You would be hard pushed to find a developer more synonymous with rally racing video games than Codemasters. Ever since they released Colin McRae Rally for the PlayStation and PC back in 1998 they have consistently pumped out both racing and rally games both of the sim and arcade variety with the majority of them receiving critical acclaim. With their last rally based game Dirt 5 being more arcade based than sim orientated this time around Codemasters are concentrating more on the serious side of the sport with the release of EA Sports WRC which for the first time since Colin McRae Rally 3 back in 2002 features cars fully licensed by the World Rally Championship. It would be hard to argue that Codemasters aren’t at the top of their game when it comes to rally racing games, they have proven many times over that they know the sport and have the skills needed to turn their knowledge in to a faithful and fun video game recreation of zooming around in dusty deserts, frozen mountains and all matter of landscapes in between, let’s jump into our Subaru Impreza, turn the key and take to the roads.

From the opening videos you can tell that EA WRC is a game that takes the sport more seriously than past games such as Dirt 5, and this is a good thing because I think rally fans have been without a good sim game for a long time. EA WRC harkens back to the days of Dirt Rally 2.0 where things were much more serious and less arcade-like, WRC had me reminiscing about the first time I ever played Colin McCrae Rally back on my faithful old PS One. Once you load up WRC you will be greeted with a plethora of game modes but I would suggest starting with the aptly named ‘Rally School’ which serves as a tutorial of sorts and lets you get a feel for the game by completing various objectives such as completing various stages of rallies within a time limit and not straying from the track or knocking over the many cones that outline the track. To be honest some of these sections can be quite frustrating as even knocking over one traffic cone will disqualify you from successfully passing the event, regardless of this though it is worthwhile to spend an hour or two playing through the rally school as it gives you a good sense of how cars and the game handles and will help you immensely before you launch into any of the other game modes.

Career mode is where the meat of EA WRC lies, and was where I spent the majority of the game, career mode was rebuilt from the ground up compared to its older version in Dirt Rally 2.0 and I would say what Codemasters have done is a massive success as the mode has enough intricacies attached to it that it really does make you feel like you are the manager of a WRC team. When you first start out you get to customise both your character and your co-driver and the helmets and racing apparel that they wear, it is not the most involved character creation suite in the world but since you spend most of your time with your bum planted firmly on a car seat it really doesn’t need to be. Your biggest decision when starting career mode comes next, and that is whether to choose a prebuilt car from a manufacturer or to build one yourself through the games ‘builder mode’ which allows you to select and customise all manner of components such as drivetrains and engines and even interior details so you can truly tailor your car to be exactly like you want, the builder mode is truly impressive and I was surprised with how in-depth the building experience was. There is also a livery editor which is pretty comprehensive and if you are the type of person that likes to spend loads of time customising how your car looks then I am sure you will be satisfied with what is on offer here. The biggest disappointment with the livery editor is that there is now way to upload and share your liveries or download liveries other people have created, this is a fairly standard feature in most racing games and it is a big oversight to not have it implemented here.

Once you have picked your car or designed a car for yourself you are introduced to the team ‘benefactor’ who is basically in charge of funding the team, basically the person you want to keep happy, and you do this by managing the budget of the team, entering and winning rallies and attending different events whilst also watching how much money you are spending week to week on cars, car repairs, staff and upgrades, adding to the intricacies of this mode you can also increase your budget by gaining new sponsors or winning some of the special events on your yearly calendar. Your benefactor will also have a separate set of expectations revolving around quotas of championships and special events you need to enter each year in order to keep them happy which adds another layer of depth to the career mode gameplay and sometimes it becomes quite challenging to manage both the team budget and the events your benefactor expects you to enter seeing as you also need to find time scouting and hiring staff such as mechanics and engineers who will grant your team passive bonuses such as quicker repairs to your cars, not only this but you will need to take time off to maintain your staffs energy levels as well. In career mode you truly are juggling a lot of things at the same time and there are a lot of layers to managing your team, I found career mode to be a lot of fun and truly engaging.

Outside of career mode there are a couple of other modes to hold your attention, the main one of being ‘moments’ where you get behind the wheel and overcome recent events alongside real-world highlights and nostalgic throwbacks, these moments are updated daily and are planned to encompass the entire 50 year history of the WRC. There are also time trial modes and leaderboards and a club mode that showcases community competitions.

Driving is at the core of any racing game and if the developers don’t get the mechanics and controls right then it doesn’t matter how good a game looks or sounds or how in depth the career mode is the game just won’t be fun to play, I am pleased to say EA WRC has nailed the driving aspect and most of the cars are an absolute pleasure to drive. Rally racing may not be the fastest motorsport in the world but Codemasters certainly have managed to properly convey the almost claustrophobic feeling of rocketing around a track where there are high cliff walls on one side and a deadly drop off the side of a mountain on the other. Driving in WRC is tense and engaging as you try to outdo the times your opponents have set along the same section of track whilst trying to avoid damaging your vehicle, it is the most fun I have had playing a rally game in many years.

Thankfully the graphics are also much improved over previous Codemasters racing titles, the developers have switched from their former in house engine ‘Ego’, which has served them incredibly well for the past 16 years, to using Unreal Engine, an engine that is much more capable of the type of large scale racing areas seen in rally motorsport events. Not only is the graphical fidelity much improved due to the new engine but the sheer scale of the landscape and tracks are much improved due to the addition of Unreal Engine. Sound design is also much improved over previous games with cars sounding beefy with suitable exhaust farts and pops as cars backfire when revs and gears change up and down.

EA Sports WRC is a competent rally game with great driving mechanics and car handling and a truly engaging career mode for a motor sports game so much so that even if you are a fan of motorsports but not rally games then I would encourage you to give this a go. That’s not to say that the game doesn’t have some drawbacks as even though it is initially very engaging the career mode can tend to get a bit repetitive after you have played through a couple of years with your team, it would’ve been nice to have Codemasters find a way to maintain the engagement as your career progresses but all in all it is a small complaint. Overall though EA Sports WRC is a nice package that should keep most rally fans engaged and glued to their controllers and steering wheels over the next year.