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SEBASTIEN LOEB RALLY EVO (PS4)
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Publisher: Milestone.
Developer: Milestone. Released: January 2016. Genre: Racing. Other versions: XONE; PC. Posted 22nd November 2022. By Tom Clare © 2022 |
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Only when the dust had started to settle on Sébastien Loeb’s remarkable rallying career, did the French legend finally have a racer to put his name to. 2016’s Rally Evo is most crudely and most accurately summarised as “Ride with rally cars”, coming from habitual race-smiths Milestone and carrying over a number of familiar design aspects.
Rally Evo is no DiRT beater, we’ll establish that straight out of the gate. Its frame rate is sturdy but unimpressive, the handling acceptable though lacking sharpness and its graphics closer to that of a polished PS3 game than cutting-edge PS4. This being said, Milestone exhibits their usual, admirable appreciation for motorsport history and its minutiae: it’s hard to fault either the volume of content or the breadth of the rally car selection.
Rally Evo is no DiRT beater, we’ll establish that straight out of the gate. Its frame rate is sturdy but unimpressive, the handling acceptable though lacking sharpness and its graphics closer to that of a polished PS3 game than cutting-edge PS4. This being said, Milestone exhibits their usual, admirable appreciation for motorsport history and its minutiae: it’s hard to fault either the volume of content or the breadth of the rally car selection.
External camera views are a bit ricketty. Switch to the bonnet cam for a better sense of speed and handling
The Loeb Experience is an especially nice touch. Telling the glittering story of the all-conquering, nine-time WRC champion’s career in a sequence of individual events, the player gets to pilot a raft of Loeb’s iconic (admittedly mainly Citroen) rally cars, from his early national championship successes in a Saxo to the entry (and eventual domination) of the World Rally Championship. This particular journey would likely have sufficed, but the game also covers Loeb’s flirtations with Rallycross and the Pikes Peak hill climb too, adding a nice bit of variety. Each chapter is framed by interesting insights offered by Loeb himself, helping lend context to each challenge. It’s just as well Milestone made this in 2016: had they waited five more years, they’d likely have had to work out how to incorporate his antics at the Dakar Rally and Extreme E too.
The rallying itself is fairly good. I’d advise against using the external camera views, as the rotation of the cars and their movement across the road surfaces doesn’t quite seem to correlate and consequently can prove quite distracting. Play from the bonnet cam, however, and it’s fairly exciting stuff. Like the best rally racers, it challenges the player with finding a medium between commitment and care, as cars are very easily damaged. On the plus side, there is a flashback feature to dampen the impact of one or two inaccurate co-driver instructions. SLRE offers eight ‘full’ rallies covering all the major surfaces of the WRC, including tarmac, snow, mud and gravel, achieving each to a good standard. The super-fast, woodland helter-skelter that is the Finnish rally proves a predictable highlight, whilst Sweden offers a more enjoyable interpretation of snow rallying than even DiRT Rally was able to produce, thanks to slightly wider roads allowing for less constricted handling. In addition, there are a bunch of Rallycross events on small circuits, as well as the complete Pikes Peak course, which is a big plus.
The rallying itself is fairly good. I’d advise against using the external camera views, as the rotation of the cars and their movement across the road surfaces doesn’t quite seem to correlate and consequently can prove quite distracting. Play from the bonnet cam, however, and it’s fairly exciting stuff. Like the best rally racers, it challenges the player with finding a medium between commitment and care, as cars are very easily damaged. On the plus side, there is a flashback feature to dampen the impact of one or two inaccurate co-driver instructions. SLRE offers eight ‘full’ rallies covering all the major surfaces of the WRC, including tarmac, snow, mud and gravel, achieving each to a good standard. The super-fast, woodland helter-skelter that is the Finnish rally proves a predictable highlight, whilst Sweden offers a more enjoyable interpretation of snow rallying than even DiRT Rally was able to produce, thanks to slightly wider roads allowing for less constricted handling. In addition, there are a bunch of Rallycross events on small circuits, as well as the complete Pikes Peak course, which is a big plus.
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The main career mode will be familiar with those who’ve played the Ride series. This means an absolute abundance of single events based around every categorisation under the sun, including specific rally brands, drive types, power outputs, eras of cars and so on. As well as earning money towards the purchase of dozens of iconic motors, the player’s overriding task is to grind away earning Reputation points, with a view to becoming world #1, attracting the attention of Sébastien Loeb and beating his final challenge at Pikes Peak. Like Ride, this becomes undeniably attritional over time, as you’ll be revisiting stages an awful lot, only with different cars.
There is the odd nuisance. Punctures are a strange one, in that unlike any other rallying game I can remember, they remain unfixed between stages if there is no service area, whereas a real-world driver/co-driver combination would likely attempt to patch this up (or change the tyre) in time for the following stage. This puts a bit of a dampener on two-stage rallies, especially if you get a flat early on the opener. Cars also flip weirdly easily on Rallycross stages. Without suffering any crippling issues, Rally Evo doesn’t run or respond with the level of rapidity the PS4 is capable of. Then there are the disappointing visuals. It suffers little in the way of glitches or aberrations, but the graphics are below par, with close scenery in particular appearing very basic and the environments appearing drab.
There is the odd nuisance. Punctures are a strange one, in that unlike any other rallying game I can remember, they remain unfixed between stages if there is no service area, whereas a real-world driver/co-driver combination would likely attempt to patch this up (or change the tyre) in time for the following stage. This puts a bit of a dampener on two-stage rallies, especially if you get a flat early on the opener. Cars also flip weirdly easily on Rallycross stages. Without suffering any crippling issues, Rally Evo doesn’t run or respond with the level of rapidity the PS4 is capable of. Then there are the disappointing visuals. It suffers little in the way of glitches or aberrations, but the graphics are below par, with close scenery in particular appearing very basic and the environments appearing drab.
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Multiplayer functions nicely as the player races what is in effect a live ghost of their opponent on rally stages. Even at the time of release there were several better (and more popular) rally games available. As a result, there has rarely been much life to the online suite, particularly given the online-related trophy requiring the player partake in just one race. Broadly speaking, it plays things with a straight bat, following the blueprint of Milestone’s motorbike racers. Nothing to complain about, nothing to write home about.
Is Sébastien Loeb Rally Evo worthy of the great champion’s name? Well, it doesn’t rank amongst the top tier of PS4 rallying games. However, after an inconspicuous start, the game does grow on you. The handling and visuals are nothing special, but a well-considered Loeb Experience mode, heaps of stages and a comprehensive array of rally cars mean fans of the sport will find a reasonable enough distraction.
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VERDICT
"after an inconspicuous start, SLRE does grow on you. The handling and visuals are nothing special, but a well-considered Loeb Experience mode, heaps of stages and a comprehensive array of rally cars mean fans of the sport will find it a reasonable enough distraction" OVERALL: 6/10 |
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