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A day one buy for me upon its full release, Polish indie developer's Phase Zero is the absolute closest you'll get to classic Survival horror. Unapologetically retro, which will alienate newer players, such as 4:3 only, tank controls being the default control scheme, and a fixed camera, but frankly they can ♥♥♥♥ off and go play Silent Hill 2 Remake if they want modcons and handholding. There's plenty of over-the-shoulder, hold-up-on-the-left-stick-for half-an-hour-during-unskippable-dialogue-scenes modernslop, and this game isn't made for that audience.

I'm a fan of classic survival horror games, the old Resident Evils, Silent Hills, Clock Tower, Haunting Ground et cetera. For me, Resident Evil: Director's Cut is the greatest survival horror game ever made. And I've played a lot of indie survival horror throwbacks chasing that high - Crow Country, Signalis, Alisa, Ground Zero, Hollowbody, Post Trauma, Conscript... but for one reason or another, none of them quite hit the mark. This isn't to denigrate the development teams behind them either, who have neither the resources or money to match Capcom or Konami, even in the 90s when development teams were smaller. It's just how it is.

Alisa got the closest in terms of pre-rendered visuals and atmosphere and Signalis got the closest in terms of difficulty and polish. Conscript, Alisa and Ground Zero fumbled it a bit in my opinion by having shops and upgrades; it makes inventory management and lack of resources - two key components in most survival horror games - moot because you're encouraged to pick everything up, sell it, and then resources aren't a problem anymore. Post Trauma and Ground Zero are lacking in polish and the latter is far too easy and exploitable. Crow Country was very polished, but a bit too easy as well; I need to revisit it though, I believe they've added a harder difficulty, and same goes for Hollowbody of which I've only played the demo. Generally, I find indie survival horror to either lack polish, or attempt too much at once to where the experience becomes diluted.

Phase Zero gets the absolute closest to classic survival horror, combining the best elements of Resident Evil (limited inventory, fixed camera angles, biological/sci-fi rather than psychological horror) and Silent Hill (more serious tone, excellent map that is updated as you progress, everyman protagonist). It comes with a ton of customisation in terms of controls and visuals, and quality of life improvements such as not only memos being saved in your files menu, but cutscene conversations as well.

In terms of presentation, it's fantastic. 4:3 aspect ratio, 3D models are rendered at a lower resolution to be distinct but still blend in with the pre-rendered backgrounds, camera angles highlight important objects while providing atmosphere and a good view of your surroundings. The framerate is capped at 30 - suits me fine, and I think most people in this game's audience will be fine with that too. But it is something to mention.

Sound and music are excellently done, and voice acting is slightly cheesy but not amatuerish sounding nor offputting.

Inventory is limited for supplies, ie healing and ammo, but unlimited for keys, which most people will like. I personally prefer everything to take up a slot but I know I'm in the minority there, but it's a good middle ground between modern and classic design philosophy, and I won't act like it isn't annoying that in Resident Evil, an old key takes up the same amount of space as a shotgun in Chris' pitiful 6 item inventory limit.

Controls are perfect and remappable. I'm playing with classic tank controls and have had zero issues. The game seems balanced and designed around tank controls too. In games with fixed camera angles and pre-rendered backgrounds, tank controls are simply the best and most efficient control scheme, because it accounts for the direction your character is moving when the camera angle changes. I am not against analog, directional control schemes in horror games; I generally play Silent Hill 2 and 3 with directional controls, but in those games you have a fair amount of manual control over the camera and it's much easier to avoid enemies. But if the game accounts for the slower, more deliberate movement that comes with tank controls, it is generally the superior method, and by all accounts SPINA Studio have achieved that here.

I originally played this demo in June 2025, and left SPINA Studio a lot of feedback on what can be improved. Basically everything I had feedback on, they have fixed, including a pretty serious bug that could lock you in place and prevent progression. Here's everything I suggested a year ago:

- Reloading and quick turning simultaneously softlocked you in place - FIXED
- Map didn't display what floor you were currently on without having to select it first - FIXED
- No vsync - FIXED
- Spelling mistakes/syntax errors - FIXED
- Lack of impact when taking damage; Guy now grunts in pain and there's more blood - FIXED
- QoL things such as item and file outlines couldn't be toggled off - FIXED

What I really want people to take away from this review is, if you're a stubborn prick like me that likes oldschool stuff, even if it can be archaic and annoying, Phase Zero has ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ nailed it while adding a host of QoL improvements. The level of polish, especially for a small indie team, is commendable. I can't wait for the full release. I also love the absolutely based achievement you get for playing with tank controls. I like that the devs are not bending over backwards to accommodate players that will ultimately not appreciate the experience.

I recommend it, because the environments, puzzles, voice acting and visual style are great, but it's too easy to exploit (on Hard Action and Puzzle difficulty anyway).

A huge amount of effort has been put into this game, my main issue lies with the reverse difficulty curve. It starts out difficult and gets way too simple. Again, there's 3 higher diffculties than Hard to unlock so maybe they fix the issues that I've got, but anyway here they are:

- Knife is way too strong at the start, let alone after you upgrade it. Stuns, is very fast, and rewards you with more GP (money) than any other weapon. Sure it's not good against groups, but generally enemies come at you one at a time. You can then use GP to buy absurd amounts of ammo and healing items, ammo you won't need to use most of the time because the Knife more than suffices. So then you can sell all your excess ammo for more GP and buy even more healing items. Which leads to my next problem.

- Resources are nowhere near scarce enough. I'm not sure why modern indie survival horror developers are obsessed with shops (Alisa, Conscript) but it really takes the fear of running out of resources. Can you imagine running around Spencer Mansion and being able to just buy more acid rounds for Jill, using money you got from stunlocking Hunters and then parrying them when they swipe at you? Not only that, there are TONS of dead ends in this game that reward you with healing and ammo pickups.

- Ammo pickups that you won't need, because every weapon is capable of doing a focus shot (think Kevin in Resident Evil Outbreak, mixed with reload timing bar from Gears of War) which will instakill most enemies, or stun bigger ones long enough to run past. Sure, you won't get as much GP as you would from the knife, but you don't need it anyway.

- Healing pickups that permanently increase your stats easily (another modern indie survival horror thing, RPG mechanics), so even if you do miss an extremely generous parry window, you can just tank the hit anyway.

- Speaking of parries, they're way, WAY too easy to pull off. I'm not an epic soulsborne SSS-rank git gud action game genius, but the window for parrying is half a second which is way too much. There's a OHK enemy later on in the game where you can just parry it infinitely, turning what should be tense chase sequences into just an annoying chore. Think you're gunna mess up the timing? Just dodge. You've probably upgraded your dodge stamina 3 or 4 times at this point so you don't have to worry about that either.

I'm sure I'll enjoy it more on the higher difficulties, but Hard is very much a misnomer. Still, I appreciate the effort that went into this game. I think it could really benefit from a sequel that's tighter, more restrictive and a little shorter but with more replayability.

Edit: I've come back 3 months later and not only is the performance just as bad but now the load times are longer
♥♥♥♥ you Koei Tecmo

Koei Tecmo usually makes zero effort ports, but generally they run fine, but this has to be their worst PC port. I don't care about ultrawide and I don't care about bad keyboard and mouse controls, which is usually what people moan about with their PC efforts.

What I do care about is the game running like absolute ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ at 1080p with everything on low, especially when I meet the recommended requirements for 1080p/60.

3070, SSD, 10700f, Windows 10, 16gb RAM and the game chugs down to 40s in the town on lowest settings. This is with the game capped to 60fps, vsync set to 60, and all video settings on low which makes an already average looking game look even worse.

I am full of seethe

Mistwalker's Fantasian is finally freed from Apple Arcade, now with English and Japanese voice acting on modern consoles and PC, with Square Enix producing. Here's my review after beating the game on Hard.

Firstly, the presentation. Graphically, it looks like a late PS2 game. The models are well made but lacking a lot of detail, and contrast sharply with the beautiful half-real diorama, half-CGI backgrounds. Textures can be a bit muddy, but the biggest fault is artefacting when camera angles change; the best way I can describe it is that it's similar moving while in Street View on Google Maps. You've got 2D images overlaid on a 3D map, but when the camera angle changes, remnants from the old angle remain awkwardly visible until the camera stops moving.

Additionally the soft shadows under each 3D model physically move to adjust to their new positions, very noticeably. This was probably masked quite well on phones, but like upscaling a PS1 game with prerendered backgrounds, the flaws are more pronounced at higher resolutions. It's not a deal breaker but it is quite amateurish given the pedigree of the developers.

Uematsu's OST will also not blow you out of the water. It's good, but it's nowhere in the same league as Final Fantasy VII or Lost Odyssey. It's lacking the instant memorability and leitmotifs that he's known for, but he's also getting on in age and God knows he's provided us with some of the greatest music the industry will ever know. You have the option to listen to music from other FF games but they completely do not suit the game at all, and honestly it feels like Square Enix slapped them on as blatant cross-promotion of their other titles.

I've heard many complaints about the UI. It's not breathtaking to look at, and the font is so boring, but I play on a TV so I appreciate the large fonts and easy readability. One criticism I will agree with is that because the text size is so large, very few items appear on lists at once, which leads to a lot of scrolling. An option to reduce this would be nice. It is ugly and plain, but I think that's more symptomatic of recent games in general.

In terms of controls, use a gamepad. I've had no difficulty using a 360 controller to play the game, other than some slight adjusting of the analogue stick when camera angles change; nothing a seasoned player of games with prerendered backgrounds can't deal with. Anyone using a mouse and keyboard to play a JRPG is too stupid to have fun anyway.

Everything is navigable with a controller, and movement issues are alleviated by the ability to pick locations from the Camp menu to automatically move to.

Onto the story. The plot and characters are good but very, very cliche. It will not make you re-examine your life, or make you cry, but I've certainly seen worse and it all gets wrapped up nicely, with some ambiguity here and there. The characters are all likeable, and despite being very familiar archetypes do get satisfying development and are brought to life by above-average performances.

How does it play? Well, it's a turn-based JRPG from Hironobu Sakaguchi, the father of Final Fantasy, but with some modernity and very much appreciated quality of life improvements. You've got exploration and combat.

Exploration is very well done in Fantasian. Not only do you eventually get the option to warp anywhere you've previously visited, but it's actually tied into the story. In fact, you can even warp to a specific location from the Quests menu for most side quests, of which there are a lot. There's tons of treasure chests and secrets to find. There's a fair few towns as well which are distinct enough and quite intricate at times, and ditto for the dungeons.

Battles are a typical turn based affair; random encounters, order determined by speed, with the turn order displayed at all times. Each character has a basic attack, skills and an ultimate ability, and later on you can swap party members in and out mid-battle. It's very similar to Final Fantasy X.

There's a large emphasis on AOE attacks, be it physical or magical. You can scan enemies and view their stats forever once scanned, as well as any buffs or ailments you have; good quality of life stuff here.

Where the emphasis on AOE attacks really comes into play is with the Dimengeon system, which basically collects random encounters enemies as you go until maxing out (or if you choose to end it manually); you then fight them all at once, hence the need for attacks that hit multiple targets at a time. It's a great way to alleviate constant random encounters and, as a result of there being so many enemies, experience and items are doled out in much larger chunks which is more satisfying. Additionally, you can hit bonuses in the battle area which allow you an extra turn, or increase your damage, incentivising you to put more thought into where you aim. It's an excellent system which sort of reminds me of the Malice gauge in Shadow Hearts, except it can be done anywhere in the field and gives the player more control. There is EXP scaling in place similar to Lost Odyssey to prevent you from grinding your way around strategy.

Towards the second half of the game things REALLY open up. You've got multiple mainline and side quests to do, many locations to explore and character and weapon upgrades. There's been a lot of discussion about the large difficulty spike in the second half. I have to say I disagree with this whole-heartedly.

While the game is definitely harder and the bosses are more puzzle-like (more on that below) the sheer breadth of choices allows you so much freedom to tackle these objectives at your own pace. Having trouble with a boss? Ignore it for now and work on a party member's story quest instead, or improve your Dimengeon to allow for easier traversal. Use those treasure chest keys you've found to go back and find some excellent new gear. Respec any character's skill tree (for free at any time!!) and try new strategies. Swap party members out in battle and think outside the box. Nothing in the game is missable (unlike the strategy guide fodder that is most Final Fantasy games). Or swallow your pride and drop it down to Normal if you're too basic to engage with the game on its own terms.

Now onto the biggest gripe people have with the difficulty spikes: the bosses and the puzzle-like strategies required to beat them. Think Shin Megami Tensei. You can't win via attrition, you have to THINK! For God's sake, one of the harder bosses people ♥♥♥♥♥ about LITERALLY LETS YOU PICK WHAT HE'S GOING TO DO TO YOU! Equip resist jewels, respec your skill tree (again, for free, at any time, with no caveats) and upgrade your equipment! If you can tell the boss to use a fire attack or status ailment, equip the appropriate null or resist!

The ONLY concession I will make here is the pacing off these battles. Shin Megami Tensei respects your time in the sense that, if a boss is going to hand your ass to you, they'll do it nice and quick (within the first 3 or 4 turns usually). In Fantasian, they'll wait until they're below half or a third of their health to change tact. It IS very annoying, I will agree with that. The final boss is the biggest offender here. However, even when you die, you get the option to immediately restart with your newfound knowledge, load a previous save or, if you forgot to save recently, load from a checkpoint.

Fantasian will not dethrone any of the good Final Fantasy titles (III-XII, Lost Odyssey) That being said, it is an incredibly enjoyable and addictive experience. I'm glad the game has been unshackled from Apple Arcade. It's always good to have games be available for everyone. Square Enix have not gone above and beyond for this port, but it's no slouch either. I will probably play through it again on NG+ and I'm looking forward to the teased successor.

8/10.

I haven't beaten it yet, but here's my thoughts:

It's AAA slop, but it's well made AAA slop that does everything well. It will not light your world on fire, but sometimes you just want an open world game to chip away at and you can definitely do worse than Days Gone.

In terms of the story, it's very slow paced, but it's consistent with its pacing so far, and it maintains a good balance of side content and main story missions. It's a survival story set in a post apocalyptic Oregon after a zombie outbreak, following biker Deacon St John navigating the hostile landscape and its equally hostile inhabitants: Freakers (zombies), cultists, rival gangs, wild animals and NERO, the secretive governmental organisation who, if I know my horror tropes, will probably turn out to be behind the whole thing due to experiments gone wrong. Deacon must also face his past, protect his injured butt buddy Boozer, and schmooze with local gangs and settlements to keep himself armed. It's well-done so far, if a bit predictable, and the characters are flawed but likeable, or at least somewhat empathetic. Probably the best aspect of the story for me is Deacon's history with the majority of the characters is not explicitly told, but you can glean aspects of their relationships prior to outbreak, and it feels very natural and not bogged down with clumsy exposition.

Graphics are fantastic, especially the facial capture. It rivals modern AAA games in that respect. Still a bit of uncanny valley here and there, but it's to be expected. The environments are incredibly realistic which I think is to the game's detriment in that it could've used some more dynamic and memorable locales, but I understand realism is what they're going for.

The sound is a mixed bag. The music is fine, but completely unmemorable. The voice acting is great, and Sam Witwer's performance especially is amazing. The problem lies in the direction; Deacon does not shut the ♥♥♥♥ up EVER. If the game wants to establish that he's a little loopy from being alone for so long that he talks to himself, that's fine, but it never really does that. It just creates this awkward incongruity where Deacon is incredibly realistic during the game's cutscenes with his fumbling dialogue and stuttering, but this extends to whenever he's alone. Does he really have to say "uh I - I guess I'll uh... grab this here fuel can for uh - my my bike" every single ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ time? Does anyone actually say "oooookay, time to get back to it..." every single morning when they wake up? It would benefit the performances more if they were balanced by periods of silence, but you'll never go more than 10 seconds without Deacon spouting the obvious and it gets a bit exhausting. It feels like the devs assume we're a bit slow and need his narration to understand that, yes, he can make something with the crafting material he just picked up.

Speaking of crafting, let's move onto the gameplay. It is the most bog-standard open world AAA routine and will throw absolutely zero surprises at you. Open world, quests, side quests, gathering, crafting, taking out camps, revealing way points on the map from said camps, buying upgrades, skill trees and levelling up, collectibles and audio logs, et cetera. Really the only unique point is the bike, but all this really boils down to is from point a to point b, make sure you fuel up, of which there are reliable respawns of fuel in each area. I suppose the alternative to this would be more dynamic and unreliable sources of fuel, which would be irritating and even more distracting than the system is now, so I understand why they made fuel so available despite the apparent scarcity of it given the setting of the game.

Now, I'm not a smoothbrain who can't reconcile ludonarrative dissonance. I understand that this is a game and making it not a complete chore to play is preferable to bring realistic. But the whole aesthetic of the game IS its realism. So the ludonarrative dissonance is a lot more jarring here than say, a JRPG.

The combat, like everything else, is fine. You've got breakable melee weapons and firearms, the former of which you can upgrade or repair with enough progress, and the latter of which you can purchase stronger variants the more work you do for each camp. There's also a large amount of tools and recovery items, which can alter the variety of enemy encounters significantly. You'll obtain better combat and exploration skills as you level up, but you gain the majority of EXP from quests rather than enemies, so you're not encouraged to go out of your away to kill everything.

Overall, I'd give it a 7.5 out of 10. It probably won't stick with me when I'm done with it, but so far it's been a well made and enjoyable experience. You can tell the passion of the developers is there. I just wish they'd had a bit more leeway to implement some more unique mechanics and environments especially, because it certainly feels a bit safe.

Fix the Steam Input bugs! Can't fish or use brush which is integral to the game. Yes you can get around this with custom mapping or downloading a community layout but you shouldn't ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ have to, especially a game that worked fine FOR SEVEN ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ YEARS. Also fishing is harder because controller glyphs don't appear, instead WSAD does and it's confusing and annoying. The whole point of controller support is that you plug it in and it works and you don't have to rebind stuff.

You can't just turn Steam Input off either because the game doesn't have native xinput support, so if you turn it off it doesn't work at all.

Steam Input is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ garbage, please just make your games work with Xinput natively from now on Capcom and don't rely on this buggy crap.

I know it's not Capcom's fault that the controller API was changed but this needs to be fixed. I wanted to start playing again because of the Kunitsu Gami collab and they JUST NOW decided to break it.

It's been nearly 2 months since the issue was first reported and there hasn't been a response. This will ruin the experience for new players especially ones who came to check out Okami after playing the Kunitsu Gami demo.

♥♥♥♥ steam input man

I'll change/delete this when they fix the official layout

Yeah, it's really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ good. It just feels so good to play. It's incredibly dynamic and cinematic.

I absolutely loathed Tekken 7 as a long time fan of the series. Tekken 8 is what 7 should've been.

There's still some baffling omissions like Team Battle and Survival, but the gameplay is so good it doesn't sting quite as much as it did for 7.

Plus the new characters are actually good. I think Katarina from 7 has to be the most uninspired character ever made for a fighting game. I'm glad to see her and Gigas gone.

TL;DR: imagine you're playing Doom 64, but you can actually see what the ♥♥♥♥ you're doing and don't need to use a aborted boomerang to play it.

As usual with Nightdive, they've done an excellent job porting this two-and-a-half decade old game to modern systems with modern controls and video options. Technically, it runs flawlessly (as it should) and contains a wealth of visual upgrades such as antialiasing and higher resolutions. Control-wise, WASD keyboard and mouse is the standard here (although some default keybindings are weird: spacebar to sprint?!), as well as gamepad support. Not only that, but a secret episode of 6 extra levels has been included. It's not on the same level as the phenomenal Shadow Man Remastered, also ported by Nightdive Studios, which is probably the greatest remaster ever made, but there has been a huge effort put into this very polished release. As usual, the original feel of the game is preserved immaculately, but made far more accessible (read: not stuck on a long defunct console selling for $50 AUD minimum). The default pricing of $7.55 AUD is actually a bit of a lowball in my opinion. I'd happily pay $20 AUD for this.

Onto the game itself, which was developed by Midway under supervision from id Software in 1997, as a Nintendo 64 exclusive. At the time it was praised for its atmosphere and gameplay but faulted for its lack of innovation and multiplayer; its contemporaries like Quake 2 and the Turok series were seen as more technologically advanced, with 3D models for enemies instead of sprites, more complex level geometry and more platforming abilities such as swimming. The lack of multiplayer was particularly odd, especially for Doom, the originator of the deathmatch, on a console swimming in splitscreen shooters. Goldeneye 64 released a year prior and is still remembered today for its 4-player action. I personally never had any interest in the game, having been far too young to buy it on release and never owning a 64, and with 64 emulation being very poor up until recently.

In terms of gameplay, it's Doom to a T. Armed to the teeth with a wide variety of firearms, all returning from previous games in the series, you play through a linear set of levels, some hidden, dispatching hordes of a variety of distinct monsters. These monsters also return from previous entries, with some absences due to limited cartridge space, and some new additions that are mostly palette swaps, but which are nonetheless welcome. You'll find secret areas, dodge environmental traps such as crushers, push switches to reveal new pathways, and collect coloured card keys. Apart from some slightly more sophisticated level alteration, such as activating a large weight which breaks through the floor, it's the same old Doom.

Really where it differentiates itself from its predecessors is the atmosphere, which will be familiar to those who have played Williams Entertainment's port of Doom for the PlayStation. Sound effects are entirely different, or reused in different ways, some better, others less so. Monsters have had their stats altered slightly, and their sprites are all entirely new, created from CG models. And of course the levels themselves are different, despite retaining the same themes and characteristics; you've still got tech bases and hellish temples, laid out in Doom's trademark abstract style. Coloured lighting returns from the PlayStation version, providing a distinct visual difference from its predecessors.

The largest departure is the music, composed by Aubrey Hodges (also the composer of the PlayStation version). Here, other than the introduction cinematic and level end screens, the themes are entirely atmospheric and industrial, rather than the classic techno-metal we've come to expect from Bobby Prince. This is a double-edged sword for me. It succeeds brilliantly at providing an extremely tense and foreboding atmosphere, and combined with the new lighting which is overall far more moody and dark, immerses you in these grotesque environments. However, the original Doom and Doom II were also able to achieve this feeling when necessary, while still providing far more melodic, memorable and frankly far superior tracks. Listen to Bobby Prince's "Sinister" from Doom's Halls of the Damned (E2M6) level for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7MGbUYslrU I understand music is especially subjective, so your mileage may vary, but I won't remember any of these tracks the moment I finish the game.

Overall, it's more classic Doom, presented in a unique and sometimes fascinating way, finally freed of its exclusivity and available on modern platforms. As someone who has wanted an official* way to play this for a long time, I'm very happy with this release. It won't supersede Doom II: Hell on Earth as the pinnacle of the classic games for me, but it's an engaging and satisfying experience nonetheless.

*I do not want to discount the amazing fan efforts that went into recreating and reverse engineering Doom 64 before this port was available. As usual, Doom fans are amazing and provided custom map sets and even whole recreations of Doom 64 far before its official re-release. In particular, Sam Villareal's Doom 64 TC and later Doom 64 EX were instrumental in contributing to the renewed interest in this game and I doubt this would even exist without his ingenuity and passion.

Isn't it amazing that the only gender blob character happens to be a massive pervert who owns sex dolls and hits on everyone inappropriately? They don't even try to hide it.

Disgusting.

I'll start by saying that I don't know much about cars at all. I thoroughly enjoy rally racing games, but I'm not a hardcore player; I use automatic transmission and a PlayStation 4 controller. Just to keep that perspective in mind: essentially I'm a casual fan, so I do not understand the intricacies of the sport or much about cars in general. I prefer more casual or arcade experiences, but can enjoy more realistic sims from time to time. I'm just not good at them.

Codemasters' DiRT series has been the pinnacle of rally games for the last decade or so, and have been my go-to for any offroad racing action I've craved accordingly. However, with their DLC practices regarding DiRT Rally 2, mixed recepetion to DiRT 4 and 5, and worst of all recent acquisition by EA (which I can predict with 100% certainty will exacerbate these issues tenfold), I've decided to jump ship to the official WRC games.

I'll be starting with WRC 4 - FIA World Rally Championship (not WRC 4 on the PlayStation 2, developed by Evolution Studios), which is the earliest game in the series still available on Steam. Unlike all later entries, this one is developed by Milestone, whose output seems to be consistently 6/10, barebones, no frills titles that just about get the job done. I have played further entries in the series up til WRC 8, but only to try them out.

WRC 4 FWRC (hereafter referred to as WRC 4) is slightly better than that, but not by much. What is here is a solid, functional rally game with arcade-style handling. At least, I assume so. I've found it much easier to handle cars in WRC 4 than even other casual racers like DiRT 4. Tracks are nicely laid out, not overly long and satisfying to navigate. The pacenotes provided by your co-driver are timely, accurate and clear. Damage isn't just cosmetic, and requires repairing between stages; too much time spent repairing (with the time needed increasing based on severity and the component damaged) means you suffer a time penalty for the following stage, and modifications cannot be made to parts being repaired. This is mostly mitigated by the automatic tuneup settings that the game does for you, which is suitable for a casual player like me, but can be customised depending on your preferences.

The career mode, which is the meat of the game, has an almost superfluous team management and event calendar, as well as "news" and "emails" that are essentially Mad Libs, fill-in-the-blanks style statements, and sometimes it doesn't even autofill them correctly, unless my driver name magically changed to %DRIVER_NAME% and I just didn't realise. Being able to name your co-driver is nice; having my inept navigator boyfriend reading pacenotes in a timely manner is pretty funny, as well as an accompanying portrait that looks nothing like him. The effort here is lacking, so I wish they'd just skipped adding all this fluff as a framework for races. Just have a simple region select and cup system, like Gran Turismo or something, or go all out with the career system - something that the sequels, particularly WRC 8, do marvellously.

Otherwise, everything else is quick, snappy and straight to the point. You do races, there's not many (if any) cutscenes, nor pretentious, masturbatory diatribes about motorsport that Codemasters is known for (and get worse with each new game of theirs - check GRID Legend's "Story Mode" and try not to die of embarrassment). You gain access to new regions, which increase in difficulty, and your cars increase in rank and specifications. Overall, an accessible, penetrable experience for casuals, and probably lacking depth for more experienced players.

There's also single races and tournament modes, but they're not really my thing. Some people like to just jump in and do a race, which is perfectly fine, but I need a career mode and something to unlock to keep me going. But for those who want them, they're there and there's a fair amount of customisation!

Now, onto everything surrounding that. This game has a bunch of issues - the kind of issues I'd expect from a game made 2 decades ago, not one 7 years old. The graphics are competent, but nowhere near the quality of its contemporaries or even games released 3 or 4 years prior. If you care about games looking good, this probably won't cut it. I personally couldn't give a ♥♥♥♥ as long as it's acceptable and runs decently. Which it doesn't, if you want to have V-Sync tuned on to alleviate the horrific screen tearing. This caps the game to 30fps, regardless of what refresh rate you have set in the LAUNCHER (for God's sake, if your game isn't an MMO, don't use a launcher). A workaround for this is to force V-Sync through your GPU's per-game settings, from which it will then run at 60fps fine, but it's still an annoying issue. There's no button prompts, even for Xbox controllers, which have been the standard gamepad on PC for a decade and a half at this point. Instead, there are keyboard prompts that are in the SAME COLOUR as the appropriate Xbox button. Why be so lazy with it?

Then there's the initial load time, which is ridiculous. Definitely more than a minute, maybe even two. I have no idea why it takes that long to load, but it's not my system. Once you're past that the load times are fine, instantaneous mostly, but along with the aforementioned LAUNCHER, it just screams console port. Finally, at the end of every race (at least in the Career mode), it attempts to upload your time to a leaderboard, which I assume has long since been offline. This means you can't skip through post-stage results screens, because it defaults to "Yes" meaning waiting around for that stupid spinning circle without being able to cancel it. Jesus Christ, just have an "upload time" button instead of forcing it. Not everyone cares about leaderboards.

Lastly, and this is just personal preference, but the music is pretty bad. The main menu music sounds like the theme to a reality TV show about dangerous animals, with abysmal timing on the percussion. The career menu theme sounds like it could fit an employee induction video for an insurance company. I know, it's a racing game, who cares? Most people, myself included, probably play with their own music or a stream on, or with the music turned off. But it's just another thing I thought I'd mention.

In the end, it's a rough but otherwise competent start to my new rally series. Kylotonn games have overtaken development from Milestone, and from the looks of the general reception of the series going forward, has improved the games with each entry. I would recommend this to casual rally fans who have a bit of patience dealing with its technical issues, which can be fixed and mostly ignored with a bit of work.

6/10 - slightly above average.