WRC is one of the oldest rally franchises and after going a little bit down, KT Racing and Nacon brought fresh life to the game with last year’s WRC 8. While it has only been a year since the game’s release, we now have the latest title in the franchise WRC 9 boasting all-new improvements and content added to the game. Since the game looks pretty much the same on the shell, this review was a challenging one because it meant that we had to go down under the hood of WRC 9 to see how the developers have actually managed to further improve the WRC 8’s base that this game is based on. This is our review of WRC 9 in which we slide around the loose tracks of Kenya and perform some tight hairpin turns in Rally Japan.
Before we dig into the mechanics of WRC 9, let’s start with what is new to the table in this year’s WRC 9. The most prominent features that you will love are the three new and brutal rally locations added to the game. Apart from all of the locations and stages from WRC 8, WRC 9 adds three brand new rallies, Rally Kenya, New Zealand Rally, and Rally Japan. Each of these locations adds a brand new aspect of the challenge to the game. Kenya is probably the most challenging location for me in the new game because the tracks here are completely based on loose gravel and it is extremely hard for your car to get some traction.
It might be a little easier with a full wheel setup but I was playing the game on an Xbox Elite Controller. It kept me on my toes throughout as the rally stages quickly became extremely wide and then shrunk again to a single road. The roads are extremely loose and AWD cars are the best choice for these tracks. I tried racing with the new Porsche 911 GT3 RS R-GT but it was a mess since Porsche is not an easy car to drive due to its unique Rear-engine, RWD setup. Switching to an AWD vehicle certainly allowed for a much better race since it was able to get at least some traction on the road. It is definitely a tough challenge for you to look forward to in WRC 9.
New Zealand Rally is also an excellent addition to the list of technical tracks in the game. It offers some of the most twisty rally stages as you drive your roads that have multiple bends and hairpin turns in quick succession. It is fairly easy to handle since it is mostly gravel and most of the cars can easily traverse gravel in the game. Rally Japan looks pretty intimidating at first and it is really is technical but for me, it was the most beautiful and my favorite rally in the game as well. Not only do the tracks look really neat, but it is also the perfect blend of high-speed and technical turns. One second, you are speeding in a straight line while the next second, you will have to turn a hairpin turn in the opposite direction. It really keeps you hooked to the screen through its narrow mountain courses.
KT Racing has further improved the game AI and vehicle behavior as well for WRC 9. WRC 8 brought to life a brand new vehicle response system which made the handling of vehicles much better and allows for a more realistic response to a terrain change. WRC 9 further improves on it and you can easily notice it in the game as well. The new Rally Kenya is a brilliant example of it which is so far the toughest rally for me in the game since the car is rarely able to find proper traction in all the sand and dust. The Test Zone now gives you access to the tuning screen where you can adjust your car’s setup and try out different road surfaces with custom car setups to prepare for upcoming rallies without actually damaging your car.
Unless you prefer online multiplayer, the Career Mode is the place where you will be spending your time the most. Instead of building a new Career Mode right from the scratch for the new game, KT Racing has used the same mode from WRC 8 and has improved it even further to make it better. These changes are not that much but they are a sign that the game has moved forward instead of going back. There are not many additions here, instead, KT Racing has made major quality-of-life improvements to the Career Mode based on the fan-feedback. It features the same familiar top-down view of your office where you can view different departments and perform different tasks.
You can manage the R&D of your team which includes purchasing different skills by spending skill points. These upgrades fall into Team, Performance, Crew, and Reliability. Each of these categories has plenty of upgrades in the form of a tree that you can continue to upgrade as you gain more skill points. The better you perform, the more skill points you earn and more upgrades you can purchase to improve your team, your car, and your own driving as well. Apart from the R&D, you will also manage your Career Schedule here from the Calendar tab. While most of the events are pretty much locked in place, some days give you the freedom of choosing your favorite event and attend it from a different number of options.
These events play a vital role in your Career because not every race will help you progress in the game. Some of the events will help you make better relations with different car manufacturers and sign contracts with them. Contracts will help you progress in the game. There are a different number of events that you can participate in while playing your Career. These include the Extreme Conditions Events where you have to drive a damaged car through extreme weather and try to reach the end on time. Or you can take part in training sessions or normal Rally events or Quick Stages.
You can also take part in Manufacturer Tryouts to increase your reputation with different manufacturers who will give you a difficult challenge when you reach a certain level of reputation with them. Completing this challenge will allow you to secure a contract with them thus smooth lining your career path. A good rally driver is nothing without his team and you can fully manage your own crew in the Career menu as well. WRC 9 gives you the freedom of hiring your own crew members according to your needs. The crew will play an important part in your overall career and will even be a major factor in your victories.
Crew members like the mechanic, physical therapist, and meteorologist are vital to the crew as they will ensure that you go in your rally fully prepared. The mechanic will repair your car between rally stages, the physical therapist will ensure that stress and fatigue levels remain low in the team between rallies and the meteorologist will predict the weather which will allow you to pick the right set of tires for your next rally. Apart from them, you can also hire a different number of other useful crew members as well such as Agent, Engineer, and Financial Advisor. Each crew member will provide a different benefit to you.
Your crew will also remain loyal to you if you keep them for longer periods of time. The more time they spend with you, the more they level up and the more efficient they become. Better crew members also cost you more money so this is something that you will have to consider while choosing your crew. Better crew members yield better results but they are expensive. If you go for cheaper crew members, they are less experienced and you might not get the desired results in your rallies as well. I always went for the best crew members available to me because an efficient crew will easily allow you to earn enough money that you can afford them without any problems.
Apart from your crew, you also have to maintain a good relationship with your manufacturer. You also get certain objectives that you have to complete in order to achieve certain milestones. Season objectives become live when you join a WRC championship while your team objectives are always live. These are short term and long term. Completing them will help you get more experience, level up your crew, or increase the relationship with your manufacturer. The more you win with a manufacturer, the higher your loyalty level with them is and your crew’s morale will also remain higher which is vital for them to perform efficiently A lower morale will decrease your crew’s efficiency which in turn affects your rally performance. This might sound like a lot of things to remember but I never really cared about them. I just kept performing well in rallies and I never had to worry about any of these things.
WRC 9 is not short of game modes as well. Apart from the extremely well-detailed Career Mode, you have a plethora of other modes to experience WRC 9 as well. WRC 9 also brings a brand new mode to the table called Clubs. Clubs allow you to create your very own WRC championships as you choose rally stages, locations, weather conditions, and car options. You can then share these custom WRC championships with your friends or online community who can try them out. You can try out the creations of other rally drivers from around the world as well. Apart from this, you can also jump in Quick Play where you just pick a rally and vehicle and play it.
If you want to play a full season without the hassle of crew management, you can jump in a quick season in the Season Mode. For a more relaxed experience or challenging yourself to the limit, you can jump in Training, Test Area, or Challenges where different challenges await you. WRC 9 also brings the most comprehensive online experience as it comes with Online Multiplayer, Split-Screen, and eSports WRC mode already built into the game which will allow you to take part in the new season of the official WRC eSports championship and aim to become the next WRC eSports champion.
There is no shortage of amazing rally cars in WRC 9 as well. Spanning over different generations and categories of rally racing, you will find the tamest as well as the most hardcore rally machines in WRC 9 all waiting for you to get in them and let them loose. WRC 9 brings the Porsche 911 GT3 RS R-GT, one of the most challenging rally cars I’ve ever driven, and the new Proton Iriz R5 to the game as well. You will also find some rally legends in the game such as the Lancia 037, Lancia Fulvia HF, and the Lancia Delta HF Integrale Evoluzione. Some of the newer rally legends are also part of the game such as the VW Polo R WRC, Citroen Xsara WRC, and Ford Focus RS from 2007. Apart from these, the current season’s drivers and cars from the current lineup of Junior WRC, WRC, and WRC 2/WRC 3 are all present in the game as well.
Coming to visual fidelity, I can easily say that there are better-looking games out there in this genre. WRC 9 has excellent car details, design and the road surfaces look beautiful as well. However, when it comes to the ambiance, the game still suffers when compares with its competition. The trees in the distance look crooked like something straight out of a horror game and the grass details on the sides of the roads are not that high. I am also not much of a fan of the water and mud splashes in the game. They still look fake and not realistic as well. It appears like the whole focus when it comes to details was on the cars, drivers, and the roads. The environment still lacks polish and better details.
Technically, I did experience some crashes with the game. Every time I used Alt+Tab to save an in-game picture, the game would crash on me. However, I was playing on a review copy and the final release might be much better than the release I got but it was still annoying. I had to counter it with completing a rally and then going to the main menu and then going back to the desktop to save the picture as it always crashed the game for me. For me, I am now used to such bugs because review copies are generally not final copies and mostly when the full release comes out, these small glitches are fixed with launch updates. I am pretty sure that this will be fixed with a launch update as well so I will not be including this in my critical evaluation of the game because other than this, the game ran perfectly fine for me.
Final Verdict:
While WRC 9 may not look much different from its previous title WRC 8, it further builds upon the game, adds more content and polishing on the top, and comes out as the best WRC experience to date. If you already own WRC 8, then WRC 9 might not offer tons of new content to you at this point however if you skipped WRC 8 and are now considering WRC 9, you are in for a treat. WRC 8 was a major milestone for KT Racing and Nacon however WRC 9 is not a letdown in any way. It has certainly moved in the right direction. It certainly is better than WRC 8 and it shows that KT Racing has managed to not only maintain the standard of WRC 8 but improve it even more with the new title. If you are a fan of the rally and off-road racing, WRC 9 is certainly going to challenge your wits with its further improved driving mechanics and road response of vehicles. KT Racing is planning to support the game with post-launch updates and free content which means that you will be set for a long time and it may actually see a longer lifespan than WRC 8. A must-buy for rally fans and driving fans alike.
Final Score: 9.0/10
