Despite solid driving physics, WRC 2 fails to make significant improvements on last year's game, or keep up with its racing rivals.
WRC 2 fails to make many improvements on the first World Rally Championship game. It doesn't address many of the original game's flaws and adds very little new content, except for updating the cars and drivers to the 2011 WRC season. The car handling, visual detail, and game modes are all largely unchanged, resulting in a game that feels like a missed opportunity rather than a successful sequel. Followers of the real sport will appreciate the new Super Special Stages, but most racing game fans will be disappointed by the lack of thrills and frills.
Despite its many disappointments, WRC 2 features the same robust handling model that was the most enjoyable aspect of last year's game. Front-wheel drive cars require a deft touch with the throttle to compensate for their understeer, whereas the much more powerful Production, S2000, and WRC classes challenge you to control big slides using careful steering and the hand brake. Surface changes are as important as ever. Most stages feature multiple road types, such as tarmac, gravel, sand, and snow. Transitioning between them noticeably affects your handling, particularly in wet weather. The game now features a selection of preset car setups at the beginning of each stage, based on the weather and the types of surfaces you will face. Those of you with more mechanical knowledge can tweak every aspect of the car to find extra performance, but the presets offer a helping hand if you would rather just get behind the wheel. There's also a rewind feature, which functions the same way as those found in many other current racing games, allowing you the chance to roll back the action by a few seconds. This is a welcome addition, because the handling can take some getting used to, and many of the stages are much longer than those found in other recent rally games. Purists can turn this feature off for a more realistic experience, if they prefer to.
The Rally Academy returns from last year's game. This mode requires you to complete short sections of stages in varying conditions and with different cars. Using a racing line and ghost car as a guide, novices can spend time in Rally Academy to become familiar with the handling model and the variations between surfaces and car classes. You can also learn the different calls used by your co-driver, helping you to predict the road ahead and position yourself effectively for each bend and bump. The various difficulty options give novices even more tools to ease them into competitive rally racing. Assists include braking and stability, adjustable damage, a number of rewinds, and nine levels of AI ability. This makes it easy for newcomers to gradually tweak the difficulty as they improve their skills, while also giving rally veterans the chance to make the game as challenging as they please. Steering wheel support has been improved thanks to input graphs in the advanced wheel settings screen that let you test settings before going on-track, rather than through trial and error.
Unfortunately, once you enter the Road to WRC career mode, it becomes apparent that little else has been improved since last year's game. The structure is the same: start your own team and hire mechanics to upgrade your car and managers to negotiate with sponsors. At each race event, you're given team and sponsor objectives that you complete to gain money and reputation. Objectives usually involve finishing above a certain position or under a set time. Money can be used to buy cars, as well as colours and patterns to paint them with. Your reputation determines which cars are unlocked and increases interest in you from the official WRC teams. This mode will be familiar to those who play a lot of racing games, and its lack of originality can make it quickly feel stale. Many of last year's problems also return. The sponsors you earn are still fictional companies, sometimes with no motorsport connection whatsoever, such as Steve Pace Guitars. Also, once you've progressed through the support classes and reach the World Rally Championship itself, you're forced to abandon the team that you have carefully built up in favour of an officially licensed one, making the majority of your efforts feel like a waste of time. The career mode is lengthy, but it doesn't provide the same sense of progression or accomplishment achieved by other racing games.
I tested the game yesterday. Game physics are not that good. Graphics are avarage, don't expect graphics just like real. You have many cars to select though. Personally, i prefer playing Colin McRae Rally 2. WRC 2 is not better than DiRT 3. So if you want to play a good rally game, look at the DiRT series, especially third game is cool. And if you're a rally game fan, you can do nostalgy with CMR 2 if you have not played it yet :D But don't waste your time for this game.
