Dakar Desert Rally - Season Pass (DLC)

I'll be straight with you: reviewing a Season Pass always comes with a caveat, and this one is no different. The value here is entirely tied to how much you enjoy the base game, so let me give you the honest picture of both before you commit. Dakar Desert Rally itself is a mixed bag that has genuinely improved since launch. It launched with a bumpy reputation (around 57% positive on Steam, for reference), and a lot of the early criticism was fair. The base game ships with Sport mode, a more arcade-friendly experience with checkpoints and head-to-head racing, and a Professional mode where you navigate using a roadbook, just like real Dakar pilots do. Simulation mode, the most hardcore tier, is locked behind XP level 25, which frustrated sim fans who had to grind through easier content to reach it. The handling model varies wildly by vehicle class: trucks feel weighty and satisfying, while quads were widely criticised for spinning out unpredictably. Bikes and cars sit somewhere in the middle. The physics never quite reach WRC levels of fidelity, but accessibility assists and simulation presets mean casual players are not completely locked out. There is no quick-play mode, though, so expect to commit to a career structure if you want to get the most out of the garage progression. What the Season Pass adds is substantial on paper. Immediate day-one unlocks include the DAF Truck Turbo-Twin and the Peugeot 405 Turbo 16, two vehicles with real Dakar heritage. Beyond those, the pass bundles five DLC packs that rolled out post-launch, covering additional vehicles including the all-wheel-drive Porsche 959 and the six-wheel Tatra 815 truck from the Classics Vehicle Pack, plus two new Rally Events. The headline piece is the USA Tour map: a 256-square-kilometre open world across the American West and Southwest, with locations inspired by the Grand Canyon, Nevada desert, and Yellowstone National Park, adding 20 new Sport mode stages and 12 Professional mode stages. That is a genuine chunk of extra terrain and race content, not just a cosmetic drop. From a hardware standpoint, the base game supports a wide range of steering wheels, and wheel users consistently report a better time with the handling model than gamepad players do. For Xbox One players specifically, there are reports of occasional frame-rate dips compared to Series X, so manage expectations if you are on older hardware. Online multiplayer supports up to four players, though this is competitive racing rather than couch co-op, so it is less of a Saturday-night party game and more of a "settle a grudge with your rally-obsessed mate" situation. The Season Pass represents the complete post-launch content roadmap, now fully delivered since the USA Tour was the final DLC drop. If you picked up the base game at launch and have been sitting on the fence about extra content, the bundled discount versus buying each pack individually makes it the rational call. If you are new to the game entirely, look for the Deluxe Edition instead, which bundles everything together. Either way, temper expectations around the physics and the grind-gated modes, because the Season Pass does not fix those core quirks.

Riley · Scout Team

Sports & racing

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