Welcome to the DIRT Rally Ultimate Game Review!

In this Series, I share the very best reviews from our friends in the comment section of Steam. These Reviews left by myself and thousands of other users on the Steam Platform. Every Review is Credited to the Original Poster.

The reason I decided to do this was because most Reviews always seem so one sided, perhaps the Author has an agenda, perhaps they are predjeduce or a bigot. Who knows. With this series, I feel like Gamers, like you and I will get the absolute best experience possible when trying to determine whether the game is for you or not.

So please, sit back and Enjoy the DIRT Rally Ultimate Game Review!

Fantastic Insight to the Rally Genre

By Pywackett-Barchetta

I'd very much enjoyed the Colin McRae Rally series growing up (though I sucked at it), and the DiRT series later on, but I'd hesitated on this title. It seemed like a rather risky investment; it wears its difficulty on its sleeve and is rather uncompromising, so I worried that I'd purchase it only to get frustrated early on. So, some time later, when a friend got a spare copy and handed to me, I was overjoyed to give it a go, and I'm happy to report that it's absolutely spectacular.

There's a lot that can be said about racing games - car lists, track lists, are they fictionalized or real-world recreations, etcetera - but to get this out of the way right quick, the most important and nebulous part is absolutely there; the feel. It feels absolutely fantastic. I usually always play in a third-person camera, but giving the dashcam view a try (expressly for the rewards bonus) felt very immersive and intuitive. Every car feels solidly predictable, like an extension of your own body. Well. Every car that has any chance of being predictable, anyhoo. Group B is like an extension of your own body if you're Octodad. The road surfaces are instantly distinct from one another, and the cars are so wildly disparate that the courses feel completely different with each new beast to tame.

The career mode leaves something to be desired, simply providing 5 tiers of competition for three different disciplines (and a second Rallycross competition based even more heavily on FIA World Rallycross). You purchase cars and manage your engineers, balancing buying out new rides with keeping the staff onboard that can upgrade and repair them. The team management aspect is very fun, but I found myself spending so much on them that I hardly can purchase any vehicles anymore; I'm sure that can be remedied with cheaper staff and better planning, but I'm rather complacent.

The big plus of the career mode is that, unlike GRID Autosport, the online daily/weekly/monthly events are tied into it. You aren't forced to check in constantly or lose a bonus or something; you can just pop in whenever, get handed your rewards for events that have ended, and pick from the list of stuff you want to try next. At least one daily always provides you a car, so you'll always have something to try at minimum. It is risky to try to sustain yourself on just online events, though; not only do the payouts take longer to arrive rather than being instant, they're also rather meager unless you consistently make it to top-tier.

It does provide an excellent glimpse at the variety the game has to offer, though, often nudging you into cars and courses you might not have tried otherwise. I've found some new favorites through there, such as the Hyundai Rally (which appears to be a halfway-debadged i20) and the Focus '07. You can end up in events way above your skill level, though. The first thing I ever played in this was a run through the entirety of Pikes Peak.

So, the core of the game, the one in the title, the Rally, is absolutely fantastic. If you play for a long while, you'll eventually find some repetition in the stages; they're all lined up over the same small areas. The sense of speed is something incredible, and the sound design is especially gorgeous, hearing every little clunk and flutter of the car. It nails the sensation and the difficulty of a rally race while also subtly filing off a few rough edges that'd make it a bit less fun. You'll find it's a bit harder to get caught in a rollover than it would be in reality, and all mistakes that force your car to be reset onto the course will cost you a flat 15 second penalty, even if it was from going straight off a cliff or greeting a cameraman with your hood at 130mph (no actual impact happens, don't worry. Or if you're the Carmageddon type, sorry 'bout that).

The co-driver's voice work is excellent, as it would be for someone that's both a member of the staff and an actual co-driver. Superficially, I'm disappointed that he completely fails to react to impacts and falls, unless something's broken on the car that wouldn't be conveyed otherwise like a punctured tire. The timing also feels off on occasion, sometimes hurriedly notifying you of a jump followed by a right turn while you're already in midair, but this can be adjusted somewhat. It's also worth noting that you will have to learn the 1-6 system; no "long easy left" here.

Which brings me to the main plus of this, the one strong design choice I absolutely love. DiRT Rally is, above all, unforgiving, but not cruel. It doesn't hesitate to put you through a trial by fire, but it'll absolutely make sure you can make it through before it does so. The tutorials are only videos, sadly, but they're very informative. The early difficulty simply encourages you to get better, quite often successfully, not giving you the option just to crank the settings down and coast easily. It's just immensely satisfying to do it properly, and rally, of all disciplines, especially benefits from that edge-of-your-seat thrill of knowing one errant twitch is going to end your run in disastrous fashion, making you feel like a true badass for making it through unscathed at top speed.

Even less forgiving than Rally is Hillclimb. It's usually an afterthought in these sorts of games, with only a single course, but as Hillclimb is all about learning and mastering the one course, it tends to work. When that one course is Pikes Peak, that works fantastically. You're given a trio of classic rides to choose from, and while you've got one massive, sprawling course to learn, it's served in a few different flavors, being chopped up into three segments or in full, and being paved (as it is now), unpaved (as it used to be), or a mix of both. Again, there's no easy trick here. You just have to learn your car and learn the course, and when you've got a good line down, it's massively satisfying.

Massively unsatisfying, sadly, is Rallycross. Having the official license of the FIA World Rallycross series, which is an absolutely fantastic and exciting racing series that's really hitting a stride of popularity now, it's surprisingly underwhelming, mostly due to not actually resembling either real rallycross or the fictionalized races of DiRT past. There's three locations with seven variants, each necessitating a Joker lap, and plenty of aggressive opponents. Hyperaggressive opponents. Unrealistically, horrifically aggressive opponents that actually violate just about every contact rule in the book, smashing you and each other out of the way like it's... well, a certain few other sims I don't care much for. Instead of finding a line and adapting to the pack, I've found the only way to actually win is to drive like a homicidal moron, taking corners by plowing straight into your opponents. It's... kind of awful, and it's an entire chunk of the game wasted. Still, the time trials on those courses are fun enough, at least.

That all being said, and Sweden's infuriating snowbanks being noted (gotta ease up on the throttle, but there's no way to really learn that but the hard way), my other problems with the game have mostly been the limit on setups you can download from Workshop (which, I mean, 100 isn't a cap I shouldn't have hit anyways), and occasional framerate hitching that the benchmark tool doesn't even pick up. I have sunk so much time into this, and I've gained a lot more respect for the art of rally racing in the process. If you're willing to climb a higher difficulty curve, I think you'll find this well worth your time and effort, and it provides a nice way to ease from arcade/simcade racing into more realistic sims.

The Good and Bad

By SecretAgent:KiiN

RECOMMENDATION:
*Yes, if you willing to master driving skill, enjoy customize car setting, buy it!
*No, if you looking for casual racing, DiRT3 game mode, don't buy it!

GAME IMPRESSION:
First 2 hours, keep tuning & setting gamepad...
After 6 hours, community only has expert player remain, no casual gamer?
After 9 hours, snow rally makes me rage quit
After 12 hours, I want to buy more car!! More Car!!
After 15 hours, new car alway hard to drive, until advance setup unlocked become more easy
After 18 hours, fully upgraded 2 car!
After 21 hours, found casual gamer & become friend, but they don't seem active in this
After 24 hours, seeing expert player getting better record... how about me?
After 28 hours, damn... i cant sell this car, the wheel is so freaking hard to drive!!!
After 37 hours, this game is real good rally game :D
After 45 hours, I haven't finish this game
After 50 hours, I haven't learn to drive safely...
After 60 hours, new personal best!!
After 70 hours, to continue enjoy this game, must buy a right car to drive!

COMPLETION TIME:
*Rushed play style: Around 35 hours
*Leisure play style: Around 350 hours+
*Each stage of playing: 3-9 minutes

GAME DIFFICULTY:
( _ ) Adjustable on new game
( ✔ ) Adjustable on each stage (Custom championship)
( _ ) Adjustable in mid game
( _ ) Not adjustable
( _ ) Game made for casual gamer
( ✔ ) Game made for average gamer
( ✔ ) Game made for professional
( ✔ ) Unlockable startup customization
( ✔ ) Set higher difficult to increase reward
( ✔ ) Penalty if objective failed

GAME FEATURES:
( ✔ ) Online Player versus Player
( _ ) Online Cooperative
( ✔ ) Online Leaderboards (Friends Ranking)
( ✔ ) Online Daily / Weekly / Monthly Challenges
( ✔ ) Level-up to unlock Upgrades
( ✔ ) Earn something to buy more upgrade
( ✔ ) Linear Career
( _ ) Alternative Career
( _ ) Random level generated
( ✔ ) Random opponent/track selected
( ✔ ) Score Attack / Personal Best
( ✔ ) Statistic Progression
( _ ) Microtransactions
( _ ) Split Screen / Local Coop
( _ ) Open World (Fast Travel Around)
( ✔ ) Mod Support
( ✔ ) Steam Achievements (total: 170)
( ✔ ) Steam Trading Cards
( ✔ ) Steam Cloud Save
( ✔ ) Valve-Anti-Cheat System
( ✔ ) Controller Support
( ✔ ) VR Support

GAME FOCUS:
( ✔ ) Custom Event
( ✔ ) Time Attack / Time Trial
( ✔ ) Sprint
( _ ) Drift
( _ ) Eliminator
( _ ) Overtake
( _ ) Traps Setting
( _ ) Highway Races
( _ ) Street Races
( _ ) Circuit Races
( ✔ ) Climb Hill / Down Hill
( ✔ ) OffRoad (Forest / Cave / Canyon)
( ✔ ) Vehicle Repair
( ✔ ) Weather Attack
( ✔ ) Complex Car Setting
( ✔ ) Driver Seat Camera
( _ ) Ghost Car
( _ ) Nitrous / Super Boost
( _ ) Time Rewind
( ✔ ) Controller Vibration

ONLINE POPULATION:
( _ ) >20 weekday >100 weekend
( _ ) >5 weekday >10 weekend
( ✔ ) >1 weekday >3 weekend
( _ ) 0 weekday 0 weekend
( ✔ ) Online is fun, but preferably offline
( _ ) Online is imbalance, preferably offline
( _ ) Online is bored, preferably offline
( ✔ ) Online is empty, have to play offline

GAME TYPE:
*Offline:
Career Mode have 3 type of race: Rally Stages, RallyCross, Climb Hill Event
Custom Campaign (Randomly generated & non-selectable location)
Custom Event (Timetrial to test drive all the car, but no reward)

*Online:
PvP RallyCross / Championship RallyCross (Yes, no rally)
Daily, Weelky, Monthly challenges (word ranking reward)
Create / Join a Leagues

LIKES:

VAC ban for cheater! No hacker :)
Career Mode is random stage selected
Long rally (5-10min each race)
Very much differences on each location
Bonus reward without restart a race
Bonus reward if reduce driving assistant / drive with no HUD
Jokerlap Mode in RallyCross! Drive into extra piece of road at least once
Awesome sound effect and ambient! We can hear the sand, suspension, wind, grass!
Allow to rent car for play online event
Allow 10 shakedown before each location
Unlock slot for hire engineers to make repair efficient
Prepare more credits to hire variety engineers
Good engineers have stage limitation agreement, pay them to stay with ya
Create / join a Leagues to play with friends (https://www.dirtgame.com/leagues)
Sometime have special event that play online challenge for extra long rally stages
Automatic upgrade on current vehicle (Engine, Turbo & Weight deduction)
Buy perk to have faster upgrades
Tyre will wore off if driver is too furious
Terminal damage cause you retire from the race
Each end of race you need to pay the damage you caused
Adjustable clutch
Many camera view
Very good replay camera position
Dark night!
Car lamp is breakable at night!!!
Variety of sound volume setting
Variety of vibration & feedback for controller
Many video tutorial help to understand driving skill
Plenty of car allow to purchase, need to choose wisely...
No more truck or buggy vehicle
steam workshop have car setup available to insert to our rally

DISLIKES:

Personal best only show after a race
No ghost car
No opponent car on the road
No rally event for multiplayer like DiRT 3
No Time Rewind
No female co-driver like DiRT 3
Some car is user-friendly to drive, some is nightmare :/
Heavy Penalty (7-15 sec)
RallyCross is not fun
Driving assistant is not helpful
Cannot sell the car already in garage
Car crash around the crowd do not have reaction like DiRT 3, they yell
Slower acceleration on car reset
Slower reverse speed
If you are slow, the split time remind you on every section
No practical tutorial, player just have to watch the vids to learn driving
Alway compare to world record :/
Only manual repair, no auto repair

QUALITY SCORE
Graphic (2015) A
Cinematic B-
Contents Volume A
Artistic B+
Level Design B+
Sound & Music A
Realistic Animated A
Online Value A
Replay Value A+
Bug-free A
Overall A

BEST PRICE HISTORY:
70% off, since June 2017

WORTH BUYING:
( ✔ ) Yes, normal price worth it!
( _ ) Yes, but too expensive
( _ ) No, this game have no further improve
( _ ) No, because i didn't know the value of this game

WORTH BUYING WITH DLC?
( _ ) Yes, base game + individual DLC
( _ ) Yes, base game + Season Pass (all DLC)
( _ ) No, DLC is different value
( ✔ ) No DLC
( _ ) DLC is included

A Hype Review

By Weeddrunken

9.5/10
"OMFG, Colin McRae Rally is finally back!"
First Impression OMFG is this real?! Yes it is!!! It's awesome to finally be able to play a true rally game after all these years. The controls are definitely far away from the arcade-ish one of Dirt 1,2,3. The length of the tracks is great - and not as short as the ones in the old DIRTs. And the tracks have a whole lot more than just "4" different curve types - as you might remember it from WRC 4. Dirt Rally is definitely the best rally racing game out there, and after a fast EarlyAccess phase it's already finished!

Pros:

great grameplay
great controls/handling
great car physcis
very good graphics
great sound
great rally-tracks
great co-pilot
great difficulty
no "rewinds"
best time on tracks "friend-highscore"
devs kept their word!
driving wheel & controller support

Cons:

none
"Wish": I'd love to see more countries/tracks

DIRT Rally is simply the best rally sim out there. Or in other words: "Colin McRae Rally is finally back!". Every rally fan can definitely grab this one.

Final Verdict:

/100

I think it's easy to say if you're a fan of the racing genre, in particular Rally. This one is for you.
90% of the people that played this seemed to absolutely love it, from novices to professionals. This may be for you!

Thanks for Reading the Review!

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DIRT Ralley - The Ultimate Game Review