I was not all over the track as I was in the past WRC games that I tried. As I started to play my career, and check out tracks in single race mode, I started to feel how much the driving physics have improved.
Something that has kept me away from the WRC series as a whole has been the actual driving/control of the vehicles, which frustrated me. It is a nice ‘distraction’ that allows players step away from the depth of career or season mode and it is something you can do when you only have a small amount of time. They are wide and varied in their tasks, from beating certain times on specific rally stages, driving in specific weather conditions (extreme conditions) to completing various training to name a few. In addition, there is also a stand-alone challenge mode, which is a series of 50 challenges where you must beat each challenge and earn enough points to open subsequent challenges. You will also find the ability to do single races should you want to check out a certain track in a certain locale. Call it career lite should you wish, as it is a great way to do something meaty but without the depth and commitment of the career mode. In this mode, you choose the number of events and the locations you wish, and then challenge the AI to a ‘season’ of racing. If you are looking for something a bit lighter but with the scope of a long-term event, you can choose to race in season mode. Be prepared to spend a lot of time picking the right perk on the right branch as it will cost you $25K to refresh your skill tree and start again. The tree’s perks include such things as being able to increase your XP gains, having your agent find you more team tryouts, boosting morale, unlocking more team staff and of course gains for your vehicles in various areas. There are four areas and they are crew, team, performance and reliability. It is here that you spend your XP points (levelling up one level equates to one point). What really surprised me was the depth of the game’s skill tree, which is the R&D of your career. In terms of the latter, team members will not last all career, and recruiting and hiring replacements is a key task for you to manage.
I enjoyed the fact that when going through the career mode, you get to make the choices that matter, from which event you participate in to hiring more skilled and more reliable staff. It is a deeper mode than most will be accustomed to, but it really does allow you to feel like you are managing every aspect of your career. mechanics, engineers, agent, meteorologists, financial advisors and more), choosing your events, reading emails, paying bills, etc. This includes, but not limited to, R&D, hiring new team staff (e.g. It is also here that you will be in control of all aspects of your racing life. The meat of WRC 9 is found in the career mode where you can start in the Junior WRC class. If you are looking for a more casual experience, then there are other options available. If you don’t there is an ability to restart the stage, and thank goodness for the SSD on the Xbox Series X, as the restarts are instant. Luckily, there is a difficulty slider however, it will not make the game a cakewalk, as you still will need to make sure you keep your rally car on the road, in bounds and pointed straight ahead. WRC 9 is not an arcade-based racing game, think of it as more of a simulation, being that there is a lot of micromanagement in the career mode and that the driving is unforgiving. I have dabbled in past WRC games, especially those that have been included in Xbox’s Game with Gold monthly downloads however, not this most recent one, so, this review will cover gameplay and features. I received a press release a short while ago with details about the “next-gen” upgrades to the game, and I thought it would be good to cover the game as a whole on the Series X. I want to preface this review with the fact that I did not play WRC 9 when it first released.
WRC 9 was released in early September 2020 however, since then Microsoft launched the Xbox Series X and Series S and KT Racing, along with its publisher Nacon, recently released an upgrade to the game allowing it to take advantage of new hardware and features. There is another developer though that has the official World Rally Championship license, and that developer is KT Racing who have been working on the series since WRC 5.
Codemasters and their DiRT series is widely known as the place to go for video game versions of this off-road racing game. Rally racing is a sport that requires nerves of steel, insane driving skills and is usually not something the ‘average’ person thinks of as a popular racing sport.