Sebastien Loeb Rally Evo (PlayStation 4) Review

With such a lot of competition around, it would seem Sébastien Loeb Rally Evo has its work cut out for it. Thankfully, the game packs an impressive punch in terms of its content. There's a choice of fifty cars, classic through to modern, including seventeen manufacturers overall. It features eight different rallies, five rallycross courses, sixty-four special stages, as well as the race to the clouds, the full Pikes Peak hill climb. This is without a doubt a hefty package, especially considering the additional DLC available in the form of a rallycross pack and the Class 5 prototype pack, which includes the likes of the Lancia ECV and Toyota 222D.

The wide range of different rally types provides a good sense of variety and ensures there's always a switch of pace available nearby. With that said, though, each rally type comes with its own set of challenges. Overall, it's just not as distinct or detailed compared with the more sim-heavy likes of DiRT Rally. Indeed, it's actually quite difficult to place Sébastien Loeb Rally Evo on the scale between arcade racer and sim. While the game will appropriately punish a player who fails to hit the brakes in a timely manner, that can be entirely negated through the rewind feature available. Admittedly, however, even if choosing to take the action very seriously, when 11 miles up Pikes Peak only to carelessly tumble off a corner, it's a feature that anyone will greatly appreciate.

Perhaps it's a small feature that goes a long way to making the game feel like a much more leisurely experience compared to other rally games out there. While it's not possible to entirely switch off whilst playing, it is feasible that gamers will get through a big session without then peeling out of the chair all achy from the subconscious clenching. There's a somewhat easy-going edge that makes it very playable. That's not to say all the critical racing elements aren't present, simply that it's a less demanding racer in most capacities.

The physics engine seems a little too forgiving in certain situations to be considered a serious attempt on sim-like gameplay. Sometimes the car veers out of corners a little unrealistically, with not such a battle required to gather control on the way out of under-estimated or over-estimated turns. In this sense, steering can feel a tad dulled at times.

As already stated, though, this helps keep things accessible, which is important given how much content there is to get through. It's quite easy to slip into the groove, whereas other more demanding titles may require more preparation before you can tear through a rally perfectly. You can also test drive (free-roam) with your current ride around a racing company's hangar and the connected off-road track, which is a welcome distraction when just wanting to idly roam and test performance.

The career mode is also a really absorbing prospect. It's easy to sink time into and is well incentivised with credits earned towards new vehicles and reputation points, contributing toward the driver's world standing. The fantastic variety of landscape and location is very well showcased, and Evo provides an extremely robust challenge within each venue. Despite some perceivable arcade-like traits, it remains difficult to master and it is true to the intense challenge of rallying. The gradient of the 'grind' is suitably set. Even when it's not possible to earn a gold at medium or high difficulty, with the credits earned from valiant runs, it is possible to purchase cars that help improve the capability to excel. Hence, even when getting behind the wheel of just a new car within a certain class, it's still a gratifying experience. In this sense, the game cleverly applies arcade-like levels satisfaction through credit earnings race to race, which means even if you haven't ironed out all the weak spots in a run, there's still a clear purpose to chalking up the mileage.

Returning to the use of the rewind feature; if used as a respectful tool and not just a way to cheat your way through each course, it's actually a nice asset that helps the progress flow well in career mode. After establishing the route through a first run (you get rewinds per race as standard, of which a handful may be required), a second attempt often provides that illusive gold medal at a surprisingly recurrent rate. If the player is a thoughtful driver, it's a highly appreciated tool if one is inclined to use it. Of course, this does dilute any hint of simulation that Milestone wish to imply, but you can take it or leave it, of course. The only small snag with the rewind ability is that it doesn't go back very far, leading to the odd occasion where you're brought back to a point that's still not actually salvageable. This is very rare, thankfully.

In many ways, Sebastien Loeb Rally Evo seems like the perfect rally experience. The sheer range of rally experiences, the vast list of cars from all the decades, as well as the contrasting aesthetics provided by each country's courses all leave a big impression. However, there are a few aspects of the game that fall short of the levels of polish that other elite racers feature. For example, the audio is definitely a noticeable step below the quality of DiRT Rally and other realistic driving games that, by comparison are much more crisp and defined. Sounds such as flickering mud and gravel under the car seem all too like simple looped sound-clips, which don't retain the contextual detail that can be detected on a lot of bigger budget AAA racers.

The graphical fidelity, whilst perfectly adequate and often very pleasing to the eye, seems to be slightly dated by today's standards. There's some noticeable texture pop-in as some distant objects gain detail, though this is quite minor. In addition, the frame-rate is not exactly consistent, feeling like it averages out at about thirty frames-per-second rather than the silky sixty that AAA racers aspire to. All of this is entirely irrelevant once sucked in by the game's many draws, but given the Milestone's rather small-time budget for Sebastien Loeb Rally Evo - it's exciting to think what the team might be able to achieve with a bigger budget and a larger development window. When working on the WRC series, Milestone churned out a huge volume of titles basically by the year, that were all respectable, functional racers despite clearly having small development cycles. Perhaps with the right backing and a large amount of time to work on it, Milestone might not be far away from the perfect rally experience.

Something else that complements the substantial career mode is the Loeb Experience mode. This offers a collection of single events, twenty-seven in total, based on various moments in the rally driver's illustrious career. These come with a generous heap of videos detailing Loeb's career and life, and it's a great way to see and celebrate his career's landmark events. This mode is a fantastic unexpected addition, which can be appreciated by avid rally fans and newcomers alike.

One of the game's most exhilarating highlights overall is definitely the full Pikes Peak hill-climb. This famous and highly challenging event sees the driver up through the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, through a series of tight twisting roads with massive cliff-drops everywhere. Thanks to the rewind feature, although the event generally takes around fifteen to twenty minutes to complete, the player seldom ends up ruining an entire run. Although you can fall back on this feature, it's still a well-replicated and hefty challenge that requires an extra precise and alert driver to succeed.

Disappointingly, there's no split-screen multiplayer of any description. This would have been the icing on the cake, but it's not the only racing game to abandon this in recent times. The online multiplayer features a quick match mode, searchable lobbies, and private matches are available so players can stick exclusively amongst friends. Admittedly, it wasn't very quick trying to leap even into a quick race. The servers don't exactly seem to be over-flowing, which is a slight annoyance. However, unusually for a racing game, the online mode seems subservient to the absorbing career mode.