WRC 9 the AUTOhebdo test

After an excellent WRC 8, the French studio KT Racing offers us this year a game that goes even further. But can it cope with the Dirt Rally 2.0 benchmark?

Published on 10/09/2020 à 15:14

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By Laurent DEHEPPE

The undisputed and undisputed master of gaming rally, it's Codemasters and its Dirt Rally 2.0. Very far from its arcade productions (F1 2020, Project Cars 3, Dirt 5), the English publisher, to whom we owe Colin McRae Rally on PlayStation 1, has always known how to keep its hand in its favorite field.

Dirt Rally 2.0 consists of kilometers of special stages in various countries around the world, a range of categories ranging from Gr.B to R5 via Gr.A, but also WRX. In short, no studio had until then been able to match the level of Dirt Rally.

Nevertheless, last year, the French studio KT Racing with WRC 8 had been able to get very close to the master stallion thanks to a real “racing” proposal. Having the official license is not a guarantee of making a good game and the French at KT understand this very well.

Before even embarking on a special stage, you will have to assign a button to the windshield wipers because in WRC 9, the windshield becomes smudged very quickly.

The real work on WRC 8 was to make the gameplay as realistic as possible. And it is clear that the result was more than honorable.

We couldn't wait to see what WRC 9 had in store for us and we can already tell you that things are going in the right direction.

Evolved gameplay

This year, the driving feeling is even better and, strangely, perhaps less sharp than on version 8. KT Racing has evolved the aero part, but also the suspension of the car to make it more lively.

The FFB feedback (Force Feed Back, for players with a steering wheel) is perfectly optimized. We clearly feel the loss of grip when the surface or weather changes. On dirt as well as on asphalt, it's a real pleasure.

But that's not all: the subtlety of the information in the steering wheel (DD1 Fanatec Direct Drive for us) is really present. Who knows if it's because Fanatec is a partner of the game, just like Thrustmaster is with its T-GT on Gran Turismo, the fact remains that the driving is intended to be more fluid, finer and therefore more pleasant, but above all more nuanced.

Before each rally start, you can choose your tires according to the weather conditions, but also adjust your car.

You can feel the work of the tires without any problem when you push the car a little. For your information, the studio even went so far as to put its “physics designer” in an i20 WRC during the German Rally so that he could see how this type of body behaves “in real life”.

The funny thing is that the good man was even annoyed at braking the cars so much in the game, for fear that it would be labeled as arcade, which of course is not the case... on the contrary! WRC 9 remains a demanding game where the slightest misstep can send you to the bottom of the rankings (if you activate realistic damage of course).

Still on the gameplay front, no virtual reality this year again and that's a shame, because a rally in VR is still quite an adventure. Which Dirt Rally 2.0 has understood well since the Codemasters title is 100% compatible in VR on PC.

Before each special start there is a little animation.

Career and season without upheaval

In terms of career and Season fashion, we can't say that things are changing much, apart from the arrival of Kenya, New Zealand and Japan. If you've played WRC 8, you won't get lost in other rallies.

The difference between the two modes is in the ancillary activities, excluding rallying. So you start in WRC Junior or WRC 3 and off you go for the first rally of the season with 4 special stages on the program and assistance.

At the end of each test, depending on your results, you obtain skill points that you must allocate in 4 very distinct departments. “Performance” “Team” “Stable” and “Reliability”. It's up to you to choose the department you prefer.

The WRC 9 interface is the same as that of WRC 8. You don't change something that works!

You also have to take care of the guys on the team: physiotherapists, engineers, financiers, etc., the most important being your meteorologist since the game has evolving weather. It is therefore possible to start a special on slicks and quickly find yourself in the rain. Hence the importance of knowing before departure what sauce you are going to be served with!

Despite everything, we would have preferred a much more complex car in the event of a poor tire choice. Being on slicks in the rain is hell. In the game, not so much... Still in Career mode, unlike Season mode, additional activities are offered: manufacturer tests, rest periods, but also maintenance so that your car is at its best during the next test.

Nothing really new in short, even if the objective of WRC 9 is not at all to optimize the Career mode which favors offline play (i.e. not online on the net), but rather to go out into the field community, Esport and multiplayer.

Community orientation

What was really lacking in the previous opus was the Clubs which allow you to create an event with various specials over a specific period. Basically, you can create your championship either with friends in a closed club, or with a club open to all. This principle already exists on Dirt rally 2.0. There, from the game interface, you do as you wish, the number of clubs in which you can ride being limited to 4.

From this point of view, it is a big leap forward. Where the game is still a little tight is in the daily and weekly tests. We explain to you: every day, you can participate in a special and every week in a rally.

At the top, in addition to the co-driver's audio notes, graphics show you the following turns.

The problem ? You can do the special as many times as you want, just like the rally. It would have been necessary to have a “one shot” for the challenge to be more intense. It would also have been nicer to have several stages per day with different types of cars required. Which Dirt Rally 2.0 does again very well. Even if we remain a little unsatisfied from this point of view, WRC 9 is evolving this year and in the right direction. The main thing is there: the driving feeling! From this point of view, WRC 9 easily compares well with its illustrious rival.

Verdict

WRC 9 continues its momentum with the arrival of Clubs for a more community orientation. On the gameplay side, it's still just as immersive and the pleasure of controlling slides or even being glued to the ground is still wonderful.

What makes <span style="font-family: 'arial black', 'avant garde';">inlingua</span> different

The level design

The Gameplay

The arrival of the clubs

The -

No VR on PC

Too much grip on slicks in the rain

Only one daily test

Rating: 18/20