DiRT Rally Review

DiRT Rally has been out for quite some time now; first in Steam's Early Access program, then becoming a full release as of December last year. In only a short space of time, Codemasters have brought the game over to consoles so that everyone can join in on the fun.

Diving into the game, it’s clear that this is a proper return to form for the DiRT series. There’s no Ken Block or Travis Pastrana narrating the menus. There’s no overblown fanfare. Finally, all X-Games references are buried in the mud somewhere off a mis-timed hairpin. It becomes clear that this isn’t just the DiRT series returning to form, but rather Codemasters as a whole.

There’s a sizeable array of customisation available so that you can get the game setup exactly as you like too, even down to more specific items such as removing the steering wheel and driver’s arms when in cockpit view. If you use a steering wheel this makes it feel much more natural than seeing two sets of wheels and arms moving around. A comprehensive array of choices for transmission setup is a pleasant surprise along with the more standard options of things like traction control and stability management which are off by default, but can be tweaked to allow a greater range of skill levels to play.

Heading over to the custom events to get some practice in, there’s the option of a standard rally, hillclimb or rallycross. Three similar, yet varied disciplines of rally to get to grips with. Starting slow, I opted for a standard rally in cars from the 60s, using those as they have less horsepower to get the feeling for the handling. As I inevitably barrel-rolled the car off the track, it was pleasing to find out just how quick it is to restart a stage at any given time. No sooner have you selected to restart than you’re sitting back at the starting gate with your co-driver counting down from five. There’s no loading screens to contend with, just straight back into the action. Which is great, because you’re going to need it. Lots.

You don’t need to fully restart a stage though, you can always reset your car to the track from the onscreen prompt (or from the pause menu), though this comes with a time penalty so you can’t abuse the feature. You can also repair a flat tyre mid-race, but be warned that this comes with an even larger time penalty so should only be used in the most extreme of circumstance, or if you’re playing with a “no resets allowed” mindset.

The handling model veers much more closely to simulation than arcade. If you put too much throttle on coming out of a corner, you’d better believe you’re heading into those trees on the inside of the track. Brake too late and that safety barrier is about to have a car-shaped dent placed squarely in it. Scaling up the epic Monte Carlo hillside, my co-driver warned me that it’d be snow from here on which changed the level of control dramatically. I’d gone from grippy tarmac to an uneven near frictionless surface that meant the back end of my Renault Alpine now wanted to continue going round corners that had long since passed.

It looks and sounds beautiful too. Moving from the icy hillside of the aforementioned Monte Carlo to the dusty plains of Greece over to the gritty rain-blessed tracks of Wales shows the clear differences in locale. There’s no liberties taken with the tracks, either. Narrow roads and tight corners aplenty rather than the sometimes ‘enlarged’ variations we’ve seen in other rally games that makes them far too easy. Cars sound meaty, with growling exhausts that furthers the sense of power that they’re equipped with.

Playing the game with a standard controller worked just fine, but this game really deserves you getting stuck in with a steering wheel. The added ability to finely dial in your steering means you can be more accurate when taking corners - especially at speed. With a force-feedback wheel, the added immersion factor of feeling when the surface under the tyres changes really aids with helping to react to the current road surface.

From a technical standpoint, Codemasters have delivered an absolute blinder with a native 1080p, 60 FPS experience in DiRT Rally. There is an infrequent frame-drop that happens, but it seemed to only be prevalent when I’d managed to find an impromptu parking spot for my car in a grass verge.

DiRT Rally is an outstanding return to form for both Codemasters and the DiRT series, bringing it back to the glory days of when it proudly wore Colin McRae’s name. As it stands right now, DiRT Rally is the rally game to look up to, a shining example of it done well.