Sebastien Loeb Rally Evo Is Frustrating And Far From Perfect, But It Can Still Be Highly Rewarding

Sebastien Loeb Rally Evo is not an easy game. This is the second thing you notice. The first thing you’ll notice are the graphics, which are distinctly last-gen. The two combine to make you wonder if it’s really worth persevering with the game, especially since you can already get the critically-acclaimed Dirt Rally on PC, with the console versions coming in April. Now I must give you the caveat to this review, which is the fact that I haven’t played Dirt Rally since I don’t have access to a PC. Therefore this game will be judged on its own merits, rather than compared to that game.

I’ve spent the bulk of my time in Career mode so far, which lets you start in a lowly front-wheel drive race series in a Peugeot 106 Rallye. You earn cash to spend on new cars, which allows you to progress to new disciplines in faster cars, and so on. Progression is very much like Gran Turismo or Forza Motorsport, and I rather like the simplicity of it all. The menus feel as old school as the in-game graphics, but to be honest neither detracts from the gameplay.

Racing games live or die by their handling characteristics, and it’s here that Sebastien Loeb Rally Evo struggles a little. I love how important weight transfer is in the game, as it is in real life; bumps and humps unsettle the car, and if you brake too hard while the weight is shifting one way you’ll quickly spin. At the very least you’ll find it nearly impossible to shift the weight and tuck the nose in the other way.

This means that at first you’ll be hitting that rewind and restart button with infuriating regularity, but stick with it and after a while you’ll start to string together some satisfying sections. You start to learn to plan well ahead, thinking about where the corners are going and getting your car in place early. This isn’t always helped by some rather late pace notes; if the description takes longer to read out than normal, it doesn’t start earlier, so you’ll suddenly get told you have a tight right upcoming just after you enter the braking zone.

The next aspect of the handling issues comes in the form of front-wheel drive cars, so will only be an issue early in the game. Basically, they torque steer like nothing I’ve driven. The 106 is a bit guilty of this, but the Fiat 595 Abarth is almost undriveable in lower gears, requiring either very gentle throttle or short shifting to compensate. Neither is a particularly elegant or satisfying solution, especially since I’ve driven FWD road cars with nearly 300bhp that handle their power delivery better than this pair do.

The final issue is perhaps the biggest one for me, and that’s the steering angle. Hairpin turns and tight low speed sections (like those found on some of the Rallycross courses) are nearly impossible to negotiate. In all fairness, hairpins probably just require me to perfect the handbrake better than I currently have, since so far every time I yank it into a turn I spin, but it’d be nice to be able to just drive around them normally.

The problem comes from the fact that the second you touch the throttle at low speeds on heavy lock, the car just understeers, and if you lift off there’s heavy engine braking. This means you have this near-impossible dance of trying to let the car roll around the corner carrying speed without touching the throttle too often. On a tight left-right-left section on one Los Angeles track I have to crawl through while the CPU racers jink side to side and slide out the other end. Frustrating.

Aside from these frustrations, the overall feel of the game is fairly positive. The learning curve is pretty steep, but it’s just the right side of difficult, which means that for every frustrating spin there’s a few minutes of high speed forest carving to balance things out and motivate you to keep trying.

If your wheel setup isn’t particularly sturdy, this game might not be for you, since you need to be quite violent with the wheel to catch slides and the force feedback will keep the wheel jiggling in your hands on rough surfaces. An almost telepathic input is required, turning into drifts the split second they begin to initiate. It’s great fun in the faster sections once you get into the zone, it’s just a shame that gets shattered as soon as a hairpin arrives.

Another aspect of the immersion that might not be deemed acceptable by many purists is the sound. Now, my ears are shot after spending too many of my teenage years stood very close to very loud concert speakers, so I’m not the best at differentiating engine tones. That being said, even I can tell that the majority of cars are just variations of the same coarse, generic engine sound, with the occasional turbo whistle added where necessary (though it’s more of a turbo whizz, if you ask me).

The selection of cars on offer is pretty impressive, with everything from rally legends like the Ford Escort and Lancia Delta Integrale, right up to more modern machinery like Loeb’s championship-winning Citroen DS3.

Overall, I think the best way to describe Sebastien Loeb Rally Evo is ‘decent’. If you want something to keep you occupied before Dirt Rally appears in a few months’ time, this is a great place to start. Most of the time the handling is fun and challenging enough to keep you interested, and the game modes are varied enough to not get repetitive. There are a number of irritants, but if you can see past them this is a great way to kill a few hours, just don’t expect to enjoy it as a casual pick up and play kinda game - sometimes you’ll switch it off feeling more wound up than when you began, but on those days where it all comes together, it really is pretty damn fun.