WRC 9

It’s been a few years since I played a game in the WRC
series, WRC 6 to be exact on the Xbox One. And I remember
exactly that I wasn’t too impressed after trying it out.
Since then Codemasters has held the crown pretty much
when it comes to Rally, F1, Motorsporting in general.

But, here comes the but.. with WRC 9 there is
definitely a new contender on the block, whom is going
to fight for the Motorsport game of the year in my opinion.

Not since Dirt 4 & Dirt 2.0 have I been this excited
again to play a rally game, KT Racing has definitely
managed to make an interesting title this year, that
is not only just about racing, but also managing your team
within the career, hiring skilled people, spending
resource points to improve your skills, etc even how
well your team reads the weather forecasts for the
races.

There is plenty to dabble with in here, as you can
see from the screenshots above, that the skill trees
kind of resemble an RPG adventure, though it sounds
complicated, all the managing aspects of the team
is very straight forward and easy to deal with, that
is as long as your morale is high, a.k.a you are winning
and getting funds in, as no team runs on a 0$ budget.

Besides playing the career mode with Management features
you can play the official WRC seasons, focus on challenges,
and there is a ton of challenges to part take in if you
so wish. Quick play for single races, and even Test Areas
and Training modes are standard..

From an online point of view the game offers you the standard
Multiplayer Online modes, but also Online events,
and chosen rallies to part take in.. right now at the time
of writing the Monte Carlo rally is the one running.
And for those, who love challenging a couch-friend,
there is also the splitscreen option, so you can fight it out.

Everything within the game is accurately represented, with
over 50 teams from WRC, WRC 2-3 and Junior WRC support
classes to pick and choose from, The official 2020 WRC
season is represented with almost 900km of roads to drive on
as the initial rally season schedule intended.

If that is not enough, you have legendary special stages,
more than a 100 to play through on top of everything.

KT racing has also made a promise for free regular content
to WRC 9 so, we’re definitely getting spoilt here for how
much there is to do within the game, and more is coming.

I was amazed by how differently all the cars drive,
When you start you career in the beginning, you are pretty
much in for a hectic schedule, with targets to reach and
rallies to part take in, not only that but also manufacturer
try outs and extreme weather tests, this meant that you
pretty much drive a new car depending on your schedule
selections, each and every time you head out.

Not only that the cars drive differently, the feel already
is fantastically conveyed to a regular Xbox controller
that I have been playing the game with, be it snow
you can feel how slippery the surface is, but also feel
the grip a newer racing car has, and driving a 80’s rally
car meant you can really feel the power and the lack of
grip going into corners, this definitely keeps you on your
toes as you try to adapt into each car how they handle, I
was really positively surprised how good it all felt, now
add in all the fantastic engine noises with the blinding
speed of going 200kph at a narrow forest road with mere
inches to your each side.. flying over bumps while trying
to focus on what your co-driver is telling you is coming
up, it all feels like a solid package for WRC 9.
So kudos to KT-Racing, they have managed to put together
a racing game that feels fast, great control, and with
so many activities to part take in, that you almost
feel overwhelmed at what you should do next (in a good way).

On my review rig that I have played the game with a i5-9400
and 16GB of Ram paired with a RTX 2060, playing the game on
1440p and a mix of Medium / HIGH settings runs perfectly
smooth at +60fps. I encountered some mid track odd frame dips
as something it felt like was loading in, but those were
rare and few, and most likely will be patched out if it’s
something that is a known “problem”.

While all the race cars, locations and even your HQ where
you prepare for everything looks nice, I do have to point
out that it felt a bit odd looking at almost Mannequins
when you are on top of the podium celebrating your victories.
This is definitely something KT-Racing dropped the ball a
bit with, it’s not the end of the world, but overall feels
when the game is so polished and well done, it’s a bit of an
odd feeling looking at your characters like they are stale
wax dolls in their expressions.

 

Final word

WRC 9 is a massive game, it looks good when you ramp up
all the details, it feels great when you drive and get
an understanding of each the cars, it sounds just brilliant.
it’s got more content to play with challenges, legendary
races, seasons, career mode, multiplayer.. than you could
hope for. If you are a racing fan, don’t miss out on WRC 9.
If you are on the fence about WRC 9, don’t be.. give it
a shot, I am sure you will like it, while it’s challenging
it’s a ton of fun (and you can set the difficulty to suit you).

9
Out Of 10
Pros
  • Filled with modes
  • Sound & Feel
  • Classic rally
  • Team micromanagement
  • Tons of cars & tracks
Cons
  • Some frame dips
  • Crowd / Podium people look odd

Thank you to the Publisher for the review code.

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