Swedish developer Digital Illusions has earned a strong reputation for delivering true-to-life arcade action, from its outstanding line of pinball sims to the bent-for-hell racing mayhem in Motorhead. And that fast-paced arcade-action heritage shines just a bit too brightly in Rally Masters: Michelin Race of Champions, which will undoubtedly be compared to the brilliant Mobil 1 British Rally Championship.
On the surface, Rally Masters has everything needed to be a first-rate simulation: a ton of real-life drivers and cars, a highly detailed reproduction of the Michelin Race of Champions track, real-world locations for other events, and breathtaking scenery and car graphics. But if you dig deeper into the game, you'll find that Rally Masters can become frustrating on several different levels. The problems aren't necessarily enough to keep the game from being fun to play and pleasing to look at, but they are enough to keep it from seriously challenging Mobil 1 British Rally Championship as the leader in rally sims.
The game's main event is a re-creation of the 1999 Race of Champions, held in the Canary Islands on a looped figure-eight track where the top finishers during the World Rally Championship season go head-to-head in identical cars. Whoever wins a best-of-three match advances to the next round, and the loser earns points that determine final standings. It's mildly disappointing that the quarter-finals feature the same seven drivers as in the other races (while several drivers who competed in 1999 were omitted), but since these aren't exactly household names for most players, it's not a big deal.
What might take more getting used to is just how difficult it is to control a rally car screaming down a looped, walled circuit. Such a design is probably great for the fans who fill the stands, but it's so cramped compared with road rallying that it's easy to get flustered as you slide into walls while the computer opponents navigate the track with amazing ease. Your best bet is simply not to tackle this track until you're adept in the other events.
If you're having trouble in the Race of Champions, you probably don't want to practice by starting in the championship mode - it's identical to the ROC but comprises events in six countries (Italy, Sweden, Indonesia, USA, Great Britain, and the Canary Islands). Just as with the ROC, all drivers are given identical cars chosen at random, but here you're initially limited to Formula 2 cars. If you win in that class, and you step up to WRC and finally to the Legend category, the cars become faster and the opponents get more challenging along the way.
Perhaps the game's most interesting mode is the challenge cup, which is held on circuits in five of the six countries featured in the Championship - only the Canary Islands aren't included. Again, you're limited to F2 cars when you start out, and the competition begins with a quarter-final round divided into two races - but this time you share the road with the competition. Place first or second in the quarter-finals, and you advance to the semifinals against the top two finishers from the other race.
Unfortunately, your starting position in the semis isn't affected by how well you do in the first round: After crushing the opposition in a quarter-finals cup race, I found myself on the second row behind the guy who came in second to me in the previous race. On top of that, he ran a whole lot better in the semis than he did in the previous race, probably because the circuit is inexplicably reversed the second time around (a significant detail that isn't mentioned in the manual). Then, if you reach the finals, you've got to race yet again on parallel tracks.
Finally, there's the trophy mode, which puts you on the road all by yourself to see how fast you can finish each stage of a long and hazardous course - the kind of rallying you're probably used to. Apparently this is the only mode that models car damage, but don't get too worried, because it seems to be just for show. Even a head-on into a brick wall has a nominal effect on performance. You'd have to be a true Harvey Wallbanger to have trouble making all the necessary repairs in the allotted time at the end of certain stages.
You've got to admire Rally Masters for offering so many ways to race, as well as for providing such gorgeous scenery to view while doing it, not to mention impressive effects like dust, smoke, rain, and working front and rear lights. All cars look highly realistic, and though the damage physics model isn't accurate at all, it's still nice to see cracked windshields and crumpled fenders as a result of your car getting hit. It's possible that the damage was downplayed because the computer opponents are incredibly aggressive even on the medium difficulty setting: If this game accurately portrays rally racing, then Neal Bates, Jesus Puras, and other rally drivers must be certifiable lunatics in real life.
Rally Masters' heavy focus on parallel circuits, its unrealistic damage modeling, and a console-style menu design will grate on the nerves of some rally fans. For instance, just about every mode in Rally Masters puts you in a random car. Mastering the handling and gear shifting of each car is tough enough without having someone switching rides on you, and some cars just aren't as much fun to drive. The manual does point out that you can select your car of choice in a single rally, but it only works in the "one race" mode, not the "one event" mode. Furthermore, the lack of mouse support for the in-game menus is a pain, because players who have steering wheel peripherals must keep reaching over their rig to make menu choices or to adjust the response curve in hopes of achieving better control.
In addition, Rally Masters' force-feedback support is very weak even when the settings are raised to maximum feedback in the Windows control panel, and no attempt has been made to use the force feedback to simulate the loss of traction. In fact, Rally Masters' braking system is suspect: It brakes the tires, but it also reduces your RPMs.
Rally Masters features TCP/IP support for LAN and Internet play, as well as a nifty address book that lets you store the IP addresses of servers where you can compete. Without any official online matching service such as Mplayer or GameSpy, it'll be up to fans to create sites containing server lists to download into the address book.
If you can find Rally Masters at a low price, then it can be a good addition to your library of rally games - provided you're a fan of head-to-head racing on parallel circuits. However, if you're looking for a full-blown rally simulation, don't expect this one to replace Mobil 1 British Rally Championship.
