mistake. DIRT 5 is a superb arcade racing game that is focused on one thing and one thing only, racing.

With DIRT 5 being my first game in the series, I wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of races, vehicle handling and the arcade experience overall, but it ended up exceeding my expectations for each. DIRT 5 is one of the most traditional arcade racing experiences in years as you’re essentially just jumping from race to race without any worry about upgrading car parts, grinding for money or being locked out of races due to car class. Everything is straightforward enough that anyone can pick-up and play and have a blast doing so, especially on the PlayStation 5.

Driving in DIRT 5 feels perfect for what it is, an arcade rally racer; drifting, jumping, traction, speed and control on all vehicles feel really good and different enough depending on the motor vehicle. Drifting in particular feels fantastic and while it can be difficult to learn at first, once you get a hang of it, it truly feels top-notch. The reason DIRT 5 might feel better than most racing games in recent memory is because of how well it utilises the DualSense controller. Haptic feedback from crashing and driving on different surfaces feels fantastic (especially on good ol’ dirt), but the implementation for the adaptive triggers is a legitimate gamechanger. With resistance when pressing the left trigger to brake when braking at high-speeds, more pressure needed to be applied on the right trigger for the gas or feeling the bounce from the suspension in both triggers as you land from a jump, it all feels incredible. Of course, you can turn it off or lower the intensity if it’s not for you, but for me, I had it cranked up to high and I don’t know if I can ever play another racing game without them.

There is a decent variety of vehicles in DIRT 5 that are letter-graded from D to S based on performance and handling which is as straightforward as can be, but also makes it so you’re never really using all the vehicles available. Since you earn money at an insanely fast rate, most of the time you can purchase the best-rated vehicle early on which means there is no point in going for other ones since you have the best already. Make no mistake though, you will be using a variety of vehicles, but that will be mainly because each of the different racing events requires a certain vehicle type.

Throughout the career mode in DIRT 5, you’ll choose events in a bracket-style format leading to the end of each of the five ‘chapters’ as you rise in the ranks from rookie to legend. With eight events in total ranging from off-road, time-based, circuit, drifting and ice-covered (which was my favourite for drifting), there is some great variety to choose from. Events alternate between weather and 10 different locations around the world including China, South Africa, Italy, New York and more. On top of that, there are also ‘Throwdown’ races that you unlock at random and are just 1v1 races, but it’s not clear what you get out of them. The tracks didn’t feel like they were repeating themselves early on, even though I’m sure they were, but it wasn’t noticeable until I was deep into the career mode; I always had a great time on every race I played nonetheless. The biggest shock of the career mode though is how enjoyable the narrative is.

As you move through the brackets, every so often you’ll get a break from the awesome soundtrack to listen to the DIRT Podcast hosted by James Pumphrey and Nolan Sykes; they have great back and forth banter and it's genuinely fun to listen to. Since you start as a rookie, you get mentored by a racer named AJ (voiced by Troy Baker), but as AJ is mentoring you, he’s also in a rivalry with another competitor, Bruno Durand (voiced by Nolan North) and it's surprisingly captivating to listen to how it all goes down. Both AJ and Bruno take part in the DIRT Podcast frequently and just trash talk each other’s racing abilities and it's quite entertaining, despite the anti-climactic ending.

There are a substantial number of races to complete in the career mode, but if you are looking for more DIRT there are other modes to keep you busy. Arcade has a free mode that allows you to replay races with your own rules, but you can also choose a time trial if you want to see how fast you can do it. Playgrounds mode allows you to create custom tracks ranging from small to large and play ones created from the community if you so please. While there is also an online mode, it’s quite difficult to find a game, especially for the party games mode.

In terms of customisation, DIRT 5 does a solid job with designs and colours but lacks when it comes to changing the actual appearance of vehicles. The more you play the more designs you unlock as some designs are locked behind player levels and others locked behind sponsorship levels. Sponsorships add an extra bit of challenge to races with each having their own challenges to complete to increase their level quicker, but you can also complete the optional challenges available in every race to help speed up the process. There are a ton of designs to choose from so you can make your car look rather unique, but it would have been awesome to see some body customisation options like bumpers, spoilers, etc. but none of that is available.

Visually, DIRT 5 looks incredible with its beautiful environments and car details when on the track and the bright neon aesthetic for the menus that just pop in HDR. There are three visual modes you can choose in the settings: image quality, resolution or framerate. Resolution mode locks the game at a 4K resolution at 60FPS and image quality increases various settings such as textures, shadows and draw distance while targeting 4K 60FPS, but can drop to 1440p to maintain the FPS. Framerate mode is meant for those who have 120Hz displays, but since I don’t own one, I was unable to test it. I primarily used image quality mode since it was visually striking to look at especially in rain or ice with reflections. Lighting in particular can look amazing too, but there can be some infrequent glitches where it begins to flicker on objects or your vehicle and can be quite distracting when racing. There is also a pretty decent photo mode included that is way more photography intensive then it has any right to be, but it can take some great pictures once you understand what you’re doing.