Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5 out of 10

WRC 5 is a rally simulation racing game available from retail stores and for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS4, PS3 and PS Vita. The WRC series continues with WRC 5 under a new developer at Kylotonn Games who have previously developed the B.O.S. series, The Cursed Crusade, Truck Racer and Motorcycle Club, but can WRC 5 build upon what previous developer Milestone had evolved through the previous four versions?

Quick Stage mode allows players to jump straight into a single Special Stage of a rally via random selection or their personal preference of any stage of any rally with any WRC category, driver, car and team of choice, alongside further customisation such as time of day and weather conditions which provides an excellent game mode to have particularly for people who only have a short period of time to still be able to play and enjoy the game in quick and short bursts.

Quick Rally mode has all of the options and preferences of Quick Stage mode, although Quick Rally allows players to drive beyond a single Special Stage with anywhere from a single rally containing 5 Super Stages through to a championship containing a maximum of 7 rally events in Junior WRC or WRC 2 and a maximum of all 13 rally events in WRC, however there are no duplicate rally events resulting in each Special Stage of a rally event only being included once in every championship which somewhat unnecessarily removes the freedom of a customisable championship as showcased in previous games in the series when players could previously have a customised championship consisting of the same rally event up to 13 occasions.

The career mode features three different formulas of rallying including Junior WRC, WRC 2 and WRC, although there is no inclusion of the WRC 3 category despite its inclusion in the previous game. Junior WRC is the entry formula for up and coming drivers and is the place to start in which the manager will inform the player of three firm contract offers with all teams having separate conditions for their new driver to meet such as being fastest no matter how much damage the car receives, doing the best possible but keeping the car in the best condition and being as careful as possible with the car no matter what the result is, while there is a mentality for your co-driver such as safety or balanced, speed, balanced or safety for the head mechanic, team efficiency and team morale, alongside the categories in which the team races within and the amount of experience each of the teams have.

The manufacturer, wheel drive and power of the car provided by all 3 Junior WRC teams are identical which levels out the playing field and leaves it up to the skill of the driver across 7 rally events consisting of 5 Special Stages and a Power Stage in each event. Better contract offers at the end of the first season depends upon the quality and consistency of performance in the Junior WRC formula leading to a promotion to WRC 2 and eventually the main category of WRC, although unlike in previous games there are no indicators for progression towards such goals other than Special Stage and rally victories as there are no reputation points earned for finishing position, achieving an objective during each rally or beating a rival. Junior WRC and WRC 2 categories will prepare players for the step up from 7 rally events per season to 13 rally events in the top category of WRC, while the cars reach higher levels of performance and faster speeds when they make it to the WRC 2 and WRC categories with tougher opposing drivers making the push for the championship more difficult to achieve.

Rally School is an excellent design choice and is a feature which genuinely improves the game as it allows players to learn the required skills across a series of 29 lessons before heading into a rally with important guidance throughout lesson categories such as basics, 2-wheel drive, 2 sets of 4-wheel drive lessons and advanced techniques in which there is a demo that players can watch to be informed of exactly what the entire lesson will involve even down to subtle details such as an overlay of the buttons utilised on the controller as well as the steering and braking applied when performing a technique.

Initially the only lesson available is the first in the basics category with further lessons only being unlocked by completing previous ones or progressing in the career mode, although progression by completing lessons can be difficult as it relies upon players carrying out a certain amount of objectives such as a set time, percentage of driving precision and an accurate stop. However if a single objective is failed, then the player will have to restart the lesson due to being considered as having failed the entire lesson. The basics category includes fundamental understanding of pace notes, appropriate acceleration and braking on a tarmac surface, using the handbrake and accounting for under-steer before putting it all together on a tarmac surface in a 2-wheel drive car, while 2-wheel drive covers trajectories, drifting and everything else from basics albeit on a gravel surface. The first set of 4-wheel drive lessons covers strategies with tyres, succession of bumps, power-sliding and everything else from previous categories applied on a tarmac surface, while the second set of 4-wheel drive lessons covers a multitude of previous lesson categories applied to snow and gravel surfaces, alongside advanced techniques including left foot braking or handbrake, braking or acceleration and learning how to perform a Scandinavian Flick manoeuvre.

Driver customisation is strangely restricted to the driver’s first name, surname, nationality and the preference of a male or female co-driver which is a step backwards in comparison to the driver customisation of WRC 4 as there is no physical appearance of the driver with no customisation of car number or number plate, while a step forwards could have been to implement yourself, a friend or an object into the game by taking a picture via the PlayStation Camera.

WRC 5 contains all of the official licenses, which comprises of 13 rally events situated in various locations around the world including Monte Carlo, Sweden, Mexico, Germany, Australia and Great Britain with each of the 13 rally events consisting of 5 Special Stages and a Power Stage that massively vary in length. There are dozens of professional drivers with their co-drivers including the multiple WRC champion Sebastien Ogier and former Formula 1 driver Robert Kubica. All of the teams throughout the WRC, WRC 2 and Junior WRC categories are also featured with all of their respective cars with full bodywork liveries.

The handling is superb and very authentic to how a rally car would be anticipated to handle in variable conditions and terrain as is simultaneously the case with the damage modelling as the bodywork will crumple as the car hits more hazards. The car gradually begins to behave and handle erratically following crashes such as too many head on collisions resulting in a broken gearbox which means the car no longer being able to shift above third gear which leads to a severe reduction in speed through any high speed straights, therefore an overly aggressive driving style may result in increased pace in the short term but slower pace in the long term if major damage occurs during a crash.

The weather conditions includes sunny clear blue skies, overcast, rain and snow with every weather condition making the car behave differently in relation to how difficult it is to handle at high speeds and around sharper corners, while the time of day also plays a factor by increasing or reducing visibility at various times of day with headlights required for the night.

Damage to car components can be repaired at the motorhome which are situated periodically each day after usually completing 2 or 3 Special Stages. The player’s team will have a maximum of 45 minutes to repair the damage with a set time allocated to each of the 8 categories of repair including engine, gearbox, brakes, tyre suspension and bodywork. If the 45 minutes allocation is marginally exceeded, time penalties will start to be incurred, although the absolute maximum repair time allowed is an hour and customised configurations are not allowed for Junior WRC cars. A diagram will provide detailed analysis of which areas of the car are in need of repair with areas not in need of repair displayed in green while yellow displays light damage, orange representing being on the verge of heavy damage and red showing heavy damage. It is important to pay attention to how damaged the car is, as crashing without repairing the damage will progressively lower the performance of the car, so it must be repaired tactically with the thought process being how best to approach repairing the major areas without going above the 45 minutes time limit in order to avoid potential time penalties, while retaining a high level of performance for the following Special Stages.

There are five excellently positioned camera angles including one located on the centre of the car bonnet, a first-person camera mounted to the front of the car looking ahead, a perspective from inside the car located around the driver’s line of sight with his hands on the steering wheel, a two third-person perspectives positioned further away from the car and a little closer to the car with the internal view and both third-person views having the ability to be fully rotated around the car to provide more immersion as players can see more of the surrounding environments in greater detail at any angle, although as good as that is; it is not exactly possible when driving and may best be left to the replay mode.

The slide bar which was so expertly utilised in WRC 4 on Vita to bring the camera further forwards or backwards by 20 clicks has been replaced by 5 options between very close, close, normal, far and very far which determine the distance of the cockpit and both external camera distances in order for them to be as close or as far away as preferred; therefore with such customisation and all 5 camera angles being as well positioned as they are, players will certainly be able to find a camera angle that suits the style of driving which is a major positive. However, the free camera which allowed players to explore more of the scenery after the game had been paused in WRC 4 has been omitted from WRC 5 which would have been the perfect feature to combine and work in harmony with the PS4’s share feature.

Players can watch a full replay of the Special Stage that they have just driven on with the ability to rewind in super slow motion or quickly, pause, fast forward in super slow motion or quickly, change the camera angles for a different view of the action and loop the replay back to the beginning to watch it all over again. Players can view the replay from the 5 gameplay camera angles while retaining the ability to rotate the camera on the internal view and both third-person perspectives, alongside a dynamic camera angle positioned away from the car, around the car and even inside the car behind the driver and co-driver to the level of detail of even seeing the co-driver’s pace notes and changing from camera to camera in the style of Gran Turismo and it certainly would have been amazing to see such a dynamic camera make the transition to being playable as players are driving as it would further complement the experience.

The controls are well mapped to the DualShock 4 controller with the control scheme consisting of pressing R2 to accelerate, pressing L2 to brake or reverse, pressing square to manually gear shift upwards, pressing X to manually gear shift downwards, pressing O to engage the handbrake, pressing triangle to restart the current sector from the time set up to the start of the sector, pressing R1 to cycle to the next camera angle, pressing down on the d-pad to respawn the vehicle following a crash, pressing right on the d-pad to display a damage indicator, pressing left on the d-pad to display a ghost car for a best lap time comparison, changing the direction of the left analogue stick to steer the car, changing the direction of the right analogue stick to pan the camera around the car and pressing start to display the pause menu.

There is no touch pad implementation which perhaps would have been better suited to respawning the car following a crash, while there is no light bar implementation which could have produced green when the car is in full health, flash orange for a partially damaged component, remain orange if the car has multiple areas of damage, flash red for a significantly damaged component and remain red for significant damage throughout the car, although there is vibration which is limited to leaving the boundaries of the track which is a little odd as there is no vibration during a crash. There is no optional gyroscopic motion sensing functionality resulting in players not being able to utilise the DualShock 4 controller with steering wheel motions, although a range of Thrustmaster steering wheels designed specifically for racing games on PS4 are supported including the T80RS and T300RS, while the T100 and T500RS are steering wheels designed for the PS3 but still work with WRC 5 on PS4, although they will not necessarily support other racing games on PS4.

WRC 5 looks better than ever on PS4 in 1080p at a minimum frame-rate of a fluent 30FPS with lighting and shadows such as sunlight shining through trees, realistic reflections on the bonnet of the car, headlights lighting darkly lit areas during dusk or night time conditions, authentic crumpling of bodywork after enduring crashes and dynamic weather such as rain and snow, alongside excellent car models, stunning trackside details throughout the surrounding environments and accurately portrayed bumps and undulations across every track to provide authenticity to the experience of driving a rally car in treacherous conditions.

The presentation of the game is solid with a great user interface across various menus such as the main menu, Quick Stage, Quick Rally, Career, Rally School, multiplayer, online leaderboards, options and various gameplay menus with support for navigation via the left analogue stick, directional pad and face buttons, although it does not include support for navigation via the right analogue stick or touch pad. The background of the main menu consists of a polished set of icons for each game mode or area of the game with a car offset to the left which comes more into focus when icons further to the right are selected. Unlike WRC 4, the presentation does not have an air of television style quality as there are no real-life rally footage or driver interview quotes, although there are facts about each rally during loading screens.

A female voice-over introduces players to each of the game modes and gameplay elements, while the co-driver voice-overs mostly adds to the rally experience with authentic co-driver pace notes depicting the approach of the corners, straights and jumps up ahead, although hearing “That was a bit dodgy” almost every time someone accidentally crashes into a rock or trackside object removes from the realism the game appears to be striving for as there are no circumstances during a rally that any co-driver would even consider exclaiming that towards his driver. Sound effects include the realistic roar and grunt of the engines, screeching tyres, collisions with trackside objects such as fencing, posts and rocks and ambient sound effects such as crowd reaction particularly at the beginning and end of Super Stages, alongside climactic celebratory music. There is no DualShock 4 speaker implementation which is surprising given that it could have produced voice-overs including the introduction of features during menus and the co-driver’s pace notes when driving, the roar of the engines and ambience from the crowd.

The trophy list includes 38 trophies with 26 bronze, 7 silver, 4 gold and 1 platinum trophy. The majority of the trophies are earned naturally by progressing through the Career mode such as the Persona bronze trophy for creating a customised driver, the Winner and Well Done bronze trophies for winning a Special Stage in any offline mode and in Quick Stage mode respectively, the Looks Good On Your C.V. silver trophy for winning a Special Stage in Career mode, 13 bronze trophies representing winning each of the 13 rallies, 3 gold trophies for finishing first in a season of each WRC category, the Mechanic bronze trophy for repairing the car for the first time and the Ready at Dawn bronze trophy for exceeding the car repair time limit for the first time.

The hardest trophy has to be the Rally Driver silver trophy for completing a Special Stage in simulation difficulty during any offline mode. A recommended tip for anyone who wants to reduce the duration and difficulty of their journey to the platinum trophy would be to adjust the level of A.I. for the opponents to the lowest possible can from the options menu which should certainly provide a significant advantage in every Special Stage throughout the Career and Quick Stage modes. There are four online multiplayer trophies which are mostly easy to achieve as there is a bronze trophy for finishing a Special Stage online followed by two silver trophies for finishing five and ten Special Stages online respectively with the hardest online trophy being the Online Victory gold trophy for winning a Special Stage online, while the Couch Surfer bronze trophy only requires 2 players to finish a Special Stage in local multiplayer, therefore there are no local or online multiplayer trophies to reduce any possibility of platinuming the game providing players can win a single Special Stage in online multiplayer.

It is estimated that depending upon skill and a good trophy guide to provide some helpful tips that it would take around 15 hours to platinum the trophy list.

There are four difficulty levels including easy, medium, hard and expert which provides a far more competitive pace set by each of the A.I. during every Special Stage following every step up in difficulty, therefore resulting in players having to be flawless when playing on expert difficulty, while the easy difficulty level will usually result in victories despite making mistakes. There are five driving style levels with pre-set assists or alternatively selecting custom in order to customise the wide range of assists comprising of braking and stability assists for smoother cornering, bumpy roads and jumps, light, medium or high car damage inflicted when hitting rocks or trackside objects, damage effects being visual only or affecting the handling of the car, respawning the car for having headed slightly, largely or very largely off-road and an automatic or manual gearbox.

WRC 5 enters the historic realm of eSports in which for the very first time players from across the entire world compete in parallel with the 2016 World Rally Championship season in a collaborative partnership between WRC 5 publisher Bigben Interactive, the world’s largest eSports company ESL and WRC with WRC 5 eSports coverage broadcast live via Twitch.

There are weekly Shakedown Series events or events based upon a specific rally which is taking place that week with players driving as a home favourite such as Dani Sordo driving in front of his home fans in Spain in which players participate in a global time trial at a particular Special Stage within the pre-determined rally.

Challenge events are similar to the weekly events, although the major difference is that prizes are available for the top five players who set the best times as they will win such prizes as a WRC 5 baseball cap and t-shirt which is an excellent design choice to provide an incentive for players to keep on returning to the challenge events in the hope of potentially scoring prizes.

The online multiplayer includes create public and private game modes which provides the ability for players to create their own customised lobby for 2 to 8 player online multiplayer races in which players can invite their friends into the lobby with a choice of any Special Stage of the 13 rally events in dynamic weather conditions at any time of day with every car, driver and team from WRC, WRC 2 and Junior WRC categories available for selection, alongside advanced car configuration, while quick match searches for an existing online multiplayer game to join as soon as possible.

As entertaining as the online multiplayer is and despite the online multiplayer being as fast as the single player game modes, it has two fundamental performance problems as any of the other one to seven cars players will be driving do not have any textures and do not have any collision detection which provides the look of racing against a ghost car lap time instead of competing against players from around the world.

Local multiplayer consists of a hotseat mode for two to eight players who can pass the controller after each player has attempted to set the fastest time at the chosen Special Stage in the same weather conditions and time of day as every player having their choice of car from WRC, WRC 2 and Junior WRC categories, therefore the hotseat mode has all of the Special Stages from the single player mode and is easily accessible as there is no requirement for a second controller.

It is disappointing to see no split-screen multiplayer which could have effectively been an equivalent to the Quick Stage, Quick Rally and Career modes by allowing two to four players to drive for the victory in a single Special Stage, a full rally or a full championship season.

The online leaderboards focuses on record times for each of the 5 Super Stages and the overall rally ranking throughout all 13 rally events, whilst players can compare their positioning on the leaderboards with players only from the friends list, globally and to immediately find and display their position within any given leaderboard with each leaderboard containing the overall amount of players who have participated within that particular leaderboard, each player’s rank, name (PSN ID), car manufacturer and time for the Super Stage of the rally or the total time for completing the entire set of Super Stages within the rally event chosen, although the WRC category of car which was chosen when that specific time was set is not factored into the online leaderboards and there are no online leaderboards covering the amount of XP earned by each player as there was in the previous game. However, there are also time trial focused online leaderboards for the online weekly events and challenge events and there are ghost car lap times to compete against the top five in the world across every single Super Stage which is an excellent design choice as it effectively provides online competition even when the player who set the time is offline.

The only major problem with WRC 5 is that it lacks an arcade mode which would usually provide competitive wheel to wheel racing based game modes, therefore as WRC is all about the simulation of rallying, if the player does not like time trials and wants a racing game, then this may not be to their liking and for that reason the WRC franchise needs to have an arcade mode to flourish further and in doing so to create a broader appeal for the game by including competitive racing in WRC 6. WRC 5 lacks cross-save and cross-play with the PS3 and Vita versions, while a track editor and returning some of the features from WRC 4 such as XP and levelling up based objectives would make for the best game in the series, although hopefully this will be implemented in WRC 6.

The replayability of WRC 5 is quite significant due to the quantity of content on offer across Quick Stage, Quick Rally, Career and Rally School modes in single player, alongside local hotseat multiplayer, online multiplayer, weekly online challenges, the introduction of eSports and competitive online leaderboards including ghost lap times for the top 5 players in each Super Stage are all sources of lengthy replayability which will be bringing you back for an extensive period of time.

Overall, WRC 5 improves the immersion of the experience by taking the graphical leap onto PS4, while retaining some of the basic problems of the series and partially stripping away a layer of customisation. However, WRC 5 must be commended for ambitiously taking the series in a bold new direction with the introduction of eSports and if you are a fan of rallying, then WRC 5 is certainly worth a purchase.

Jason Bonnar

Analysis

• Title: WRC 5 FIA World Rally Championship
• Developer: Kylotonn Games
• Publisher: Bigben Interactive
• System: PS4 (Version Reviewed), PS3 and PS Vita
• Format: PS4 Blu-Ray Disc/PSN Download
• Cross-Buy: No
• Cross-Play: No
• Players: 1-8 (Local Hotseat Multiplayer/Online Multiplayer)/Online Leaderboards
• Hard Drive Space Required: 17.87GB (PS4 Blu-Ray Disc/PSN Download)