World Rally Championship: Rally Evolved (PS2)

...official rights to the FIA World Rally Championship in 2001, their first foray into the rallying genre was a reasonable if unspectacular affair. It had the licence and the looks, but was soon put convincingly in the shade by new instalments of V-Rally and Colin McRae Rally – the genres linchpins since back in the early days of the PSOne.

World Rally Championship had its problems, but it was greeted mainly with enthusiasm from the gaming ...
.../> First released in 2003, World Rally Championship 3 (WRC3) is a rally game that delivers realistic and challenging racing that doesn't bog the player down in the kind of extensive tuning options associated with other simulations. The main feature of the game is the Championship, which contains fourteen rallies set on a wide range of surfaces and each consisting of (on the higher difficulty settings) nine stages – meaning you'll have to complete ... more

When Sony got their hands on the official rights to the FIA World Rally Championship in 2001, their first foray into the rallying genre was a reasonable if unspectacular affair. It had the licence and the looks, but was soon put convincingly in the shade by new instalments of V-Rally and Colin McRae Rally – the genres linchpins since back in the early days of the PSOne.

World Rally Championship had its problems, but it was greeted mainly with enthusiasm from the gaming press and perhaps as a consequence, sold very well. Not that they would require much persuading, but Sony's licence has allowed them ever since to turn out a new game for each new season – in other words, the dreaded 'yearly update'. Given all this, massive credit must be go to the developers, Evolution Studios, for putting in the effort and making the necessary changes that elevate WRC3 to something approaching classic status, and represents what is perhaps the pinnacle of rally-racing on the PlayStation2.

First released in 2003, World Rally Championship 3 (WRC3) is a rally game that delivers realistic and challenging racing that doesn't bog the player down in the kind of extensive tuning options associated with other simulations. The main feature of the game is the Championship, which contains fourteen rallies set on a wide range of surfaces and each consisting of (on the higher difficulty settings) nine stages – meaning you'll have to complete over 125 stages if you are to see everything the game has to offer. A big plus point of Sony's official WRC licence is that all of the real teams and drivers from the 2003 season (back when rallying still had teams competing) are available for selection. So you can go for the old favourites like the all-conquering Peugeot 206 or the ever-competitive Subaru Impreza, to the dark-horses of the field such as the Hyundai Coupe and Skoda Fabia. These days, this sort of thing is to be expected, though each team and driver has tonnes of statistics and features to explore including the novel ability to dismantle your chosen car and move around it with a 3D camera. The slick presentation screens have been ripped straight from the TV coverage, lending the game that extra bit of authenticity.

More importantly, WRC3 plays absolutely brilliantly. The handling is more realistic and more convincing than before, actually favouring the D-Pad method of control because of the need to make quick, minor adjustments to your driving line and slides. Different rallies feature their own unique challenges and require different approaches – an attacking driving-style helps on the fast gravel kinks of the Finland, whilst a cautious demeanour is more suitable for the heavy snow of Sweden. The grip levels, speed and general physics of the cars is hugely impressive.

Much like in the older V-Rally 3, WRC3 demands time and effort to get the best out of it. It's hard in the beginning, but encourages the player to reach the limits of their performance. Mistakes are easily made and occur frequently in the beginning – you often learn the hard way that the rally genre isn't as forgiving as it used to be; pranging your car will inevitably lead to leaking radiators, loss of power and/or lunched gearboxes – all of which can prove very costly if you are not near the end of a stage. A small but ingenious change has also seen that many of the barriers and fences that were previously 'solid' can no longer be used as a means of bouncing your car around corners, as they invariably get destroyed upon impact and so as such only act as a guideline. It certainly makes you more aware of where cliff-faces and rivers are situated, that's for sure! But after a few days, you'll be glued to it; hanging on the every word of your co-driver and holding your breath as you dart between car-wrecking walls and rocks at obscene speeds – there is little as satisfying as driving a committed, mistake-free stage and topping the time sheets.

The chief areas that marked down the original World Rally Championship game included the naff music, uninspired course design, lack of challenge and lack of replay value. The reason WRC3 is such a great success is that it has recognised and built upon the better elements of the old game whilst all of the problem areas has been comprehensively revamped.

Sound-wise, the irritating menu jingles that previously fried the mind with their sheer repetition, are thankfully a thing of the past. In there place are some more pleasant, suitable vibes that prove good accompaniments to the menu screens. The co-driver is, as ever, invaluable and the guy does his job descriptively and generally without incident, though there are times you wished he'd told you about THAT junction a second or two earlier...

The courses are another element that has helped the gameplay grow so much. In 2001 version of the game, it's fair to say that few of the tracks remained long in the memory, though WRC3 sees the developers throwing everything they can at you. The margin for error is narrow, but it makes sliding through muddy lanes and slaloming through hazarding-packed chicanes and hairpins all the more thrilling. There is a real sense of being on the edge that was never apparent in the first World Rally Championship game.

Is it more challenging than before though? Unquestionably, yes. So easy was the original WRC that even on the Expert difficulty setting, it was an absolute breeze – I only ever failed to win one rally – and as a result, the game became a bit of a chore. Evolution Studios have clearly had a rethink on this one though – once again you begin with Novice and Professional skill settings and even at this level, the stage results and rallies are much closer affairs. Success on the latter setting opens up Expert mode and subsequent success leads to the excellent Extreme mode, whereby the player can tackle a super-competitive championship in souped-up versions of the standard rally cars. You have to fight for each result, and over the course of the 14 gruelling rounds, consistency may aid you as much as speed.

The overall lifespan is also helped by the unlockable upgrades for the WRC cars; five stages of tuning take place in instalments based on the mileage you have racked up in a particular vehicle; improving it's speed, handling and durability characteristics. Not only this, but there are a host of super-charged 'Extreme' cars and 'Concept' vehicles to unearth through extended play. In a slightly odd, self-defeating move on the developer’s part, you can actually unlock everything all at once if you win the championship on the Extreme setting. Not that this is something you'll manage in a day or two, though it does put an abrupt curb in the potentially very lengthy replay-value of the game.

Visually, its a very pretty game. It doesn't have the obvious, 'realer than real' beauty of the Gran Turismo series – WRC3 impresses more with the sum of its aesthetic parts. There's a great sense of scale and depth to each track and every track (no mean feat given the sheer quantity of stages) – not only is the scenery immediate to the track packed with detail and colour, you can often see for what seems like miles into the distance, with seemingly no loss in visual quality. For example, a giant bridge that appears to be an insignificant part of the background early on in a stage soon very much features in it as you drive directly under one of its arches. In Cyprus, when you are beginning your descent from the top of a stage, you can catch glimpses of the remarkable snaking labyrinth of golden gravel track that await you further down. The car models are pleasingly accurate recreations of their real life counterparts and pick up decent visual damage too. It wouldn't be a rally game however if it didn't have rubbish two-animation cut-out spectators clapping inanely at the finish line, and WRC3 delivers these dubious extras too.

Rally games have progressively become tougher over the last few years as the influx in the element of realism has dictated that crashes are more punishing and that there is less room for error on the gamer’s part. Despite this, WRC3 is a game worthy of anyone's collection – nobody will have things all their own way in the beginning, but the drive to improve makes for an addictive and, ultimately, very satisfying experience – its the type of game the youngsters would persist with, in much the same way we all did when Gran Turismo first appeared on the scene; tough, but worth it.

World Rally Championship 3 represents a remarkable turnaround in fortunes for the series and has a rightful claim to the PS2's hard-fought rallying crown. Evolution Studios have done a smashing job of rectifying the niggles of the original game, and as a consequence, the series strengths really shine through. It's challenging, compelling and, for all the time it takes to master and the enjoyment that it ultimately yields, well worth the £5.99 I paid for it. 

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