WRC 10 FIA World Rally Championship

Developer: KT Racing | Publisher: Nacon | Release Date: 2021 | Genre: Racing / Simulation / Sports | Website: Official Website | Purchase: Steam

The WRC series has been steadily improving over the years and gained some impressive features along the way. The most significant addition was the career mode, introduced in WRC 8, but WRC 9 also delivered some great new tracks. This brings us to WRC 10, the latest version of the yearly franchise, which also celebrates the competition’s 50th anniversary.

It would be easy to dismiss WRC 10 as just “more of the same,” but it does share many similarities with WRC 9. However, this is to be expected from a yearly franchise, and the previous game offered a solid base from which to build. As the official counterpart to the 2021 World Rally Championship, the game includes all the teams, cars, and tracks that fans would expect. WRC 9 featured some of our favorite tracks, including New Zealand and Kenya, which this game retains while also adding Estonia, Croatia, and Spain to the roster. The developers have also promised additional post-launch content, including Belgium and further stages in Greece.

Career mode is still present in WRC 10 with the option of joining an existing team or creating your own private team, complete with customer livery, which is a first for the series. The latter is courtesy of the new livery editor, which is full of unlockable paint jobs and decals with which to mess around. Strangely enough, to play through career mode with your own team, you first need to conquer the new 50th Anniversary Mode. These include taking part in the very first WRC in 1973 at Acropolis Rally and other historical stages in classic cars. Newcomers can start their careers in WRC Junior mode and work their way up, while veterans can take a shot at WRC 3, which only allows three tryouts, or you are out. As with WRC 9, the career mode is full of races, special events, and other management aspects, such as hiring crew members and keeping their morale up. A calendar gives you some control over how to spend your time, and the R&D section offers RPG-like progression as experience points are turned into skill points that can be spent on Team, Performance, Crew, or Reliability perks. This mode is just as addictive as last year, and the additional events add some nice variety.

Season mode is also still present for players who are not into the management side of things, as are the various training modes and quick play races. Multiplayer fans are not forgotten either as they can form their own club or join others, participate in online races or even play locally using the split-screen option. Another interesting mode is co-driver, which allows players to team up with someone else online and take on a special stage as driver and co-driver.

For WRC 10, the developers promised a hyper-realistic and ultra-precise physic engine along with better aerodynamic force, turbo and braking management, on all surfaces. Don’t worry if all of this sounds Greek to you, as all of the realism options can still be adjusted to your liking. This means that the game can be as challenging as you want it to be, while casual racers in search of a more arcade-like experience aren’t left out in the cold either. We found the driving model to be pretty decent, although the physics still does weird things if you manage to clip some of the obstacles along the side of the road. It might look funny to see your car flipping through the air after sideswiping a rock, but it’s a little less humorous if it happens during the final corner of a long race. Since the game does not have a rewind feature, you’ll either have to suck it up and take the time penalty or restart the entire race, which can be a little frustrating.

The WRC series has always looked good but not great, which is once again the case with WRC 10. Some of the views are breathtaking, but the same can’t be said about the spectators. It is rather funny how they are given different hairstyles for the classic events, though. The game has plenty of visual options that can be and for a quick look at these, be sure to check out our First Look video. WRC 10 features a number of different views, but we stuck to the chase cam for the most part while racing. Dedicated rally fans will enjoy the cockpit view, which is quite terrifying, especially when racing at night in adverse weather conditions. The sound effects also contribute to the tension, as you’ll immediately hear when your car begins to deviate from the track. Thankfully, the game features a co-driver who reads you pace notes, which means you can keep your eyes on the road. We played WRC 10 with an Xbox One controller, and everything worked as expected. The rumble adds a lot of immersion to the experience, although hardcore fans will probably stick to using a racing wheel.

Fans who have stuck with the WRC titles over the years should know by now what to expect from each installment. The game is a lot of fun to play, and there’s more than enough content to last a while. However, there isn’t anything radically new or different here that would win over anyone who didn’t enjoy the previous two entries. Nevertheless, the game once again had us hooked from start to finish, and even after working our way through the ranks in career mode, it still feels like there’s plenty of things left to accomplish in the game. Whether you are a rally fan who wants authenticity from your game or a casual racer who just wants to speed through some scenic environments, WRC 10 has something for everyone.