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Rallisport Challenge Review
Mark Simons
00/12/0000
Check out this Scandanavian beauty, is this racer as good as it looks? find out here...
Rallisport Challenge has looked rather impressive for some time, the screenshots showing that Digital Illusions really know how to tickle the Xbox in the right places. However gameplay was something of an unknown quantity, we could say for certain that if it played as good as it looked, then it would be great. It was with some degree of excitement that we set about playing Rallisport Challenge when it arrived, if just for the prospect of lovely lighting used over bump-mapped iceā¦
This is not a simulation of rallying, without an official WRC license the developers have created their own tracks and structure, going for a much more arcade feel. In essence this is the spiritual successor to Sega Rally, fast, furious and fun. It may not be that realistic but the handling is deep enough to reward practise and skill but accessible enough to be fun when you first play. The main emphasis is on fun and speed, you really hurtle around the courses and the sensation of speed is conveyed amazingly well, you constantly feel that at any moment you may hit a bump in the road and go flying, which happens rather a lot in the beginning.
Once you spend a bit of time with Rallisport Challenge you realise that to succeed you need to have great control of the brakes, handbrake and throttle. Despite being firmly arcade orientated you need to pay attention to the co-driver and use the correct cornering techniques when needed. They may not be the real techniques a rally driver would use, but theyāre what works, and feels right, in Rallisport Challenge. The analogue triggers are used for accelerate and brake, it seems that the Xbox pads a very suited to this control method as they have a large travelling distance and feel very satisfying to use, allowing some very fine throttle control which you need in order to powerslide successfully. This leads to some very fun rallying which weāve not really experienced properly on a console since the original Sega Rally.
Now as good as the controls are they are aided by some great level design. Free from the limits of WRC courses the developers have been able to create 48 unique courses that range around the world. Because theyāre not based on the real life rally stages Digital Illusions have been left free to use their imaginations to come up with courses that work well in the context of a videogame, keeping you on your toes and being fun to drive. The variety of surfaces, sand, ice and everything in between offer their own challenges and experiences that make each and every course a joy to play. The courses are divided into four groups, Rally, Rallycross, Hillclimb and Ice Race.
Rally is pretty much what you would expect, standard point to point racing against the clock as seen in Colin McRae and its ilk. This is a very enjoyable mode with the tension being high as you pass each checkpoint and are updated about your position, despite there being no opponents the racing is as intense as you can get. Rallycross takes advantage of not having to stick to rally rules and sees you race against three other drives on a point-to-point stage. This is intense and is great for multiplayer as you can get some rather spectacular crashes, if you wish to play a bit less than fairly that isā¦ Hillclimb is pretty self explanatory, and it has made an appearance in Gran Turismoās 2 and 3, you take a ridiculously fast car and race it to the top of a very steep hill. Lastly the Ice Race, rather like the Rallycross, but cooler, as you race, somewhat unsurprisingly on ice. However rather than being point to point these races take place on a circuit which introduces a slightly different dynamic into the mist. Oh and itās worth pointing out, bump mapped ice at evening looks absolutely spectacular. This may be a very minor point, but, when you see it, youāll understand what we meanā¦
The main area of the game is the career mode, which is based around various events that you gain points in, for winning, not damaging your car and attaining a high speed. Points you gain then unlock more cars and more rally events, itās a simple idea, but it works well and gives you a good sense of progression and achievement. Sure they could have probably improved it by adding in more of a real career feel, but thatās not really necessary when the driving itself is the main part of the fun. In addition to the career mode there are the usual single race events, time trials and various multiplayer modes, which are eminently playable due to the power of Xbox ensuring a smooth, fast, fun experience.
Weāve alluded to the graphical prowess of this title, but the problem is we could spend hours describing all of the subtle details, like the individual blades of grass, the spectators, the animals, the bump mapped amazingly light sourced road surfaces and the insanely detailed car models, not to mention the smooth frame rate, lack of pop up and the multiplayer mode that looks better than we would have expected one player games to until recently. Overall this is a retina burning experience, the Xbox tricks of texturing and lighting are used to great effect here, the detail on the textures being of particular note. The damage and dirt effects on the car are also very impressive, and nicely when you use the in car view and crash it quickly cuts outside so you can see the full impact, which is pretty cool. However perhaps, if weāre being very critical, and well, it is our job, we could say that the reflection mapping on the cars does not appear to be 100% accurate and the mud that is thrown up still doesnāt quite look like mud. However, that is being very very nitpicking, overall this is one of the best looking games yet released and you will spend your time being very impressed by the replays, and distracted when driving. All we ask for in the future is better reflections and more individual blades of grass, which looking back at Sega Rally which when released in 1995 didnāt even feature true transparency effects, those requests seem rather amazing.
The audio is also up there with the visuals, everything seems to sound correct, crashes have a lot of impact and samples are of the highest quality. Spectatorās cheer and animals make, well, their respective sounds and the rain sounds like rain, all in all everything sounds as you would expect. The music however tends to be rather unspectacular, however given that you can use the hard drive of the Xbox to play your own music the quality of the gameās tunes is rather a moot point.
