Adam Hall
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios | Developer: DICE | ETA: Out Now | Price: £39.99 Inc VAT.
Cars. Aren’t they a wonderfully useful invention? Don’t they just brighten up our world with their toxic fumes and pollute the systems of pregnant women and consequently populating the world with excessive numbers of retarded people? The person who invented them must’ve been one lazy bastard to create something that gets you from one place to another with minimal effort. Of course like every invention in the world, someone, somewhere will find another use for it, be it a weapon, a cooking implement or a baseball bat, in this case, it’s modding them to the bollocks with reinforcements, tuning their engines to the limits then tearing ‘em round dirty, mud infested excuses for tracks equipped with pant-filling jumps and corners so tight, you’d think they’re still virgins!
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Game Play
From the onset, hell, from looking at the back of the game box it’s pretty obvious what this game’s going to consist of; racing to be frank. But as you start playing you’ll soon realize it sports much more potential than a bog-standard racing game. Oh yes, with some nifty additions and awe-inspiring visuals, Rallisport 2 is undoubtedly one of the best rally driving games I’ve played in my entire life.
Sporting a massive 90+ tracks for you to rag your selection of over 40 cars on, RS2 is pretty bulked out. With Amateur, Pro, Champion and Super Rally, you’ve got a wide selection of difficulty levels but a word of advice, I wouldn’t trying Super Rally on your first try because… Let’s just say it’s ralli, ralli hard!
Working my way up the leagues I realised that this game is most definitely not for those with short attention spans. You need the dedication of a chicken to a chalk line to get anywhere in this game, any less and you’ll be kicked to the curb with the force of, well, a car hitting you! Some of the cars you’ll obtain in later parts of game are so fast they’re barely controllable. It’s tremendously exciting.
So the game begins, you’re primed, fingers twitching with anticipation and stomach doing back flips with nerves. You navigate the simple Graphical User Interface and within a matter of seconds you’ve chosen your car, set up what track you’re going to play and you’re sitting at the starting line waiting for the longest 2 seconds of your life to conclude. You pull back the right trigger and the speedometer hand propels itself to the opposite side of the dial and your engine noise sears through your ears like a blade of solid audio. Enough pretentious tales, let’s get on to what you want to hear.
Initially, Rallisport 2 seems like a kind game with a very progressive learning curve so those unfamiliar with driving games can make their way to the top. Then, before you know it, after 2 races in it smacks you in the face, calls you names and throws you into a selection of tracks each with more vindictive qualities. This game is not easy, far from it, but once you’ve learnt how to deal with the cars, it’s one of the most rewarding games you’ll play. Plus, during your learning period, if you do crash, the absolutely phenomenal damaging scaling system within RS2 will realistically display doors bending, wheels flying off and hitting crowd members in the face, and windows smashing as you hit a side barrier too hard. You can totally massacre your car in this game, and it’s so much fun you wouldn’t believe!
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RS2 holds many wondrous little additions that, although aren’t that revolutionary, make the whole experience that much more enjoyable. For those of you who’ve played some sort of racing game, I’d be willing to bet that you’re familiar with the annoying sense of disarray once you’ve un-paused the game during play. Being thrown back into high-speed navigation is just too confusing; you need progression to regain your bearings. RS2 combats this issue with a simple, yet astonishingly affective 1.5/2 second still-screen after you un-pause the game so you can rebuild your composure. Not that amazing, I know, but you’d seriously appreciate it if you were the one playing the game.
RS2 comes with very little problems as far as racing games go. It’s all totally comprehensive and all totally awesome to play. My only real complaint is the loading times; they’re not on par with Deus Ex, but they’re not exactly quick enough for you to take a sip of your tea and look back to find it complete. You may find yourself staring at the screen for quite some time before you actually get to play, and in my opinion, if you’re actually aware of how long it’s taking, it’s taking too long!