Title: WRC 8
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Developer: Kylotonn
Publisher: Bigben Interactive
Release Date: November 19th, 2019 (NA)
File Size: 13.6GB
Review copy provided by Bigben Interactive
Here’s my first review of the new year. This is the latest in the WRC (World Rally Championship) series and the second on a Nintendo platform (at least in recent gens?), with the first being a WRC title on 3DS. The 3DS game was a… really iffy game by Firebrand Games (a dev famous for their DS racing games) that likely didn’t get the time or money it needed to be what it could’ve been. There was also a WRC-like game called V-Rally 4 on Switch early last year, also by Bigben and Kylotonn which fared alright but looking at Metacritic, it wasn’t super well rated on any system. WRC 8 on the other hand was highly rated on the other platforms… but not so on Switch. This is my first rally game so I’ll be looking at it with fresh eyes. How does it fare? Let’s find out!
The first training course to determine how you stand.
WRC 8 is what can be described as a simulation game and very much so. The controls are more of the “expert” kind of racing games and certainly not like Mario Kart or anything like that. You hold ZR to accelerate and ZL to brake. The uses and timing of these buttons are crucial to racing smoothly and efficiently. Luckily I played Forza Horizon 2 on Xbox 360 extensively which had a very similar style of gameplay control, so I was trained for this if you will and was able to adapt to it much more easily than if I hadn’t.
When you race, the car will sort of… “wrestle” with you in trying to move smoothly. You can’t just hold down ZR and fly like the wind, as you’ll instead fly clean off the track. Like I said above, you’ll need to time your presses carefully. Allow the car to move on its own by not touching either button when you’re nearing turns, and hit ZL to brake afterwards for the tight turns. The only time you want to hold down ZR really is when you have a really long straight stretch of road. It is however also possible, and encouraged to move faster by holding ZR more often, but then you’ll have to really be good with the brakes when turns arrive. It’s about balance really. You can’t go too slow or you’ll be too low in the standings. Frankly I’ve not done better than… 9th place to date? This will test you for sure if you’re trying to score high in the rankings.
A look at the career mode hub.
The game has another simulation aspect; the career mode. This is a pretty complex mode where you manage teams, repair cars, improve morale amongst the crew and to impress your car manufacturer. Luckily there’s a fairly decent tutorial mode fully narrated audibly to help guide you through this. I fully recommend using the Junior mode when prompted as opposed to the WRC 2 mode for this reason if this is your first WRC game (or rally game in general) like it is for me.
The crew members are to give you some benefits, like lowering cost of repairs, give weather predictions (to better prepare you for races), etc. Each has a salary that you need to pay them, but they also will get fatigued. When fatigued, they will need to rest in the reserves (being unusable), or you can take the day off in the calendar to rest them up at no charge. Speaking of which, the calendar is basically your method of entering races. In the beginning you’ll spend two days in training courses. These task you with getting the best lap time for better rewards, and you can just keep doing laps until you get the fastest requirement.
The work station before beginning a rally.
Following that, you can then start entering rallies (some are given to you, some are optional). Two types of note are the standard rallies that feature you going through a point A to point B track, and your job is to get there ASAP to be as high in the rankings as you can. Rallies are done in two pairs; you do two races back-to-back, then rest up with any repairs needed on the car (which costs quite a bit of money), and then do another pair of races, ending the rally.
The other kind of rallies are the extreme condition tracks. These are very very difficult courses that take place during events such as at the dark of night under heavy rain, very much limiting your vision. Worse; you’re under a very strict time limit. Good luck with these ones. There’s actually also a type of rally where you take a legendary car though a single course. One I tried had really good acceleration and speed… this would certainly help get better times even with this system, I want it. 😛
The extreme condition tracks. Thanks, I hate them.
During races, you also of course have to be careful not to damage your car too much. Yeah you’re very likely not going to get to the finish line spotless, but the more damage you accumulate (and different parts get their own damage), the higher the repair costs will be, and the sloppier the car will handle obviously. I’d recommend maybe waiting until repairs are really necessary, which might cost less overall than constant repairs after races. Also repairs usually take 45 real-world minutes to complete, but you can unlock methods of shortening that time.
Actually this takes us to the skill tree R&D system. Upon finishing courses, you’ll gain experience and eventually level-up (like in an RPG), only you gain points (1 per level) to spend unlocking new benefits in different categories. In the crew category for instance, you can unlock new kinds of crew members (like an Engineer), or you can get more experience and money from races, lower certain costs, etc. So have a look at it and see which ones you may benefit the most from.
The skill tree via the R&D section.
On to the car manufacturer (Juniors all begin with Ford… because they can’t afFord better! *ba-dun-tish*). You have to keep in mind of how your rep is with the manufacturer. For instance, the better you perform in races, as well as completing objectives will improve your standing. But when you do poorly *raises hand*, you’ll drop down into the negative zone, and once you’re basically at the bottom, you’re told you’re at risk of being dropped at anytime… which I haven’t yet so I’m not terribly sure what happens then. Objectives come in short-term and medium-term for now at least. Short ones can task you with not exceeding $16,000 in repairs after a rally, while medium ones can task you with not wearing hard tyres (yes with a “y”) for a rally or two. Beat these and you’ll gain money and a better standing with the manufacturer…. obviously you can guess what happens if you fail them. 😛
Visually it’s a mixed bag. On one hand, from watching footage of V-Rally 4 on Switch earlier last year, WRC 8 legit looks like a notable downgrade. Most of the pretty lighting and shadowing is absent (though some courses will have nice sunlight). However, the game not only runs at a smooth 30fps in docked mode, but is shockingly high-res, like 900p at least, maybe even 1080p? It’s way too crisp for 720p. My guess is that both of these weren’t the case in V-Rally 4 so the Switch team had to pick one or the other. Textures look semi-high res on the ground, but not so for the logos on the cars when you look closely at them (there’s a neat car viewer in the main menu!). There’s also the overhead view of the building interior in the career mode and while that looks decent, the game chugs awfully when viewing the crew section for whatever reason. Even the inputs horribly lag here, but nowhere else. Huh. They should just have the background vanish or freeze to fix that during this.
It has its moments when actual nice lighting is used, which is rare.
Audio-wise… it’s there? Music is only used during the intro and outro of the races and in menus. They sound fine. During races all you hear is the sound of your car and the effects of dirt and bumping of objects. There’s a key feature where the co-driver will call out any oncoming turns, basically being a backseat driver (ha!). Watching footage before I thought this was annoying, but it grows on you and is handy for knowing when a new thing approaches. You CAN however disable this in the audio menu by lowering the voice volume to 0.
Overall this is a decent game that really demands focus and really good driving skills. Don’t come here expecting Mario Kart, it just ain’t gonna work. It’s pretty neat when the controls click and you’re able to cruise through courses without killing your car (the race ends when you’re too damaged BTW). But even being a good driver isn’t enough… you gotta be the BEST to get these high rankings. I can’t comment on how this is compared to competitors (even prior entries) since again this is my first. As someone fresh to this, I can recommend it, even if it’s pricey right now at $60 CDN, but maybe this works for you. Oh and I want to mention that the game requires a first and last name, but this seemingly is only for your own file and standing during your own races, not the online leaderboards where it uses your nickname on your Nintendo account? Keep that in mind if you record and share footage at least. You can’t change your name once you decide.
You’ll Love:
+ Graphically it’s passable. The resolution is surprisingly high and it seems to run at a solid 30fps in docked mode.
+ Looks packed with content. If you like these sorts of simulation games where you have to manage financials and teams (like sports games?), this should be up your ally.
+ It feels good to drive, especially once you figure out when to accelerate and brake (accelerbrake?).
+ The co-driver system is surprisingly helpful and I encourage folks to try it before choosing to “disable” it as mentioned above.
+ A shocking amount of customization of buttons and other options from the get-go when booting the game up if you want.
+ Has cloud save support. Handy if you want to keep a back-up in case you goof up a race badly. It auto-saves in-game BTW.
+ Has screenshot and video capture support.
You’ll Hate:
– Lack of the more advanced lighting and shadowing of V-Rally 4 on Switch is definitely missed.
– The crew section in the career mode runs awfully, so much so that inputs lag just as badly, but it’s just here it seems. No clue why.
– The game really demands top skill from you to do well in the rankings. I know you’re up against legends here, but come on!
– The extreme condition courses are in my opinion, awful. You can barely see ten feet in front of you and you’re under a super strict time limit. Experts can do these just fine I’m sure, but I sure can’t.
– Apparently the Switch version loses out on the split-screen multiplayer (of all things) from the other versions.
Score: 7/10