Rally simulations are renowned for their difficulty. Make a mistake in EA Sports WRC, and you’ll probably get stuck in a ditch or wrap your car around a tree; such is the unforgiving nature of rally driving.
With Sega Rally stuck in the service park, there’s a dearth of casual rally games that everyone can enjoy. Enter #DRIVE Rally.
Out now in Early Access, #DRIVE Rally is the surprise sequel to the endless runner-style mobile and Switch game #DRIVE from Perfect Pixel Dude, a small indie studio from Poland. Besides the shift to rally, the ambitious sequel is a significant departure from its predecessor.
Whereas #DRIVE is an “endless driving game” inspired by retro road films with a fixed overhead viewpoint, #DRIVE Rally is a point-to-point time trial game with switchable camera angles and stylised 3D graphics.
Unlike its forerunner, #DRIVE Rally is sliding onto PC, PlayStation, and Xbox, with no plans for a mobile release yet. It marks the first time the developer has strayed from Switch, mobile or VR platforms.
Old-school rally
Championship mode sees you select one of four teams before tackling stages in a pre-selected car and location, swapping between different vehicles and navigating more complex courses as the championship progresses.
The Early Access build features four locations with up to 48 stages each (24 normal and 24 reverse). These range from dusty canyons in the USA, icy mountain roads in Finland, claustrophobic urban villages in Germany, and lush jungles in Southeast Asia.
Courses are well-designed with a mix of narrow roads, fast-flowing sections, and sharp turns on gravel, snow, and asphalt terrain.
Compared to EA Sports WRC’s daunting 15-minute-long courses, #DRIVE Rally offers a more casual experience: earlier stages can be completed in under two minutes, with the longest lasting around five minutes. While some stages feature small hills, most are flat – adding some jumps would make the courses more thrilling.
As expected for an indie rally game, none of the cars are officially licensed. However, rally aficionados will recognise homages to iconic cars like the legendary Group B-era Audi Quattro, Lancia Delta HF Integrale, Toyota Celica MKV, Peugeot 205 Turbo 16, and BMW 3 Series E30.
#DRIVE Rally is supposed to be a throwback to the golden 1990s era, but 1980s models inspire most cars in the Early Access build.
One exception is ‘The Jumper’, inspired by Colin McRae’s Ford Focus. A 1990s-inspired rally game isn’t complete without tributes to the era-defining Subaru Impreza and Mitsubishi Lancer Evo WRC cars, which will hopefully appear in a future Early Access build or the final game.
#DRIVE Rally’s current roster also features a few unconventional vehicles not normally associated with rallying, with the American Gassol team pitting fictionalised takes of a 1960s Dodge Charger muscle car and a 1970s Chevrolet Blazer SUV. You can even drive a super-twitchy Lamborghini Countach lookalike.
While the vehicle handling is responsive, the cars feel twitchy and floaty with their copious amounts of grip. Coupled with short braking distances, the driving physics are very forgiving – it’s surprisingly difficult to make the cars slide on loose surfaces without liberally applying the handbrake.
Despite its arcade-like approach, there’s a good sense of weight and feeling of suspension travel. It’s not the most challenging or engaging driving experience, but you feel like a rally god when you nail a tight turn or high-speed section with pinpoint precision.
Credits and new car parts are unlocked as you progress through the championship. Curiously, you can only customise your car collection in the quick race mode, where you can add new bumpers, bonnets, and decals, among other parts.
Not the right call
Each team has a different co-driver representing the region, from Hans, who sounds like an Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonator, to Asian co-driver Jack, who has a dubious stereotypical accent and a penchant for kung-fu and dragons, which might raise eyebrows.
Driving for the Gassol US team pairs you with an American cowboy, while the arrogant Amy guides you in the Finnish Northern Lights team.
As well as making quips about pop culture, your co-driver reacts to your driving, slating your performance if you lose pace or crash. This gives them character, but the repeated one-liners grate after a while. Thankfully, you can turn them off if they get too annoying.
Another issue with the co-drivers is that their remarks are often prioritised over useful information for navigating the course. As a result, you can’t rely on them to warn you about upcoming hazards in time.
Corner pace notes are often delivered far too early or late, with no option to adjust the timing. Some are missed entirely, and there are no visual aids like coloured arrows to guide you as a backup.
Visually, #DRIVE Rally has a distinctive art style, with cel-shaded scenery and blocky cars reminiscent of 1990s racing games. Squint and you’d be forgiven for thinking you were playing a 3D version of Funselektor’s fantastic art of rally.
In addition to the traditional chase camera, #DRIVE Rally can be played with a cockpit view behind the wheel and a top-down view reminiscent of the original #DRIVE and Rush Rally Origins. There’s also a photo mode for virtual rally photographers – an unexpected addition at this early stage.
Despite being in Early Access, #DRIVE Rally has already been verified for Steam Deck. Even on ultra settings, the rally racer is well-optimised and runs impeccably smoothly on Valve’s portable platform.
Its short stages are ideal for playing in small bursts on the go, but it remains to be seen how well it performs on the ageing Nintendo Switch.
Unsurprisingly for an Early Access release, several elements are unfinished. Every car has the same engine sound, whether you’re driving an SUV or a supercar. There are also no drivers or co-drivers inside the interiors, so you can’t see the driver’s hands on the steering wheel in the cockpit view.
Since it launched in late September, Pixel Perfect Dude has already made changes in response to community feedback. Most notably, harsh time penalties for hitting track-side objects have been removed, yet there are no penalties for cheeky corner cutting.
The most recent update added the Porsche 911-inspired ‘Geneve 1975’ and a welcome option to change the AI difficulty. This isn’t without issues, though, as the difficulty feels unbalanced.
In one stage, we beat the AI by ten seconds on the hard difficulty yet finished 20 seconds behind first place on another without making any serious mistakes. More content is planned for future updates, including new cars, stages, customisation options, and co-drivers.
Despite its issues, #DRIVE Rally shows promise. With its comical co-drivers and forgiving car handling, it offers a more casual experience than its rally simulator siblings that’s fun to play in short bursts. If problems like the pace note timings can be ironed out and the stiff handling can be loosened up, this could be a compelling arcade-style alternative to the more serious EA Sports WRC when it speeds out of Early Access.
#DRIVE Rally skids onto PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch in 2025, with a release date to be confirmed. Priced at £15.99 / $19.99, it’s out now via Early Access on PC via Steam, Epic Games Store and GOG.
What are your impressions of #DRIVE Rally if you’ve played it? Let us know in the comments below.
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