From arcade games to the most modern home consoles, the Rally driving genre has always been present in front of every amateur gamer. From the legendary Sega Rally to the Colin McRae Rally and its evolution to the Dirt Saga, we have enjoyed many rally games on our Consoles. And today, we turn enthusiastically to our appointment with the annual video game World Rally Championship. The game comes from the hand of KT Racing and Nacon. We can find the game available in the Microsoft Store from today. WRC 10 is the FIA (International Automobile Federation) official video game covering the 2021 season of the World Rally Championship, full of novelties and game modes that will not leave any fan of this motorsport indifferent.
As is usual in driving games, WRC 10 offers us game modes for one player, local multiplayer and online. Within the options for a player, the game offers us a wide range of playable possibilities, the main one being the Career Mode, where we can participate in the world Rally championship while managing our team. As soon as we start this mode, we will choose the starting point, starting from the Junior WRC or the WRC3 mode. The Junior WRC Mode is the most recommended since we will begin with a novice driver and adapt to both the team’s management system and the driving of a Rally car, allowing us to obtain the experience and expertise to leap the modes of WRC.
Once we have selected our starting point and have signed with a team, we will start fully in the races and in the management of our team from a complete menu, where the most important section is the calendar, from which we can plan the events of each week and choose many times between different events for a specific day. Among the available events, we will find training to improve our driving skills, constructor tests to increase our reputation against a specific team and open up transfer possibilities, rally stages, staff rest events and the fantastic extreme conditions events, where we will have than driving a seriously damaged car in extreme weather, among other tests.
Each of these events will grant us money, experience, team morale or reputation with our team. All these parameters are essential for the proper development of our career as drivers and team managers. The money can be invested in repairs for the car and in the payment of salaries of the team members, which will allow us to hire higher-ranking employees. The experience will allow us to improve the driver, the car and the rest of the team. Reputation with our team will influence our relationship with it and will prevent us from being fired. Morale affects the mood and performance of the employees that make up our current team.
We can hire and fire employees as we see fit, considering that their personalities and characteristics will influence how they work with each other, always encouraging us to find the best combination of employees. Still, all this is not a guarantee of success since Tiredness and mood can dent the team’s overall performance. To avoid scares, we may send employees a break or meet team goals to reinforce their trust in us. This allows WRC 10 to present us with one of the most complete Race Modes we have seen, but the single-player modes are not there since we also have the Season Mode, where we can participate in an entire rally season without the need. To manage our team.
In addition, we have the Quick Start Mode, in which we will select between the 2021 stages from which we can choose 11 rallies around the world, each subdivided into its corresponding stages and being able to configure the time of day, the weather conditions and the categories of cars that participate in this stage.
To all this are also added the anniversary commemorative stages and the bonus stages that we can unlock. But that’s not all, since we will have unique challenges with a specific car, test areas to improve our driving skills and configure our vehicle in real-time, and a training mode in a closed circuit in which we can perform exercises that will enhance our driving. As if this seemed not enough, the 50th Anniversary Mode is also present. We will run historical stages of the WRC at the wheel of the cars and drivers who made them mythical, putting us in context about the tracks and competition.
Multiplayer
If the vast offering of single-player modes falls short, WRC 10 also offers a wide selection of local and online multiplayer modes. We will be able to play in split-screen mode, where we will compete with a friend locally, and we will be able to freely choose the rally, the stage, the cars and the weather conditions.
On the online side, we can search for quick games online or create personalized meeting points and compete with players worldwide. We also have Copilot Mode, in which we will go through a rally stage in the role of pilot or copilot with an online player. In this mode, we can choose our part, the language in which we will communicate with our partner, and the stage and category of the race, making it one of the funniest modes of the title. We can also create our club and invite our friends and consult the online leaderboards at any time. But the thing is not there since we also have online events in which we will face daily and weekly challenges against other players and earn points to be at the top of the leaderboard.
Gameplay
When it comes to getting behind the wheel of WRC 10, we will realize that we are facing a rally simulation game, where it will be a challenge in its intermediate difficulty. The game allows us to choose between beginner, intermediate, and expert difficulty. The first is roughly closest to arcade driving, and the last is more similar to driving a real World Rally Car.
From the first moment we step on the accelerator, we become aware of the traction existing between the tire and the ground, feeling the changes between different surfaces on each track, and that is that firm driving on asphalt can be affected at any time by a Shift to slippery gravel, over a pothole, or even through rain or snow. Since the simulation of the irregularities of the terrain, the atmospheric conditions and their implication in the driving or the vehicle’s damages is highly successful. Making this a challenge for both novices and experts, and I tell you in good faith that more than once, my car has tumbled down an embankment in Portugal because of the gravel and the speed.
And it is that after a spectacular accident, we will be able to see and feel the unique system of damage and wear that our vehicle has, since the wear of our wheels by aggressive driving will make us lose control of a tree that is not where it should be—breaking a headlight and the damping of a wheel, leaving us almost blind in the middle of the night. WRC 10 brings us one of the most challenging damage systems I’ve been able to play with. But fear not, because the game has a wide variety of driving aids and difficulty settings for the AI, allowing us to compete against more or less tight times, with various traction and braking aids, as well as the possibility to control the level of damage of the vehicle in the race. This allows the game to be adapted to each player’s needs and thus provide a satisfactory experience and playability.
The engines roar in the field
Visually WRC 10 perfectly fulfills its objective, showing us natural environments full of life, full of fans and drones that accompany the vehicles throughout each stage, which pass through rural settings, towns or circuits. The vehicles have a magnificent modelling and a complete damage system that will allow us to visualize each of the damages suffered in our car instantly. The players can enjoy all this level of detail during the races and in the Showroom, where we can appreciate each of the vehicles with a high level of detail.
The game is optimized for next-gen consoles, allowing us to enjoy it at 60 images per second in balanced mode, 4K Ultra HD in high visual quality mode and a performance mode at 120 images per second. All this with virtually non-existent loading times.
When it comes to sound, WRC 10 fully transports us to the roar of the engines, the amazement of the spectators and the tranquillity of the field, which is altered by the loud noise of the machines, as KT Racing has put a lot of care in Capture the sonic essence of these cars. But not everything stops there, since the ambient noise, the gravel sliding, the skidding of the wheels on the asphalt and the collisions make us feel inside the competition.
Final Thoughts
WRC 10 is a new iteration of the saga that is loaded with content, both for one and for several players, and that reinforces the presence of Rally games with good controls, an audiovisual aspect of completing the whole experience. We are sure that you will enjoy going through its tracks.
