WRC 3: FIA World Rally Championship

The goal of any good racing game is for the entirety of the experience to build a fluid racing experience or, if the title is the next installment, improve upon previous entries. Inherently, there’s nothing wrong with making a racing game that is pure fun and ignores these two ideas, so long as they’re done in a sincere manner. WRC 3 World Rally Championship rally, although a fulfilling experience on its own, suffers from being the next installment to a series without adding anything new, groundbreaking, nor genuinely fun with its existence. Its easy to say that there are fun aspects to discuss, though its nothing that actually changes much. Alongside that, the gameplay itself leaves a lot to be desired due to controls, the various game modes, and general performance issues.

A Rough Introduction

Its easy to assume that, by later installments, your player-base will understand how to play the game you’re making. Perhaps for The Need for Speed series or Hot Wheels Stunt Track Driver games, that’s easy enough – even without tutorials for those games, most people would be able to pick up and play them without issue. This is one of the benefits of most racing games at the surface level. All you need to know is how to accelerate and that you should try to finish in first place. Both of those games have some finer aspects, but that’s the main idea (you won’t have to play NFS Hot Pursuit 1 to understand how to play Hot Pursuit 2, at least I didn’t). But still, those games have tutorials within them for those players that aren’t really ‘in the loop’, which encourages anyone from beginners to experts to join in. WRC 3 lacks this vital component despite being a racing title because methods of play are quite different from other racing games.

You’ll have someone shouting different directions in your ear with different numbers that just won’t make sense without some description. Additionally, the career mode is a bit too straightforward. Previous titles had all sorts of deal negotiations and teambuilding elements that made your experience fee alive. WRC 3 is just racing, plain and simple. Its fine, but feels like a downgrade from its predecessors.

Subpar Controls

What puts the final nail in the coffin for me personally is that this game is hard to control, which is yet another step down from earlier titles. Even once you’ve learned what to do on the track itself, it can still feel like a giant chore to maneuver each race with low and mid-tier cars. One part that I was excited about was getting to tweak your car between races to improve handling and control, but it turned out to be a slow process that ultimately felt like it had no impact until late in the game. Fortunately, this game does tend to look and run quite well compared to previous installments. It wasn’t constantly beautiful, but it was at least enough to keep it from being horrid to look at.

Bottom Line

There was a lot going for WRC 3 coming into it, though it ended up missing expectations by having nothing new to contribute.

Pros:

• Good graphic design/ability to run
• Decent customization

Cons:

• Bare race design, felt devoid comparatively,
• No tutorials, harder to pick up and play for beginners/entrants to the series
• Minimal character, not nearly as fun as pervious games