trend setter for rally games. drive from the snow filled swedish tracks to the dust and mud of Kenya and much more.
The game offered a rally experience that was at the time unimaginable.
The game offers a variety of cars selected from the WRC teams and with lots of countries to choose from.
Each car offers its own unique feel, that's also affected by the driving terrain you would be racing on. So some cars would perform better on the tarmac tracks while others would be better on gravel while still some are all rounded with great performances on most tracks, from snow to gravel to tarmac.
The countries and tracks featured in the game are those that were on the official WRC calendar for the year 2002..this gives a mix of different racing surfaces, from the slippery icy tracks of Monaco, through the snow covered Sweden to the dust and gravel of the Safari rally of Kenya. One is spoilt for choice in the quick race option with so much to choose from.
To add to the varied conditions of different tracks, the weather change makes things even more interesting... a rainy tarmac track handles completely different form a dry track, altered visibility in the fog keeps your speed down and concentration at the maximum while clear sunny skies lets you push your car to near limits.
The most interesting aspect of the game is undoutabely the career. You get to launch yourself into career mode as one of the WRC drivers (of whom there are many to choose from).
Car realism physics are not the best but still impressive. Bumping into rails and rocks around corners damages various components in your car adding to the general wear and tear of components such as your braking and suspension systems. This ultimately affects the overall handling of your chosen car affecting among other things, its handling and speed. This should keep you from just driving recklessly with the aim of reaching the finish. Time spent in the garage is limited and not coming after every race (depending on the difficulty of your career). A time penalty from this would seriously jeopardize your overall chance of winning.
As far as difficulty goes, the main difference between novice to expert difficulty skills is the split times in the races and that there is no car damage in novice. The harder skills push you to drive faster and more carefully as you try and beat the set split times in a race.
Single player is better than two player option with added co-driver directions assistance. Fully grasping co-driver directions would mean the difference of being at the top throughout the race calendar and tagging at the very bottom.
Two player split screen is interesting but nothing much to write about. Your opponent's car appears as a ghost (white shallot) on your half of the screen. Your aim being to beat them through the race split stage times.
All in all WRC was a trend setter of its time that saw an evolution of rally games to what they are now. A collector's item.