Each car handles differently as you throw them around the various stages of countries like Japan and Finland, with almost as much realism as a DIRT Rally or WRC, but with some nice customisation to make it playable for more than just racing game enthusiasts. These really do add a little extra to a game that so easily could have been nothing but rally stage after rally stage, they can even be a palate cleanser in between rallies as you drive around, chilling out to that awesome soundtrack.ĭriving around is where art of rally really shines, as you’d expect. There are cassettes to find (which unlock new banging tunes), photo locations, and even a Tony Hawk’s style letter hunt, spelling out the word R-A-L-L-Y, which will unlock the next free roam map. This lets you test out the handling and, as you progress through the main game, test out unlocked cars before heading into competitive rallying.įree roam isn’t just an empty map either, at least not at first. This immediately rolls into a short tutorial that teaches you the basics of driving, before leaving you to your own devices in a full, free-roam map. It’s all completely optional reading, but it’s quite nice to see nonetheless.īefore you dive into career mode and its journey through the years of sliding cars around on muddy surfaces, art of rally begins with a nod to its predecessor, as a talking statue appears out of the ground to welcome you to the game and send you on your travels. When you jump into career mode (which is split into decades and years) it gives a short summary of the direction the sport was taking during each period as you progress. Each vehicle comes with a brief history lesson, about the origins of its appearance and performance in the rallying world. This commitment to historic rallying extends to its almost encyclopedic presentation, too. They aren’t licensed, with names like “das whip,” “the cozzie sr5”, and even the “turbo brick,” but they look and sound like their real-world counterparts. Art of Rally (stylistically “art of rally”, minus the capitalisation) takes that idea but takes us back to the golden era of rally driving, complete with recognisable recreations of classic cars from the 1960s onwards. It was a surprisingly realistic drifting game with a low poly… almost Mirror’s Edge-look with its clean whites and stark reds. Some of you may remember developer Funselektor’s previous game, Absolute Drift. I don’t even care that I am approaching my late thirties and should never utter this phrase, but art of rally has a banging soundtrack. The glorious blend of synth and Eighties beats gave me goosebumps, its sound somehow the perfect accompaniment for the retro aesthetic of this wonderful rally game. I rarely talk about the soundtrack of a game, but art of rally is so inspiring in that department that’s got to change.
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