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Review:

15th April 2002:
Rallisport Challenge
The Xbox may not have been out for long, but it already has one of the best rally games of all platforms.
Posted by Marc Hull - Xbox - UK and Europe

You're speeding along the side of a mountain at over 100 mph when a signal from your navigator alerts you to a hairpin up ahead. You apply the brakes quickly to slow yourself as you enter the turn, then tap the handbrake, steer sharply and slide around. Half a second later you turn back quickly to prevent oversteering, and then accelerate away down the long straight. This is, essentially, what Rallisport Challenge is all about: speed, control and style; and while many developers out there have found it difficult to strike a balance between realism and fun, Microsoft seem to have managed on their first go.

The first thing you'll notice when you start the game is the number of options on the menu screen. You see, whereas Gran Turismo gave people an 'arcade' side for those who wanted to be thrust into the game immediately, Rallisport Challenge pretty much forces you to work at the game before you can reap the rewards. Sure, there's an Instant Action mode, which gives you a random car and track and lets you race straight away, but there's absolutely no customisation in there, and it's always a gamble as to what settings the computer will decide for you.

Really, the only option is to start the game properly and create a player profile, which takes you to a proper menu with options such as Single Race, Time Attack and Multiplayer. However, once you venture into these sections you'll soon realise that the interesting stuff, like Hillclimb, Ice Racing and Rallycross modes, is all locked, and will stay that way until you've played the Career Mode. Don't let this put you off, though, since it actually is a big help in easing you into the game. You see, the Career Mode isn't the same as in other games; it's actually very simple and effective. At the top of the screen you have a points bar, which starts off being empty, and along the bar are markers indicating the barriers between the 'Pro', 'Expert', 'Classic' and 'Unlimited' modes. You start off with four rallies to take part in, each containing from three to nine stages, and at the end of each stage you're given points depending on your finishing position, how well you drove, your time and the amount of damage you sustained. Getting first place overall in a rally wins you some bonus points, and an extra car to race with. Once you've taken part in a few rallies and passed one of the point barriers, the next four or five rallies will become available, as well as a new set of cars to race as and some options in the other play modes.

While initially this may seem like a daunting task, it actually works very well - you'll be amazed by the tracks you get to play at the start of the Career Mode, but the ones you unlock later on will really blow you away; the game always keeps something to surprise you with later on. In fact, the diversity of the tracks you'll come across in Rallisport is another thing that makes it so good; from safari courses where you have to be careful not to skid on the sand or hit rocks beside the tracks to mountainous courses where every turn has a sheer drop outside it. However, the game is also quite forgiving; if you do stray too far from the racing line the game will place you back on the track quite quickly (sometimes a little too quick, if you're trying to go sightseeing), and there's also an auto-replace button for if your car turns over.

One thing you have to be aware of, though, is the difficulty of the game. When you first begin your rally 'career' you're given two options: beginner or normal difficulty, and unless you're a gaming god, you really need to select the former setting. Unfortunately, it's all too easy to select the normal difficulty mode and keep coming last and give up, but with the beginner mode the learning curve is almost flawless, and gives you plenty of time to get used to the control scheme and handling on the different types of terrain before facing the difficult later courses.

Speaking of gameplay, Rallisport has found a nice balance between and arcade racer and a rally simulation that should suit most racing fans. You don't have to have a degree in mechanics to tune your car enough to beat your opponents; while some basic customisation options are in there, they aren't essential for success. As for the racing itself, there's a definite emphasis on speed which will satisfy arcade gamers, but you still have to slow down well before tight curves and plan each corner before you reach it.

Graphically, this game is right up there next to Halo. Not only does it contain an amazing amount of small-scale detail, such as grass and foliage which sways in the wind, trees which shed leaves when you hit them and fully-polygonal spectators, but also massive landscapes that stretch as far as the eye can see, including mountains in the background that are modelled in full 3D. The tracks also contain an impressive array of effects, such as the reflection of the sun on hot tarmac or sand being kicked up into the air as you skid over it, all of which help add to the sense of realism in the game. This is also found in the cars themselves, which not only have realtime, accurate reflections mapped onto them like in Gran Turismo 3, but also dirt which builds up on the sides and mudguards and damage to the bodywork, such as lights smashing and the bonnet deforming.

For sound, Rallisport Challenge contains the usual in-game engine noises, all of which sound pretty realistic, alongside a very good navigator who lets you know what's coming up on the track, from the sharpness of the bends to bumps in the road. The background music supplied with Rallisport Challenge is pretty good, although may not be to everyone's tastes. It's a good thing, then, that the game supports the MP3 playing feature of the Xbox, allowing you to select tracks that you've copied onto your Xbox's hard disk. However, the only problem I found was that, although the game's meant to pick a track at random from your playlist, sometimes it seemed to repeat the same track many times, and not play other at all. An option to just play through the tracks in order would have been a welcome addition.

As rally titles go, Rallisport Challenge is also pretty long. There are 48 tracks to race on in total, spread across the four different track types in the game (Rally, Hill Climb, Rallycross and Ice Racing). Some may be put off by the courses not being modelled on real-life rally tracks, but this has allowed the designers to get the difficulty of each one just right and provide a good sense of variety in them. The Career Mode is where the meat of the game lies, and it contains 17 rallies to participate in, divided between the Pro, Expert, Classic and Unlimited classes. There are also 29 cars in the game, which are also divided into classes, but some can only be gained by coming first overall in the rallies. Once you've finished the Career Mode, there are also Time Attack and Single Race modes, in which you can admire the courses you've unlocked and try to better your track times, as well as a Multiplayer mode which supports up to four players with minimal slowdown or loss of detail.

As with Halo, Rallisport Challenge seems to have suffered no problems during PAL conversion. Both the 60hz mode and the 50hz mode run super-smoothly, even on the zoomed-out shots during the replays when the entire track can be seen tailing off into the distance. Also, neither of the modes have any visible borders, so fit the screen perfectly. It's been a long time in coming, but with the Xbox it looks like finally us Europeans are getting games of the same quality as the Americans do!

Overall, Rallisport Challenge provides the Xbox with it's first triple-A rally game. Not only does it really show off the console graphically, but is one of the few games to match the great graphics with spot-on gameplay as well. The smooth learning curve in the beginner mode should allow anyone to pick up the game after a few races, and the way that you have to work to unlock the later tracks, which are even more impressive than the first, will keep you interested to the end.

Marc Hull

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Review Summary:

Rallisport Challenge is the only rally game for the Xbox, but it looks like Microsoft's in-house development team got it right first time! The game balances out arcade and simulation racing styles to provide something for both rally fanatics and those who haven't seen a rally in their life. Graphically, it contains reams of detail and huge landscapes that match the standards set by Halo, and for sound the game utilises the Xbox's MP3 features to play tracks you've recorded off of your own CDs. Overall, even if you're only vaguely interested in racing, you really need to get this game.

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