Bite-sized Review:
Art of Rally
Art of Rally
Developer: Funselektor
Release Date: 23 September, 2020
Platform: Windows, Switch, PS4/5, Xbox One/S/X, MacOS, Linux
Genre: Racing
By Chris Picone, 15 November 2023
Art of Rally is exactly the sort of rally game I enjoy. Although it doesn't take itself too seriously, the gameplay can challenging and fairly technical - at least if you want to do well. There are plenty of tracks, plenty of cars to unlock, it's fast-paced, and lots of fun. Art of Rally's been out for a while now (2020!) but the Australia DLC has just released, so I thought it was high time for a review.
Aesthetics
I love Art of Rally's graphics. They've gone for almost a low poly look - more like maybe an early Playstation polygon vibe rather than actual low poly, but heavily stylised in an artsy way that I lack the words to describe effectively. Each level's based in a different country, so one minute you'll be driving through fields of cherry blossom in Japan and the next you'll be driving across the dusty plains of Africa or some snowy wonderland in Findland. And there's tons of minor details and polish in every level; it's the little things like the barriers might be barrier walls on one level and bales of hay on the next. I love how different the levels are from each other, it really helps to prevent the game from ever feeling monotonous or boring.
Gameplay
Art of Rally's controls are both simple and technical. Anyone could pick up a controller and go for a spin, finish a race, and simply finishing will unlock more of the game - more levels, more cars, and eventually more classes. But to actually beat the good times to win the races and unlock the good stuff, you've got to do some serious rally; rapid acceleration and deceleration, tight control of the handbrake for drifting, and a good working knowledge of both front and rear wheel drive to run efficient driving lines. Easy to learn, hard to master. The campaign itself is pretty hefty, with multiple classes to unlock, but if you beat that there are also a number of other gaming modes to play with: online events, time attacks, custom quickplay maps, and some "Free Roam" maps that allow you to go anywhere and even include a bunch of audio tracks, photo points, and other pickups to find scattered around the map.
Verdict
I love Art of Rally, it's easily one of the best rally games available. It looks great, plays great, and comes with tons of variety out of the box.
Links:
Australia DLC
Released: 16 November, 2023
Just released! If you're already a fan of Art of Rally, this one's definitely worth the purchase. The main selling point is that it comes with 6 new tracks (including one new Free Roam track), all of which take place in a new biome. You'll find kangaroos, emus, sheep, nice little outback towns, plenty of pubs, and I'm pretty sure I even ran into a bush doof on the Free Roam map. Four new cars are also added, including the awesome Rotary Kei, a light truck used to deliver beer. The developers have put a lot of love into this one, and it shows.
