A visual spectacle that puts Rallys back in the videogame world: Art Of Rally
For those of you who have been following me for a while now you will know that I don't usually buy new games and review them right away, I have a strange trauma with several recent games where they seem to be released unfinished and with the thought that they can finish the game on the fly and with a weekly patch, I don't like having to buy a full experience for something that is clearly not finished so I usually wait for a sale or check some reviews before buying a new game, but Art Of Rally is such a unique and honest experience that the second I saw in a youtube video that it was a decent videogame I went all out to buy it, and I was not disappointed at all, driving proposals that are out of the usual "realism or arcade" are not abundant and the truth is that since the annual Forza Horizon I had not been able to find excuses to get behind the wheel again, or so I thought until Funselektor Labs studio released this proposal to the market but that already had several months of delays, has not disappointed me and now I have a new favorite to spend the nights behind the wheel.
Art Of Rally is an indie and as every indie has to compete head to head with other bigger productions in a smart way, not focusing on graphics but in offering a unique experience that stands out above so many other projects, this is especially difficult in a genre like driving and racing as there is little room for maneuver for developers, but Art Of Rally is a revision of the classic formula transforming it from the visual level focusing on having a recognizable identity with its textures, And at the gameplay level looking for an accessible feeling but also full of challenges that put in focus how well done is its gameplay, we can customize from the beginning how our experience will be and how demanding we want the game to be, the best thing is that it makes a staunch tribute to the classic Rally games while innovating because we feel that driving is very well done and that the immersion is total in each race we participate.
The aesthetics Low Poly or simple graphics without much detail and more thinking of a simple and recognizable design for players paying direct homage to original Rally titles of retro consoles, but also uses this style of drawing to give a unique personality to your game as driving through the polygonal valleys seeing each mountain or lake is a real pleasure and makes it more evident the primary objective of this game, yes, Rally may be a competition but Art Of Rally is about enjoying our condition as a driver, inviting us to overcome every curve but without losing sight of all the amazing artwork that makes the developer studio in its environment that for me is the most accomplished thing that has the game along with its driving system.
Each new vehicle that we unlock with the passage of each race has a unique essence and characteristics that radically change our driving, with different categories of cars that vary also in the years, having symbolic cars of the 60s or 70s (my favorite) that have a particular design but usually do not perform as well in the races as modern cars, as I already said each car offers a challenge in itself to drive but to this we now add the maps and this is where the variety that this game can have is demonstrated, with maps as varied as a desert, some calm valleys or a snowy mountain that make our driving even more challenging, needless to say that the, graphic finish is unique, the lights play very well with the environment and even in the dark and when only the lights of our car illuminate you can perceive a beauty in its Low Poly aesthetics.
Of course there are some flaws, although I have not yet unlocked all the cars that has the game and I do a little short catalog of 50 cars, something that although it would be enough for an indie game makes me a little jealous of some deliveries of Forza that include more than 200, also the game in its PC version has some points to polish especially in the technical section that has some FPS drops some more noticeable than others but if they affect the experience in the long run, The variety in the scenarios also has some flaws because after a few hours of play we begin to feel that each scenario has some similarities that I do not quite like, it starts to feel a little repetitive in some curves and that, in the long run, takes me out of the game on many occasions.
However, I do not regret it at all, the design of a game like this is something that I've seen few times in driving games, besides being a pretty decent Rally experience also has the extra that we have a free mode where we can drive and enjoy passing some of the most iconic landscapes of the game, because many of them remain in the retina and make me want more than ever a way to take pictures in-game, Art Of Rally is an experience that stands out from our typical racing titles with a proposal that stands out both gameplay and visual level, bringing a unique perspective to the genre and somehow reviving the Rally racing for the new generation.