If you sit and look at one of Assetto Corsa Rally’s gorgeously-rendered Alfa Romeos, Lancias, or Fiats in the car preview screens, there’s a palpable elegance and beauty to their forms.
Sadly, anyone watching me attempt to wrestle them through the Welsh woods or along tight stretches of French tarmac over the course of six hours so far would have rarely seen any elegant or beautiful driving. There are times, especially in long sweeping turns, when things start to feel as satisfying as they should. Most of the time though, Assetto Corsa Rally with a wheel feels a lot like you’re skating on ice, rather than the gravel and tarmac it currently offers.
I was surprised something so sim-focused didn’t seem to automatically adjust to my Logitech G29, instead leaving me to manually make sure the controls were set to wheel and bind all of the inputs. Not a problem in and of itself, since sorting it only took a few minutes. The real issue came when I took on my first stage.
As I accelerated from the start line, I barely felt the road beneath me. Corners came and went, I turned into them with no resistance, and sometimes the rear of the car would suddenly overtake the front. My first thought was that I’d somehow forgotten to plug in the wheel’s power supply, but everything was in order. Maybe it’s just that the default settings are tuned way too low, I wondered, delving back into the menu to ratchet up the force feedback in an effort to feel something. Dialling up the gain did help a bit, suddenly the car would sometimes kick back against me, but I was still being taken totally by surprise.
It might sound like someone trying to spare their driving blushes but, because the game offers so little in the way of feeling outside of those force feedback snaps, actually detecting that your car’s about to spin out or drift into the danger zone before it’s too late becomes a near impossible task. There’s nothing to respond to with a correction or gentle decrease in speed before you hit the point of no return, and your arm’s nearly taken off. Things feel better using a controller, with the rumble providing just enough noise that I was more comfortable chucking my car around without being as fearful of unexpected surprises, but that’s hardly ideal for a wheel-centric racing sim.
Developers Supernova Games Studios say in the review pace notes they handed me that the overall grip levels on both tarmac and gravel are still a work-in-progress and will be tweaked slightly for the full release. However, assuming that’s the main culprit in what I’ve outlined above, I’d argue a substantial shift is ideally needed. Having fired up Dirt Rally 2.0 to compare, the difference is night and day. 2.0 still regularly threatens to fling you at the scenery, but almost always in ways you can anticipate or have a chance to react to as you scythe through its tactile rocky rollercoaster rides.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given AC Rally was made in partnership with road racing sim devs Kunos Simulazioni, I’d say its tarmac stages have felt marginally better than the gravel ones thus far, though this is possibly influenced by simply not expecting as much baseline resistance from a smooth surface. It’s a real shame, as they’re otherwise picturesque romps which work plenty of tight twists and hidden hazards into a decent selection of routes and lengths of stage across the two starter locations.
There’s a clear sense of authenticity, with fans often sprinting off track ahead of you as you round corners, while the soundscape surrounds you with brash engine roar and the occasional tyre squeal. Though it’s very difficult to tell given the overall grip issue, I’d say that front-wheel-drive cars like the Mini Cooper and Peugeot 208 Rally4, both designed to act as approachable rides for beginners, need their handling tweaked so as not to be as prone to spinning out on acceleration. Currently, I’ve had as hard a time with them as any of the more powerful four wheel or rear wheel drive cars which are supposed to be more challenging. Though, several of the latter – including the sole Group B representative in the form of the Lancia 037 – still had work-in-progress handling in the build I’ve played.
It’s been equally hard to tell how much of an effect wet conditions have for the same reason, but I can at least say taking on a night stage is as atmospheric as you’d hope. The crash physics and damage mechanics are another element Supernova say they’re still working on, which I assume is why I’ve only experienced cosmetic bumps and the occasional puncture so far, having set things to realistic. Despite a couple of high-speed rolls, I’ve not had any stages abruptly end with a write-off-induced DNF, though I have had to start one with a Citroen which had jettisoned all of its front end bodywork, leaving it looking rather nude.
If you’re keen to read a thorough rundown of the different eras of rallying history or the accolades of specific cars, I can recommend the encyclopedia sections you can access in the menus. There are neat little summaries of each major decade following the formation of the World Rally Championship in the early 70s, outlining the impact of key drivers, cars, and shifts in tech. Though I did raise an eyebrow when I flicked to the final slide and saw the rally in Saudi Arabia the real-world WRC has added this year described as a “groundbreaking addition” which “signals the sport’s growing global footprint and ambition, introducing fans to exotic terrains and new rally cultures”.
I’m all for trying to be optimistic about the state of the sport, but there’s a reason ‘more sportswashing’ isn’t on the list of suggestions for improving top-level rallying’s appeal and status in that article I’ve just linked.
Moving back onto the trail to close out, based on what I’ve played thus far, I can’t recommend blindly grabbing Assetto Corsa Rally as soon as its early access kicks off today. It’s far from a lost cause, though. With a revamp of the handling that could at least be started on by the day one tweaks Supernova have suggested they’ll be making, there’s a good chance it can be moulded into a rally sim which can pick up the baton from the likes of Dirt Rally. As it stands though, unless there’s some underlying flaw in my wheel setup none of the other sims I’ve played recently have picked up, this game’s got time to make up in the coming stages.
