Dirt Rally 2.0 developed by Codemasters is available now on Xbox One, PC and PlayStation 4.
As a kid I loved the Colin Mcrae Rally games, I have fond memories of me and my dad playing them. As I grew up the games changed into Dirt and I loved the rally modes, I couldn’t stop filming them and watching them back in slow-mo as I took each corner, I loved the career mode taking you to new countries to discover new and bustling rally tracks. Dirt 4 introduced the procedural generation in tracks making it almost infinite. I had heard of the more realistic counterpart Dirt Rally but hadn’t checked it out until Dirt Rally 2.0. This is what I thought about.
Dirt Rally 2.0 is for the lovers of rallying and realism, if you’ve come to the game expecting a more arcadey experience like Dirt 4, 3 and 2 then you’ll either be disappointed or quite overwhelmed with the amount you have to take into consideration to win these rallies, especially in career mode. While to me at first, it seemed very overwhelming, I quickly learnt that you’re offered so much control over all the systems whether it be staff on your team, vehicle modifications and more that it feels more exciting than anything. There were no limitations holding me back in having full control, and while it does take a bit at first to get used to the new realistic driving mechanics and everything that comes with it, in the end when you manage to complete a rally and end up climbing the leaderboard it gives you a feeling of, I can’t believe I pulled that off kind of feeling.
If career modes aren’t your bag, Codemasters have other ways for you to have fun. Freeplay modes consist of time trials, historic rallies that you can repeat but you’re in control this time, it’s quite a sizeable chunk of content. The biggest thing in free-play though has to be its custom rallies and rally-cross. There are so many options, so much to change to cater the game to your preferences, it’s unbelievable at how much control they’re letting us have. What’s a game full of modes though without a decent car selection? Dirt Rally 2.0 lets you chose from an array of real licensed rally cars to take on the challenges, each car has different specs and can be modified in many ways to again suit your preferences.
Onto the graphics and sound, the graphics are beautiful, each track and car looks so realistic, it almost felt like I was controlling the real thing. The new track degradation looks brilliant and acts as if they’re really racing on a real rally track and it makes for nice changes to the tracks to keep it fresh. The sounds of the engines roaring across the tracks and the voice of the co-driver really made me feel involved in a real rally race and the developers have done such a good job of creating this very life-like experience.
Verdict
All in all, Dirt Rally 2.0 is an experience I felt is more for the enthusiasts of rallying but is made accessible enough for people to start getting into the realism side. While it could be quite overwhelming to some, Dirt Rally 2.0 excels in giving the player control throughout the experience.
8/10
Nerdy Bird Games 