World Rally Championship is one of the most exciting sports events that happen every year. Every year, KT Racing and NACON ensure that we fans, who are unable to go and visit these rally events personally, get to enjoy them in our homes with their long-running WRC franchise. This year, WRC is coming back as WRC 10, and we got access to an early access demo for this preview which gave us a small flavor of the full game slated to release in Fall 2021. This is our preview of WRC 10 in which we try out our skill at three of the latest rallies joining the WRC franchise and check out how KT Racing is making the title even better than before.
The demo comes with a single stage of each of the three new rallies coming to WRC 10. Each stage comes with its normal variant and the reverse variant. These new rallies include Croatia Rally, Rally Estonia, and RallyRACC Catalunya or Rally de España. Each of these rallies will be new additions to WRC 10 and the 2021 WRC official rally roster as well making their addition to the game important. Each of these rallies brings its own technical twists and turns especially Rally de España which is one of the most technical rallies in the championship. The stage featured in the demo was enough to give me a taste of what sort of challenges we can expect to look forward to in the full game.
Similar to WRC 9, KT Racing is using the WRC 8 as the base game while keeping the improvements made in WRC 9 to the title and now further improving and building upon the WRC 9 to make it even better with WRC 10. I like KT Racing’s approach where they do not want to build a title from scratch every year because this could mean that one wrong move could literally end the franchise given the competition in the rally simulation genre. With the release of WRC 8, the developer already has a solid base to work on and WRC 9 was a clear example that instead of creating a new title from scratch, further adding new content, updating season to the latest rankings, and improving the game all-around is the best way to move the franchise further.
At this point, WRC 10 will not make the franchise feel redundant or repetitive. There is plenty of new content coming to the game and with WRC officially adding new rallies and mostly sticking to the same rules, building a title from scratch would not have made much sense. WRC 10 will feature the same Career mode with tweaks and improvements here and there. WRC 10’s biggest competitor in rally simulation is Dirt Rally 2.0 and that title was released back in 2019 giving WRC 10 a two-game advantage over it. In addition, the WRC franchise also owns the official World Rally Championship license so every year, the game features new rallies and rankings upgraded to reflect the latest season. This is the biggest plus of this particular franchise.
Despite the demo access given to us being relatively small, the improvements in different areas of the game were pretty evident. With the most common problem with fans complaining about previous WRC titles being the low-quality visuals, it seems like KT Racing has taken fan feedback seriously and WRC 10 looks gorgeous. Everything in the game looks more detailed than the previous titles including the draw distance which is clear in rallies like Spain and Croatia where the tracks give you a wide view of the areas ahead since there is not much blocking the view on cliffs and mountains. The crowds are more detailed than before, with crowds lighting up track sides with flares and chanting support for their favorite WRC drivers.
For rallies with lush forests and greenery surrounding the tracks, WRC 10 does not disappoint as well. These sections were filled with foliage and in some corners even added to the challenge as a certain part of the corner would be hiding behind a few bushes and greenery further making the game look extremely pretty. The weather effects are much more detailed in the game however since WRC 10 is currently in development, we might get to see additional weather types added to the full game as well because some areas also have snow and there was no snow in the demo. During my review of WRC 9, I did notice that the ambiance of the game was severely lacking however I really loved the initial impressions of WRC 10, and it looks promising visually. Every time you come to an open area, you will be greeted with a wide view of the landscape up ahead but there is very little time to actually look and enjoy the view because there is mostly a ditch between the road and the view.
For experiencing these stages, I had three of the best WRC category vehicles at my disposal including the Hyundai i20, Ford Fiesta WRC, and the Toyota Yaris. After staying in the shadows for a long time, Toyota has been making headlines with their new Toyota Yaris rally car, a formidable rally car ever since it joined the WRC back in 2017. Both of the other vehicles Hyundai i20 and Ford Fiesta WRC are renowned for their WRC victories and performance. The full WRC 10 title will of course feature a lot more cars including the WRC Junior and WRC 2 categories along with many historical cars in the lineup as well for the Anniversary Mode content.
While it is still too early to say but considering the demo, my favorite track was the Rally de España. Rallying through it in the WRC category cars was an absolute blast. Since the WRC cars are the most advanced rally machines, they offer the best performance for rallying so if you really want to experience a technical rally track, these WRC cars are the ones that you need to be in and the demo allowed me to do just that. The RallyRACC – Catalunya – COSTA DAURADA is not an easy stage to master, and I can say here this rally brings the best of asphalt. Normally, asphalt tracks tend to be pretty much easier to complete since they offer the most grip however Spain will really test your mettle behind a rally car as it features extremely tight spaces and technical turns.
One thing that I am disappointed about is that I could not get any vibration in any of my controllers which sort of ruined the gameplay experience for me. Despite it being selected in the options, I could not get any Haptic Feedback on my DualSense controller or any vibration on my Xbox One controller. This might be a demo thing because I have played WRC 9 with both vibrations and Haptic Feedback, and I was looking forward to seeing how the developers have further improved both of these features in WRC 10 to make car control feel even more realistic however it seems like I will now have to wait for the full release to try it out.
Another thing that I am looking forward to seeing in WRC 10 is the Anniversary Edition content in the game which includes classic and historical rallies in WRC that really shaped up the sport. I would have loved to see a small taste of the Anniversary Edition content in the demo however I can understand that KT Racing wants to keep it a surprise until the full launch of the title. WRC 10 appears to have all features of WRC 9 and additional new features added to the game as well. While we still have to wait for the new release to test them all, I loved trying out the new rallies in the game. The visual fidelity looks promising, and the demo has got me hyped for the full release a lot. With additional time until the release, I am sure that KT Racing will work its magic and make the game even better.
