WRC is back with its brand-new iteration covering the 2021 World Rally Championship season and developer KT Racing have upped their game to make this the best WRC game I have played to date. Rally games are usually seen as more of a niche style of racing game compared to the track based/open world games that are released but there is something to be said for the rush you get from playing a Rally Stage racer trying to top the time boards.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the championship in 2022, WRC10 is full of a whole host of brand-new content. 4 brand new rallies from the 2021 season are available to compete in, including Estonia, Croatia, Belgium and Spain as well as all 52 official teams covering WRC, WRC2, WRC3 and Junior WRC. But the best addition that feeds into the 50th anniversary theme is the new history mode which enables you to partake in 19 historical rally events, and if you particularly love your classic rally history then you will love that you get to drive 20 legendary cars including Alpine, Lancia and Subaru on 6 historic rallies that have never been in a WRC game!
The stages themselves stand out as one of the high points of the game. They are richly detailed and immersive with the variety of areas on offer being fantastic. The dynamic weather and lighting look fantastic and makes each race feel unique and exciting. The handling through the different types of surfaces also feel great and you can really tell when your driving on tarmac to driving through snow/mud. Compared to other rally games such as Dirt Rally 2, I definitely feel like this game offers much more forgiveness in regard to the handling and environment collision/damage, but for someone who prefers the more arcade style of racing game I found this as a bonus.
I really enjoyed the career mode on offer. Getting to build your way up from Junior WRC/WRC3 series all the way up the motorsport ladder until you become the best of the best. It’s very deep and you will get hours and hours out of it as you play through the calendar of events. WRC 10 now includes a livery editor as well so you can create your own team and add your own colours to the modern cars. The game features both local and online multiplayer, with the latter providing daily/weekly challenges and clubs so you can create your own competitions and find people to race around your own skill level.
One thing I didn’t like was that both Tommi Makinen’s 1998 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo V and Colin McRae’s 1997 Subaru Impreza are locked behind paid DLC at a rather hefty price of over £4.00 each. These are available as part of the content included with the deluxe edition of the game but if you didn’t buy that version, it’s a high price for one of WRC most famous vehicles!
KT Racing has done a great job with this year’s entry in the series. It’s their best attempt yet and the best WRC game I can remember playing. There are a few things that could be improved, some of the sound effects could be improved and the cockpit view isn’t as good as some other games out there but overall, this is a fantastic effort and I look forward to seeing what else is improved in the future with WRC 11. It’s just a shame that while KT Racing are finally hitting their stride with the series that their next entry will ultimately be their last as Codemasters has picked up the license from 2023. I hope they can at least go out with a bang and give Codemasters a huge benchmark to try and match (because we all saw how bare bones Dirt 5 was!).
Total Score: 8/10
WRC 10 was released onto the Xbox store on 9th February 2022. It is playable on Series X/S. The game is priced at £49.99 and can be purchased HERE. You can also grab the game on other major consoles and PC.
We were provided a copy of the game for this review. Thanks for that! We played it on the Xbox Series X.
Comments