Ralli Sport Challenge 2 Game Review
Posted: Saturday, July 03, 2004
by Fingers Flynn Barkan
KiLl EveRyTHiNG
Game Review
6/22/04
Ralli Sport Challenge 2
Platform: Xbox
Developer: Microsoft/Dice
Release Date: May 04'
Retail Price: $50 (Best Buy)
by Seth "Fingers" Flynn Barkan
Ralli Sports Challenge 2 may be the best-looking racing game ever made. When watching replay footage of a race, it is often difficult to tell if you are looking at a game or actual TV footage. Beyond this, the game offers a near-perfect mix of driving sim and pick-up-and-play elements. Gamers will find it very easy to get into and very difficult to turn off. The game has few shortcomings and (unless you hate racing games) is a definite must-buy for owners of the Xbox. Here is my review.
The gameplay in RSC2 is simply excellent. The game uses a great physics engine which gives the cars a sense of real-world solidity rarely seen in racing games. Power-sliding across dirt, gravel, sand, mud, or rain-slicked tarmac has never had such a sense of realism behind it. When vehicles roll, they roll hard, spinning end-over-end, parts shearing off of them. The multiple weather and surface types combine to create a myriad of unique racing challenges that should boggle the average driver’s mind. The large variety in the look and setting of the tracks furthers this sensation of mind-blowing variety. Whatever else may be true, you won’t get tired of the play mechanics. The controls on the Xbox are tight and responsive.
The cars are tweakable, but there are no upgradable parts. You can adjust your car’s suspension, tires, gear ratio, and other aspects to improve performance but it’s nothing that could be compared to an in-depth racing sim like Gran Turismo. Still, players will notice a difference in handling after tweaking out their rides. Unfortunately, Microsoft didn’t cover how the majority of the changes will affect your car in the instruction manual so (for novice drivers) some research or experimentation may be in order. As it stands, though, the default options for each track are usually adequate.
There are a ton of tracks in the game (upwards of 30 unique tracks, with multiple weather variants, mirrored tracks, reverse, etc.) ranging in location from dusty Australian desert to beautiful mountainside to icy, Canadian wilderness. The game also features night driving which is always unnerving as your field of vision is reduced to only what you can see immediately in front of your car. Likewise, racing across a track covered in snow (which is easily the most treacherous of the surface types) at night is an extremely tense and exciting ordeal.
If there is a fault in the game, it’s that there is some pop-up during the races. While it’s usually not all that noticeable, it becomes an issue whenever you’re gunning downing a straight-away which ends in a 90 degree turn. Timing the turn correctly is essential and sometimes the corner pops up into your field of vision too late. A minor quibble, true, but an irritating one.
Racing Modes:
RSC2 is structured around multiple different racing modes: Rally, Rallycross, Hill Climb, Crossover, and Ice Racing. In Rally mode, you race with a co-pilot cross-country to beat your opponent’s finishing time. In this mode, there is no map, just a progress meter. Your co-pilot calls out pace notes, verbal cues of what’s coming up on the track ahead. This is really cool and works really well, especially when using the advanced pace notes. Every turn, rock, obstacle, and jump will be called out to you before you come to them, allowing you extra time to get on the best line. You will find yourself playing this mode a lot and it’s my favorite.
Rallycross is an actual race against three opponents on a circular track. These races seem to be less common than almost any of the other game modes, perhaps due to performance demands. Still, they are entertaining and (in later difficulty modes) can be extremely challenging.
Hill Climb is like Rally mode but up twisting mountain roads, and Crossover is kind of like Rallycross but with one opponent racing against you instead of 3. Ice Racing is Rallycross on super-slick circular ice tracks. It’s the least entertaining of the race modes, but still fun nonetheless.
Each race mode has it’s own unique class of car. As you progress through the game, you unlock better vehicles by winning races. It would have been nice if Microsoft had instead used a money-based system here to break up some of the perceived linearity of your progress through your racing career, but it is a small quibble (especially considering that you get to pick which races you’ll participate in).
The game allows you to progress through different difficulty rankings. Amateur, the first, is so easy that it’s almost stupid. Still, it gives you a chance to learn the ropes. Next is Pro, which is slightly more challenging. From there, the game begins to get really hard really fast it would have been nice had Microsoft evened out the level of challenge across the difficulty levels, which would have reduced on the number of broken Xbox controllers thrown across the room, but it’s another relatively small complaint.
Multiplay:
In theory, you can play with 1-4 players via split-screen on the same TV or network the consoles for up to 16 people simultaneously. While I have not experienced either, just knowing that the option is there is nice. I don’t have 16 friends, though (and even less with Xboxes), so I wonder how often the feature will be used.
Xbox Live:
RSC2 is fully compatible with the Xbox Live system. I do not have broadband access yet so I haven’t had a chance to try it out. Other reports, however, say that performance is good although the game at times uses wire outlines instead of the actual skins for the cars (presumably to reduce performance strain).
Bottom Line:
If you do not hate racing games, you must buy Ralli Sports Challenge 2. It is simply awesome, one of the best racing games of all-time.
Comment on this article at: http://www.livejournal.com/users/lvclke/15242.html?mode=reply
The permalink to this article can be found at the Kill Everything Review Index
-Seth "Fingers" Flynn Barkan is the games columnist for Las Vegas CityLife and is the author of the video game poetry collection Blue Wizard Is About To Die!: Prose, Poems, and Emoto-Versatronic Expressionist Pieces About Video Games (1980-2003). He can be reached at to rg o 2 (*) pip eline . com
Copyright 2004 by Seth Barkan. No portion of this work may be reproduced in any form, either print or electronic, without the consent of the author.
This Article has been viewed 3,154 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)THE RALLY ARTICLES SEEM TO HAVE EVERYTHING POSITIVE TO SAY... UNFORTANETLY I HAVEN'T RECEIVED ENOUGH INFO TO SUBMIT THE REVIEWS FOR A MAGAZINE PROFILE..
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.