WRC 9 Review
Author: ValeNort46.
Genres: Racing, Sports.
WRC 9 directory.
Here is our WRC 9 Review giving you a subjective, unbiased review helping you make a more educated decision on whether or not the game is for you.
- Release Date: 03-Sep-2020.
- Platforms: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch, PC.
- Price At Launch: £44.99.
- Developer: Kylotonn.
- Publisher: Nacon, Bigben Interactive.
- Genre: Rally Simulator.
The game
WRC 9 is the official game of the World Rally Championship. Annual releases normally tend to arrive as a repackage from the previous years game and give it a shiny new cover with very little new features but I can say with pleasure that WRC 9 is a vast improvement on WRC 8. WRC 9 features all 13 rallies of the 2020 world championship including 3 new rallies added to the roster which are:
- Kenya.
- New Zealand.
- Japan.
Career mode is the main bulk of the game starting off with a manufacturer tryout that leads you into a drivers seat before been thrown into the deep end on the everyday running of a WRC team, you make the decisions on who to employ and how to the team proceeds forwards. You can participate in different activities between rallies so you have to make a vital decision of resting the team or participate in a practice session to improve the car or do you ignore both of them and take part in an historic race or extreme conditions activity to bring in more vital funds for your team.
Damaging a car by lightly touching a wall or obstruction is merely cosmetic damage but start to hit trees or rocks or anything like that and the damage model will kick up with some serious penalties to contend with and it’s so much more than showing body panels that are bent, it goes as far as making the car feel changing for feel of a car. The cars handle very differently to when it was pristine, it can feel sluggish under acceleration so take a corner too fast and you will have consequences to deal with which greatly encourages you to go smoother into corners than trying to power through them giving you a greater sense of precision.
The good
Legendary cars make a welcome return in a big way as WRC 9 now boasts 15 of the most iconic cars from the history of of the sport dating back to the 1970’s. Visually every rally and stage looks spectacular and as you drive stages with a low sun in the sky it dazzles you with a golden glow just as you would expect it to. Sound also plays a massive part in making this a very immersive experience as you can hear the sound of stones rattling off the underside of the car as you fly through the stage. One of the spectacles of watching a rally car is how close to the edge a drivers is in setting the top times but when it goes wrong it normally goes wrong in a big way and this leads me into the damage and handling model on offer.
The not so good
Not much gameplay wise really, the game is very well polished and they have done some fantastic work from previous entries in the series. That said, the Trophies have had several issues at launch which prevented a good number of them unlocking, which as this is primarily a trophy guide based website, we won’t let things like this go unnoticed. We have included full details on how to unlock certain trophies in our WRC 9 Trophy guide which you can check out here.
Online
Online features well in WRC 9 where can play against your friends or randoms. Other new features include clubs where you can race stages and score points against your mates and local co-op is also covered which certainly gets a thumbs up from us because online is not everyone’s cup of tea.
Trophies
Trophies have not been forgotten and they boast a wide range from all the available game modes giving all trophy hunters a little taste of what the game has to offer. When WRC 9 launched, there were several glitched trophies, they will no doubt be fixed by patches in the coming weeks, but at launch the developers should have really done a better job at quality control, whilst not an issue for everyone, for those of us that aim to earn the platinum, waiting for a patch isn’t right. Click the link to go to the WRC 9 Trophy Guide.
Gallery
Here are a series of photos to show you how the game looks:
Overall
To sum up WRC 9 you can expect to receive a very well made game that can show you exactly what the sport of the World Rally Championship can offer. I award WRC 9 a very well deserved 8 out of 10.
Final Score: 8
That’s our WRC 9 Review I hope it helps you decide whether the game is worth your time and money.