#DRIVE Rally Review (PC) – Little Speed Demons
In real life, I am not a petrolhead. I own an old Audi that somehow miraculously goes, but that’s it. Don’t ask me how the current season of Formula One is going. But when it comes to gaming, I had a fancy for two things: rally games, and diddy little racers. So when #Drive Rally, a follow on of sorts from #DRIVE (that I reviewed here), the interest was certainly piqued.
Ditching the endless runner (endless driver?) style for a fully-controlled rally title, #DRIVE Rally is as it says on the tin. A more arcade affair, it evokes the easy to learn/hard to master style of racing, with some added little twists to keep it engaging.
But does it have the legs to go wheel-to-wheel with the Dirt series, or even on par with art of rally (which I also reviewed here)? Strap in, let’s find out.
Get To The Point-To-Point
Far be it from me to assume anything, but rally as a sport is pretty common one. If not one of fandom, then at least the understanding of how it goes. But if you’re not sure, here’s the gist: drive really fast from point A to point B. Keep the car in one piece, beat the times that other racers have clocked in, and somewhere in there have fun.
What usually happens in these games is players will pick say, a vehicle class or a team. What then proceeds is that player/team will start of in the smaller, less-powerful cars and build their way up the ranks of various rally stages. The premise being that you’ll start of with the basics before you’re throwing Lancia Delta’s round and realising why they became restricted in later years.
In #DRIVE Rally, it’s paced a little differently.
Rallying Up The Tropes
When I say different, I don’t mean wacky hazards, boost strips or anything else from Mario Kart. Instead, I mean the way that players tackle them. Rather than pick a team, a co-driver and work your way through the seasons, your copilot is your season.
Much like Rock ‘n’ Roll Racing back in the day, #DRIVE Rally leans on the stereotypes with no restraint. So, the first car group/season available is the Austrian/Germanic-inspired stages of Holzberg. The co-driver in this is named Hans, and guess who he sounds like: hint, it’s not Christopher Walken.
Then there’s the Stetson-rocking American, the Asian one… yes, they are all as typical as they sound. Adding in flavour commentary on time gates, bumps or off-track incidents, it’s sometimes charming but ultimately wears thin quite quickly.
Fortunately, there is an option that just keeps them formal. So if players don’t want to hear the same jibe about hitting a corner too early repeatedly, it can be toned down.
One Way To Go
Whilst I’ve mentioned the concept of rallying, I haven’t actually gotten into how #DRIVE Rally plays. Well, if you’ve played or seen my review for Pixel Perfect Dude’s #DRIVE, you’ll get the idea. Also, ignore that I didn’t capitalise #DRIVE throughout, it was a different time.
If you’re not familar, it is for lack of a better word quite simple in its execution. Yet simple doesn’t mean bad, with it being easy enough to get the hang of. There’s no fanciness to it: players have accelerate, brake and handbrake for hairpins. That’s pretty much it.
Whichever co-driver will guide them about what’s coming up, and that’s about it. Each level has their own appropriate hazards, but otherwise it’s pretty straightforward. Much like rallying.
The Art Of Rally
You may think that that’s a clever nod to another racer, art of rally… and you’d be right. #DRIVE Rally does share many similarities with the equally adorable racer, one of which is the aesthetic. However, I am not suggesting anything is ripping off the other, I am merely pointing out the styles.
As you can see from the screenshots, everything is all simple colours and shades, from cars to locales. But where art of rally’s cars were modeled fairly accurately, #DRIVE Rally goes for a chunkier, Max Power cartoon-style to its cars. Not excessively, but it gives its non-licensed cars some pop and character.
As players will win races, they’ll unlock new parts that get attached. Things like spoilers, bumpers and trims. These, at least I believe to be (more on that soon), appear to be cosmetic only, adding just visual flair rather than anything technical.
Where’s The Stable?
That’s a horsepower joke, by the way. But it does lead me to one of the biggest issues with #DRIVE Rally: where’s the rest of it? Now, I said earlier that there’s no modding or tweaking of cars. Fine, I get that in an arcade game sense. But when a new part is unlocked, it says “View in garage” (or thereabouts, I’m paraphrasing). However, I cannot for the life of me find a garage. Perhaps this is coming, or perhaps I’m reading it wrong? But there’s no car viewer, no blatantly obvious option to do anything other than race.
Which alright, may seem hypocritical when I say that this is a more arcade-y kind of game, but considering it’s just come out of Early Access it seems off. Other than that, I didn’t really feel like there anything else missing, it just struck me as odd.
In terms of any issues with racing, my only gripe is with the overhead camera. If there’s an archway, or bridge coming up, the camera doesn’t care. That is to say, it doesn’t phase through the object nor move the camera lower for it. So, if you’re absolutely beaning it down a track, and there’s a tight right after going under a bridge: tough.
Other than that. #DRIVE Rally is competent enough in every other aspect. It just feels lacking in content (much like this review).
Stick It In “Go”!
Yet lacking in words as this might be, it’s actually on par with a game like #DRIVE Rally. On the whole, I actually had fun with it, in a pick-up-and-play sense. Given that I reviewed the aforementioned #DRIVE, I was already somewhat aware of what to expect. I knew it wasn’t going to be a ball-busting sim like the more recent Dirt games.
So, if you are looking for something simple to play, and don’t want to break the bank, this is that game. I’m hoping that there will be more content for it, or at least more to play around with than just rallying and free roam.
At the end of the day, sometimes we just need a little bit of basic fun, and #DRIVE Rally is certainly that. If you can get over the accents, anyway.
#DRIVE Rally is available now on PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox One and Series S|X, Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam (review platform).
Developer: Pixel Perfect Dude
Publisher: Pixel Perfect Dude
Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.
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