Players who remember the classic Sega Rally games from their arcade,
Saturn or Dreamcast iterations will be happy to know that the team at SRS
has done a superb job of bringing the titles' classic controls, arcade
speed and silky smooth gameplay up to date in fine form on the PS3. The
games are simple arcade-racers at heart, and despite some cool new
deformation technology, this new version hasn't lost sight of that fact.
The game's multiple modes of play are straightforward and don't really
change the basic feel of the game. As you'd expect, Sega Rally Revo allows
you to play through several different levels of top-notch racing in either
championship or single player modes. You can choose from three different
types of vehicles before each race including standard, customized and
classic classes of vehicle. Each vehicle can be further customized with
different paint jobs that you can unlock by playing and winning in the
championship modes. There are several different tracks in the game, each
of which has several courses that can be played as well. Sega Rally Revo's
options let you select from either standard or off-road transmissions,
which goes a long way in determining whether or not you win the race. Once
you've completed your selections, you're then ready to race and get ready,
because the experience is faster and more frenetic than most current
racing games on the market.
When
you get onto the course, the first thing you want to do is get a feel for
the controls. Like the previous games, the controls in Sega Rally Revo are
quite simple and highly responsive, allowing you to perform wild
power-slides and corners without much effort. Players can steer using
either the standard or analog controller, both of which offer excellent
performance. The gameplay is incredibly fast, and each course unfolds
before you at a breakneck speed that requires you to use split-second
reflexes. Each course features a variety of turns and corners along with
jumps, muddy sections and sudden turns that you have to master. Most of
the courses offer a balance between standard tarmac sections and off-road
areas consisting of mud, dirt, snow and ice along with puddles and other
natural obstacles. As you might expect, the courses in Sega Rally Revo
feature plenty of twists and other sections which helps to keep the racing
interesting. While the game is incredibly challenging in the number of
courses and variety it throws at you, it's also accessible, since its
arcade-style physics are quite forgiving. One of the more interesting
features of the game is the cool GeoDeformation feature, where cars leave
indents on the course as they pass over them, which is quite an impressive
feature in the physics department. This means that the tracks are never
quite the same on subsequent laps, and as the races go on, things can get
really messy in spots. It definitely adds to the challenge of each race,
and really enhances the game's sense of hyper-realism.
Sega Rally Revo's environments are
impressive, and the mud and dirt that splash onto your vehicle looks
really cool as well. However, there aren't collisions in the game that
cause damage. Since there isn't a damage model, you can crash repeatedly
and not suffer performance losses, though you will lose significant clock
time. Completing each course in the championship modes allows you to move
through the ranks and unlock additional courses, tracks, cars and
paintjobs. While you can adjust some of the minor elements of your car in
the garage mode, Sega Rally Revo doesn't really offer the amount of depth
you'd expect in these types of games. While each vehicle is officially
licensed from its real-world manufacturer, which adds to its authenticity,
you won't have to worry about selecting from competing brands of spark
plugs. Speaking of vehicle selection, Sega Rally Revo offers an
exceptional array of rally cars from the likes of Toyota, Nissan and
Mitsubishi. Each of these high-perfomance vehicles offers a slightly
different balance between speed and they handle differently on the track.
For nostalgic gamers, there are a number of classic vehicles, some of
which are quite cool. For example, the Lancia Delta from 1976, which was
the flagship vehicle in Sega Rally 2 makes a return appearance here and
while its controls feel a little bit floaty, it's definitely cool to play
it again in this updated installment. There are more than 30 vehicles
included in all, with about half of them unlockable through playing the
game.
Sega
Rally Revo's impressive visuals take good advantage of the PS3 with highly
detailed car models that look quite impressive and accurate. The game's
stages include seven main areas such as Canyon, Alpine, Tropical, Arctic
and other motifs. Each stage features impressively designed stages with
elaborate track-side objects, and several different types of road surface,
such as tarmac, mud and dirt. These elements are rendered realistically
and make the experience very immersive overall, especially in the game's
first-person modes which are impressive. This is especially true when you
see and feel the game's incredibly fast action and speedy races unfold at
a smooth and consistent frame rate, which shows off SRR's graphics engine
effectively. Players can switch viewpoints at the press of a button and go
from the usual behind the-car view to the first-person perspective. All of
these views are quite effective and allow the player to concentrate on the
driving action without worrying about obtrusive items. During each race,
the game's co-driver issues commands, and in a nice touch, these warnings
seem to have been sampled from the original arcade game, as has the cult
favorite 'Game Over, Yeah!' song that made the original games so charming.
The game's music and soundtrack is decent with a decent mix of hard rock
that fits the action nicely. If you aren't into the music or sound
commands, you can also turn them off if you want at the options screen.
Sega Rally Revo's production values aren't as sophisticated as some of the
simulation racers on the market, but its many moments of arcade-style
ferocity that makes up for this lack of realism.
While this approach may not appeal to
gamers used to simulation racers like Gran Turismo and Project Gotham, the
developers deserve credit for creating an almost purely arcade style
experience. Instead of spending time on extraneous features, Sega Rally
Revo instead focuses like a laser on delivering an intense and challenging
racing experience. The game's intense racing, responsive controls and
visceral thrill make for one of the more enjoyable driving games for the
current systems. It would be easy to criticize what isn't included in Sega
Rally Revo, but what is there is a superb, challenging racer that likes up
to the reputation build by AM2's driving games from Sega's golden age.
Those that remember those games are likely to be thrilled by the game's
pedal-to-the-metal design, which makes for an easily accessible game with
highly tuned play mechanics that make for an exciting and entertaining
arcade-racing experience.
- Michael Palisano
Grade:
B+
