I’m going to try and review the Early Access build of Assetto Corsa Rally without mentioning a certain 2004 rally simulator (and no, I don’t mean Xpand Rally).
You know the one I’m talking about: the hardcore rally sim that’s had a new lease of life thanks to the Rallysimfans community, featuring more rally cars and stages than you can shake a gearstick at.
When Supernova Games Studios and Kunos Simulazioni unveiled the fruits of their partnership at this year’s SimRacing Expo, many were shocked by how far along AC Rally appeared to be – it’s been in development since 2021.
And for clarity: this is definitely a rally sim, eclipsing EA SPORTS WRC’s handling model for accuracy on both gravel and asphalt surfaces. That’s just my opinion, of course, but it’s an opinion based on more than a decade of playing the rally–sim-that-must-not-be-named, plus EA and Codemasters’ recent efforts.
It’s a huge problem for any new rally title; how on earth can it compete with the all-consuming love for a two-decade-old simulator that features advanced suspension mechanics and a passionate modding community?
With the rally-sim-that-must-not-be-named looming large in its mirrors, like some kind of muddy Voldemort, does AC Rally show enough potential to take its crown as king of the rally sims?
Read on to find out.
Yer a rally driver, Harry (Rovanpera)
Supernova’s rally sim immediately infects you with a severe case of rally fever. With its current roster of 10 rally machines, including Lancia’s 037 Group B contender, the modern Hyundai i20 Rally2 and the iconic Lancia Delta Integrale Evo II, the game raises bobblehatters’ core temperature, with each model rendered in glorious detail.
It’s a veritable feast for the eyes, with little evidence of the graphical artefacts you’d expect to find in an Unreal Engine 5-powered game – don’t expect EA WRC levels of stutteriness here.
On my modestly specced PC (Nvidia RTX 4070, AMD Ryzen 7 3800X, 16 GB RAM), performance was locked at a steady 60 fps at 3440 x 1440, using a mix of medium, high, and ultra settings.
Higher frame rate figures are easily achievable when knocking some of the visual sliders down, with occasional dips in fluidity while capturing footage for our accompanying YouTube video. For the most part, AC Rally runs as smooth as Didier Auriol’s head.
However, Traxion’s John Munro and Tom Harrison-Lord experienced variable performance in comparison, which may or may not be caused by a discrepancy between AMD and Intel CPUs, with my AMD Ryzen 7 achieving higher frame rates overall. Perhaps not everyone will be as lucky as I’ve been in this respect, but we’d be interested to read your thoughts in the comments below.
Triple screen setups are already supported, but we’ve not been able to test their functionality yet.
For the most part, however, the work that Supernova and Kunos have done to UE5 has paid huge dividends; just look at the replays: gorgeous.
And AC Rally looks stunning across all conditions and times of day, with headlight reflections glinting evocatively across layers of wet mud and sun rays blinding you through the trees at dusk. Wonderful.
Sounds
The sounds are just as convincing, with the pure normally-aspirated scream of the Fiat 124 counterbalanced by the turbo growl of the Delta .
The Mini Cooper is less accurate, however, with its distinctive transmission whine mostly absent, but the general ambience of gravel hitting the underside of your car has been wonderfully realised.
Realism
It’s clear to see that the AC Rally development team consists of ardent rally fans. The attention to detail is obvious: witness your co-driver actually turning the pages of his notebook; or the way the Citroën Xsara WRC’s back-up shifter moves concurrently with its flappy paddles; or even how you have to stop at time control points at the beginning and end of each stage – the game is steeped in details.
Not everything is perfect; there’s no brake disc glow effect, anti-lag pops and bangs could be louder, and some of the wide-arched cars look odd thanks to the use of ultra-narrow tyres that look more like spacesavers than gravel rubber.
But I don’t care about these foibles, as the core driving experience is so good. Incredibly good. I’d even go as far as to say it’s the best-feeling rally title I’ve ever played. Yes, even better than you know what.
Blasting through the gravelly cauldron of Hafren South is an utter joy, a revelation even. You have to use weight-shifting techniques to negotiate tight turns, while tempering your natural instinct to push by making subtle inputs.
Using too much right foot on the rear-wheel-drive cars will cause you to spin out into the (deformable!) trees, while keeping the front-wheel-drive Mini pointing forward yields the best results, like some kind of tiny momentum missile.
You can take more liberties with all-wheel-drive cars, however, so the 2020 Hyundai i20 Rally feels more pliant over bumps than the 1992 Lancia Delta Integrale Evo II. It all makes sense, and after some acclimatisation, you feel like you belong with the greats: Kankkunen, McRae, Mäkinen, Loeb, Ogier et al.
Asfault
However, for me, AC Rally’s superb gravel handling model doesn’t translate to asphalt. I feel like there’s a more pronounced pendulum-style effect in the physics, which means your steering inputs have to be ultra-precise or else a tank-slapper ensues.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a level above the asphalt driving in EA WRC, but I don’t have the same control over the car’s behaviour as I do in Richard Burns R… ahem, you-know-what.
More seat time opened up my understanding of the game’s asphalt physics, though, but it still felt challenging to pull off handbrake turns to perfection. I think more work is required on this front.
By fans for fans
Supernova has sprinkled handfuls of magic rally dust – possibly pea gravel – all over AC Rally.
Service parks, scenes of much drama in real-world rallying, are functional in-game. It’s here where you can tweak your set-up, pick your tyres or fix your car during multi-leg rallies.
In our early test build, the medium and hard compound tyres had yet to be optimised, and wear was switched off. However, it was clear to see that sliding your car around results in realistically hot rubber, so strategically conserving your tyres could well play a crucial role in career and multiplayer modes. As expected, tyres also run cooler in wet conditions and at night.
You can also play around with dynamic weather and time of day settings to create mid-stage intrigue. However, I was unable to set up a wild swing in conditions between the start and the finish of a stage (time acceleration only affects the day-to-night cycle, not the weather forecast, unfortunately), but seeing a gradual change from day to night or experiencing fog slowly lifting from a Welsh valley is still hugely immersive.
Adding to the game’s already ample fever is the Rally Encyclopedia, which goes to great lengths to explain the history of rallying and the concept of pacenotes, which may be unfamiliar to some racing game fans, and it includes useful information on the storied cars, drivers and locations of rally through the decades.
Three right, minus
Before you say that we’re simply wearing mud-tinted spectacles in this Early Access review, AC Rally does have a few shortcomings.
I mean, I noticed a few spelling mistakes, for example…
But there are more fundamental problems. These are mostly nitpicking, considering the title’s Early Access moniker, but it’s vital to point out that there’s really not much game here just yet.
Essentially, there’s very little to do. With only two environments incorporating four stages, you will literally and figuratively run out of road. In terms of rally events, you can achieve gold, silver and bronze medals by completing each stage in a variety of weather and time conditions using different cars.
Time-based events are ridiculously easy thanks to the 10-minute target time, but this will be addressed in future.
Show us your medals
Collecting more medals unlocks more events and trickier cars, like the powerful rear-wheel-drive Lancia 037, but there’s no real point, given that every stage and car can be driven from the get-go. Time attack (essentially online leaderboards) and practice modes will be available from day one, with further features arriving in subsequent updates.
The damage model is fairly basic, too, so although there is pretty cosmetic deformation (bumpers fly off, boot lids detach, lights smash, radiators blow, etc), the mechanical effects aren’t really felt through the steering wheel (or gamepad, for that matter, which feels a tad twitchier and offers less fine control than a steering wheel at the moment).
I also can’t map a secondary gearshift controller yet, so I have to choose between my Heusinkveld MagShift or the paddles on my Moza RS V2.
Other minor issues include the asphalt pacenotes sometimes being called too late, and the flags of Scotland, England and Northern Ireland being strangely absent. As a proud Scotsman, this makes me and my virtual co-driver, Derek Ringer, very sad. Not spot on.
These are minor and easily fixed issues, however, and occurrences to be expected from an Early Access game, which, to be quite blunt, absolutely nails the fundamentals of a rally sim: the driving.
The future
So, what can we expect to see from AC Rally in future? Clearly, the hope is that the game will feature many more cars and stages, with Supernova promising more content in subsequent Early Access builds.
The biggest potential issue is the number of stages. Every road is laser-scanned in-game, resulting in believably cambered and detailed road surfaces, but at the expense of lengthy development lead times. This is where community-made content could come to the fore.
Version 1.0 of the game will have 120 km of roads and ten special stages, across five locations, with more added in post-release updates. This doesn’t sound like enough to sustain long-term interest in the game.
Modding hasn’t been fully confirmed, but it hasn’t been ruled out officially, either, which is encouraging, as I believe this could secure the game’s future, especially as the Rallysimfans community has already created laser-scanned stages in you-know-what in the past (for example, the superb Gabiria-Legazpi 2004 and Biskupice 2004).
Over 30 cars and new game modes are also planned for v1.0, including a rally school, more asynchronous multiplayer features and a career mode, while VR compatibility is a work in progress. Console versions are also in the offing.
More details will emerge as development continues, but the ability to create custom leagues and championships is undoubtedly a crucial feature.
AC Rally has a few key areas to work on during Early Access, but at the moment, it’s an intensely fun, engaging and immersive rally sim.
In fact, it’s right up there with Richard Burns Rally.
Damn.
*Traxion doesn’t give games Early Access review scores until they reach version 1.0
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I’ve said it before and say it again:
Show me MOD (cards and stages)
Show me VR running fine in mid teer hardware.
All else is just another EA WRC destined to fail.
The obvious answer is:
Show me V1.0
And when you say this SIM is just the next WRC, what your really saying is that you haven’t played much of either.
Also, purely out of interest, do you find other people talk to you very often at parties and social events?
Both myself and the Hyundai i20 Rally2 in ACR are eagerly waiting for the opportunity to add custom liveries.
Adding car and stage mods is a different kettle of fish but custom liveries should be allowed and implemented pretty easily.
Any idea as to whether it is or will be possible in the very near future?
We will make sure to ask next time we speak with the devs!