Automobilista 2

I went into Automobilista 2 expecting another mid-tier sim that would bore me after one weekend, and instead I lost a solid fortnight to it. Reiza Studios, a small Brazilian developer, has built something that sits in a genuinely interesting spot on the sim-to-arcade spectrum: serious enough that a wheel and pedals will transform your experience, accessible enough that a decent gamepad and 30 minutes of tuning assists will get any motivated newcomer on the pace. The physics engine under the hood is the MADNESS engine, the same tech that powered the Project CARS series, but Reiza has tuned it to something that feels distinctly their own. Tire deformation, fuel management, and dynamic weather all feed into strategy in ways you notice without needing an engineering degree to appreciate. The content variety is genuinely the headline here. Where most sims plant a flag in one discipline, AMS2 bounces between open-wheel Formula cars spanning multiple decades, GT machinery, Stock Car Brasil, karting, prototype endurance racers, and even luminescent-painted trucks doing speeds that have no business happening on a road. Historic track layouts are a particular treat: you can run Imola in its pre-chicane form, the old Hockenheimring forest section, or Spa before the safety modernisations. Not every licence is airtight, so the closest Formula 1 and IndyCar equivalents go by legally distinct names, but die-hard motorsport fans will recognise exactly what they are. A handful of real legends are properly licensed, including some iconic 1980s grand prix machinery, and that mixture of the explicit and the wink-and-nod actually adds to the game's character rather than detracting from it. For the multiplayer crowd, the picture is more nuanced. There is online PvP and LAN support, and setting up a lobby for friends is genuinely easy, with scalable settings for fuel consumption, tire wear, and damage that let you dial the experience from full-fat sim to a friendly Saturday-night bash without much fuss. The offline AI is frequently called out by the community as among the strongest in sim racing, which matters a lot for solo sessions or mixed lobbies where you top up grid numbers with bots. What AMS2 does not have is split-screen, so the four-friends-on-one-couch scenario is off the table entirely. Keyboard players will also have a rough time: this really does need at minimum a gamepad, and ideally a wheel. VR support is a genuine strength here if you have the hardware, with SteamVR and Oculus PC both covered. The weak spots are real but manageable. Car setup menus are deep and largely unexplained, so newcomers who just want to drive will either ignore them entirely or hit YouTube. The DLC catalogue has grown substantially since launch, and some of the most desirable tracks sit behind additional purchases, which is worth factoring into your budget. Reiza has been consistent with updates though, fixing multiplayer desync, tuning AI pathfinding in mixed-weather races, and adding free content like expanded weather presets, so the game you buy today is meaningfully better than launch. The Steam review score sits around 90 percent positive across thousands of reviews, which for a sim that launched rough and improved over years is a genuine endorsement. Bottom line from a sports-and-racing perspective: if you own a wheel, this deserves serious consideration as a primary or secondary sim. If you are on gamepad and curious about the genre, the assist options make it approachable enough to learn without humiliating you. Just do not expect a couch co-op night or a forgiving tutorial system.

Riley · Scout Team

Sports & racing

Be the first to comment on Automobilista 2.