Art of Rally

My first session with art of rally lasted three hours longer than I planned, mostly because I kept telling myself I just needed to nail one more hairpin. This is the trap. It looks soft and low-poly and gorgeous, practically screaming "relaxing Sunday drive," and then a slippery Norway stage covered in snow reminds you that the physics underneath that cute exterior are serious business. Funselektor Labs already proved they understood car feel with Absolute Drift, and here they took that foundation and rebuilt it around the full sweep of rally history, from Group 2 cars in the 1960s all the way through Group B, Group S, and Group A in a wonderfully cheeky alternate timeline where Group B was never banned. The career mode is the heart of it. You start in the slower, less intimidating Group 2 machinery and work forward through decades, unlocking cars and liveries as you go. Each group of five series represents a stretch of years, and the stages you race are pulled from locations across Finland, Germany, Japan, Sardinia, Norway, Kenya, Indonesia, and more. Each stage run clocks in at roughly two to five minutes, so the game is genuinely good for short play sessions. The Scandinavian flick, left-foot braking, counter-steering, and handbrake turns are all modeled and rewarded, and there is a real learning curve to each car class as you graduate to faster machinery. The top-down camera is smarter than it sounds: a clever circular window opens whenever your car disappears behind trees or buildings, so you are never flying blind. On PC, a gamepad is strongly recommended, and the game rewards analogue precision the way a keyboard simply cannot deliver. For the modes breakdown: Career, Time Attack, Custom Rally, Free Roam, and daily and weekly online events. Free Roam is the surprise highlight, letting you take any unlocked car into one of the open environments to hunt collectibles and just breathe in the scenery. It works as a palate cleanser between rally stints and as a low-pressure practice space for getting a feel for new cars before committing them to a season. The synthwave-and-80s-beats soundtrack is genuinely excellent and fits the retro aesthetic perfectly. Photo and Replay modes round out a package that has clearly been made by someone who cares about the history of the sport. Fair warnings though. This is a solo experience only. No split-screen, no co-op. For my Saturday-night tournament crowd, art of rally is more of a "take turns, trash talk the person on the couch" game than a four-player simultaneous deal. Career mode also has a pacing issue in the later groups, where seasons stretch to 15-20 stages and stage recycling becomes noticeable. Some players bounce off before they reach the faster cars. Rain and snow surfaces demand a genuinely surgical touch and can feel frustrating until the handling clicks. The good news: the difficulty and assist options are extensive, with brake and throttle sensitivity, stability control, anti-lock brakes, automatic or manual gears, and more all adjustable. There is a legitimate entry point for casual players here, even if the ceiling is very high. If you are a rally fan who has always wanted something between DiRT Rally's intensity and a proper art game, this sits in that gap better than anything else available. If you have zero rally interest but enjoy mastering physical, feel-based driving mechanics with a great soundtrack on, you will probably still find something to love. The free post-launch updates adding Kenya and Indonesia, plus the Australia paid DLC, mean the base game has grown meaningfully since launch and there is no shortage of stages to work through.

Riley · Scout Team

Sports & racing

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