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Tuesday 05 Aug 2008
Sega Rally doesn’t begin with any fanfare. No lengthy celebratory introduction video showing off the game. No overly hyped-up music to get you pumped for the races to come. Not even the traditional arcade “Sega Rally!” voice-over to welcome you in. No, everything is pretty subdued and functional in this direction of Sega Rally, which can mean either the game wasn’t given the necessary time and budget, or it simply serves to reflect the fact that the chosen direction for this particular arcade rally racer feels lifeless, despite the colourful, animated tracks.
The first thing that stands out as you start is the minimalist menu system. Reminiscent of the PS3’s 3D photo viewer, each menu item is represented by a photo, one at a time. While this is a fresh approach, it can get a little tedious, not only cycling through each photo every time, but also the fact that you have to memorise in which order the menu items appear, as not all of the items are on-screen at once or immediately available. The other thing about the menus is that there are a lot of them. Being able to choose all of your car preferences, such as car type, colour and tyres on one screen, for example, would have been a bit more intuitive than cycling through three (and more) different photo menus to simply start a race.
Speaking of options, there may as well not have been any, seeing as how your choices don’t really affect the race - not as much as your own skill, anyway. Your choice of car is, as far as can be perceived, a simple matter of which one you like the look of. Statistics for cars are nowhere to be found - not in the menus and certainly not in the manual - to help you make an educated decision about which car is best suited for you. No statistics exist. Moreover, your choice of tyres is a bit of a crap-shoot, being limited to ‘off-road’ or ‘road’ tyres. The problem is that most tracks are ‘off-road’ with sections of ‘road’ thrown in, nullifying the choice between two different tyre types. This can all be attributed to the fact that Sega Rally is an out-and-out arcade racer, with no car damage model, car tuning or Gran Turismo-style realism to speak of (minus the crazy suspension systems), but it would have been nice to be able to use a little strategy before the races even begin.
While there are Quick Race and Multiplayer options (online and split-screen), you’ll need to advance through the Championship mode in order to win points and unlock tracks, cars and more Championship modes. It can be a little frustrating trying to make up the points, squeezing a few more out of each race simply to unlock the next set of tracks, as it seems the AI cars are little inconsistent both ways. Either they’ll roar off from the beginning of the race, leaving you to play catch-up, or you’ll take off and leave them in the dust. The AI is also overly aggressive, thinking nothing of driving you into a wall if the opportunity arises, although they are able to make the occasional mistake, which is great when you get to take advantage of their slip-ups.
Once you start getting the hang of throwing your car around corners, Sega Rally really does begin to feel fun, which is amplified when you’re having a close battle with one or more opponents. You’ll be able to play the entire game without the press of a break or hand-break button, taking advantage of the power-sliding technique to accelerate, drift and accelerate again to navigate corners. Six-Axis controls are present to steer, but the mechanic is only functional instead of usable, so sticking to the sticks or directional pad is recommended, which just leaves the right trigger to adjust your speed.
One of the marquee features of Sega Rally is the dynamic track deformation, that is, your car’s tyres rip up the turf, creating tracks in the sand, snow or mud. Not only does it look good and provides a different looking track to the previous lap, but it also serves to displace the loose dirt or slush, revealing a good, hard driving surface beneath for extra grip. These ripples in the surface will help you choose your racing line, which you’ll have to adjust every lap seeing as how the track’s wrinkles will be more or less different the next time you race over that strip of track. They can also rattle your eyeballs if you drive over them too manically. Water puddles are present to provide obstacles and a bit of track variety - water even leaks into the deformed track. Water also gradually washes the accumulated dirt off of opponent’s cars, as well as your own. The dirt build-up is pretty realistic and adds to the game’s aesthetic appeal.
The game’s overall graphics quality is pretty high, with a ‘clean’, unfiltered, colourful look to it - a refreshing change from gritty, washed-out military shooters. Each of the levels are well detailed and there’s always something going on in the background, from planes and helicopters making low passes, to the crowd cheering you on from the side-lines, to windmills and waterfalls lining your path. Sega Rally is a good looking game and can momentarily, even for a split-second, look ‘real,’ especially as you’re chasing down an opponent, their paint-job filthy with mud and suspension systems working overtime. It’s moments like these that take your mind off of the linearity of the repetitive tracks.
While there are a few themes to each track, such as snow, European mountain village, savannah, canyon and muddy off-road, these themes repeat throughout the entire game, leaving you with the impression that you’re racing the same tracks over and over. This actually is the case as most tracks are simply repurposed versions of another, with stretches of one course seemingly having been stitched to another. The end result is a feeling of monotony, one lap in the snow melting into the next. Despite this, you’ll begin to memorise tracks as you progress, which makes the feeling of tedium even stronger. After a while, you’ll be wishing for some variation, which is never delivered. The core set of tracks, as mentioned, are well detailed, but you always get the feeling you’re very much ‘on-rails.’ If you bump into a wall, you’ll simply be bounced back again. There are no short-cuts or off-off-road paths to choose, making the 3-lap format seem linear.
Sega Rally’s core game play is pretty fun as you get comfortable and confident with the racing mechanic, but its longevity is artificial - there is lots to unlock, but getting there is a long and arduous journey, having to resort to re-racing certain tracks to grab as many points as possible, which only compounds the problem of the same tracks. The game also feels a bit unfinished, not in terms of bugs or badly implemented systems, but for systems not implemented. It would have been great to have a rock-paper-scissors feeling about choosing the right car and set-up for the race at hand, but you’re instead presented with a very straight, race-and-go game. The mechanics are all executed very well, but it seems to be lacking a real ‘game’ underneath those mechanics. The fact that Sega Racing Studio, the developers of the game, have since closed is an indication of the sense of a soul-less game that can be fun if you take the time to get into it.
The retail price of Sega Rally has dropped significantly since launch, so it might be an idea to split the cost with a friend to get some split-screen arcade racing in, because better offerings are available for the full price of entry. At a budget price, however, Sega Rally is good for a few multiplayer jaunts, if you’re looking for a good arcade rally game.
Pros: Good looking; great sound effects; genuinely fun (once properly acquainted); current price.
Cons: Repetition of tracks; no soul; unpredictable AI difficulty; lack of customisation options.
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| Contributor: |
Oliver |
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