WRC 10 FIA World Rally Championship Review

We are at that time again, the annual release of World Rally Championship from our friends at KT Racing so many thanks from our friends there and Nacon for providing me a code for Xbox.

At the time of writing this review there are a few issues with the game that I’m going to address but I’m not gonna hold a grudge against them like some other people do in regards with some games, but with me there are very few and rare exceptions, but from what I can tell the main issues have been on the PC and with steering wheels. I have tried all the graphics modes for this review so let us get to it.

Now, the format of the game is still the same as the previous, start a career with the choice of going to the WRC Junior stage first where you drive a Ford FWD car that gives you more of a easier experience and introduction of the stages you’ll be enduring, but obviously, at serious heart racing speeds when you progress your career. You have your team garage where you can hire different staff in their speciality sectors like engineers, PR managers, budget experts and more. You can also choose your next event from a selection over the next few days, and whether you do training, team building, a rally, a historic event or resting, which allows the team to revitalise before becoming fatigued and then have to be replaced for a period of time, and then with your progression comes Research & Development, where you’ll be awarded points to upgrade aspects of your team from more reliable team skills, to more money, more events, etc.

Now as I’m going through this, if you’ve played the previous titles WRC 8 & 9 (mainly because those are the only other ones I’ve played) they are extremely similar, which is a real disappointment. I wish there was something completely new that screams hey, check me out, this wasn’t a thing before! The main new thing is the event selection of team building, that wasn’t a thing, it just increases team morale but if your team morale is already at max then there is no point doing this.

When I loaded the game the graphics seemed like a bit of a downgrade compared to the previous game, I can’t really describe it. Baring in mind I’m playing on the Series X and the game is Series X/S Optimised, the draw distance for things like foliage flickers in only when you’re really close. Some of the sounds are screwed too like the vehicles can be delayed or completely absent except for the tire squeal. As you can imagine not only does it sound ridiculous, it can also knock off your vibe and senses as the sound of the engine really does more than you’d think.

The windscreen wipers actually have no effect so if you like the drivers view then it isn’t ideal at this point and don’t get me started on the actual animation of the arms turning the steering wheel. I tried all graphic modes, resolution, performance and 120hz mode. I’m one of those people who doesn’t really notice a big difference between 60fps and 120fps, so I apologise to the PC Master Race fanbase. Now I know its normal for the quality to be reduced when at 120hz mode but it is at a level where it makes everything noticeably worse. The main thing I noticed is if you are racing through some trees and the sun pokes through, the shine of the sun shows as lots of squares on your screen, not a bright light, lots of bright squares and its seriously distracting and weird. 

A lot of the advertising before the launch of the game placed heavy emphasis on classic rally. The introduction of classic stages and the iconic cars of the past is a very big welcome, however if you wanted to just jump into this straight away you’ll be disappointed to see that it’s all locked away. To play the second rally you have to beat the first, which isn’t an issue at all but the thing I noticed is that the target time never changes whether you play on the easiest difficulty or proper veteran mode.

The same 6:44.359 time is there if you race at 60 AI level or 140. That makes it an easy ride for the highly skilled and a tough battle for newer players that many will be unable to overcome. If you want to take on the Acropolis Rally with the 1987 Lancia Delta you will have a lot of hours of practice and patience to get through the previous challenges first.

Another thing that bugs me is that a lot of the advertising for this game was the classic cars, mainly the Subaru Impreza driven by the legend Colin McRae and the Mitsubishi Lancer with the livery from Gran Turismo 3 for the real OGs out there, however when you play through the career (or from what I’ve noticed so far) those cars are only available in custom events and that kind of takes away the premise of all the advertising if they aren’t available in the career mode. I know a lot of this review has been negative so far but it is kind of a copy and past situation with this game that it really doesn’t make a difference whether you play 8, 9 or 10. I also struggled to find multiplayer games so I need to chase up with the developers whether Series X/S players can play with the previous Xbox platforms because when they optimised WRC 9 for Series X/S I noticed I couldn’t find any multiplayer games anymore and it is because they never mentioned that there would be no crossplay between generations, and that seriously disappointed me, as me and my friend tried playing together for ages but with no success and I’m really hoping this isn’t the same case.

Verdict

If this is your first WRC then you will obviously not understand a bunch of my points but you will probably experience some of the glitches I have encountered until patches are applied. I honestly think this game should have been delayed a bit longer to add more new mechanics or content and to do a bit more spring cleaning with the glitches and bugs, which seems to be a really popular trend in the gaming industry, do we blame the developers or the investors? My hunch always goes towards the investors as the developers are really passionate about their jobs and probably know the game isn’t ready, but of course the suits up top don’t agree. For the time being I’m not going to give this game the rating of "worth getting" but further down the line, depending on the changes I may revisit this review and change the rating but of course buy with caution depending on your platform.