Richard Burns Rally (PS2) Review

Title: Richard Burns Rally
Publisher: SCI
Developer: Warthog
Platform Reviewed: PS2 (PAL)
Release Date: 9th July 2004
Price: £39.99

Introduction
In the past few years a plethora of rally titles have made their way onto the shelves. Some of these have grabbed the gaming limelight; others sit in the shadow cast by their rivals. How does a developer make a game successful? Surely if we knew the answer to this we would all be in the gaming market.

One assumes the difficulty of developing a game based on a real life sport is, do you make it to appeal to the gamers whom enjoy the speed and theory of rallying but don’t want to spend hours tweaking their differentials (sounds painful!), like the Colin McRae Rally series? Or, design the game to be fast, exciting but with an element of realism that pushes the game nearer the simulation bracket, the WRC series? Or finally, does one create a simulation that won’t appeal to everyone but is closer to what rallying is about than purely a racing game set on stages instead of a racetrack? Warthog and SCI decided to go for the latter and embark on the challenge of making a rally simulation, but they didn’t go it alone. They sought the help of 2001 World Rally Champion driver and co-pilot, Richard Burns and Robert Reid to produce Richard Burns Rally.

When the Colin McRae Rally series has been the top rally title for the last few years, why should we change and play Richard Burns Rally? Well, zip up your overalls, tighten your helmet and let’s go rallying, Richard Burns style!

Understanding the concept of the game –

As this is a simulation you cannot simply keep your foot plastered to the floor and slide around corners at 100km/h, Colin McRae Rally approach. In Richard Burns Rally you have to be gentle, sensitive and think hard about the next series of corners. There are techniques that can be mastered in Richard Burns Rally that will assist you in controlling the car. This leads me conveniently onto the rally school.

Game Modes
Rally School – The game features the rally school that Richard went to when learning rallying, the Forrest Experience Rally School set in the Welsh countryside.

With many rally games; the emphasis is on getting to grips with the game relatively early and heading out onto the stage quickly for some muddy fun. This is not the case in Richard Burns Rally, if you head out on a stage with the plan of getting comfortable with the game by the second time split, you’re very much mistaken. This is where the rally school comes into play. In the Rally School you will learn the manoeuvres that will be required to be successful at RBR. Skills such as the Scandinavian Flick, handbrake turn, power sliding and many more. Once you have completed a lesson you will advance onto the next one. There are 2 sections, basic driving lessons and advanced techniques. In total there are 6 lessons in the basic driving category and 11 in the advanced technique section.

The stage you have to play in order to complete the advanced technique section is a pleasure to drive

Quick Rally – In this mode you can choose any car and stage that you have unlocked and drive against the clock. This is a good opportunity to get familiar with a certain stage you’ve been having difficulties with or to try out a new car and/or a different set up.

Rally Season – This is your chance to launch your campaign on a season and show you have what it takes to become World Champion. Providing you have completed all the basics lessons in the Rally School you can start a season. As in real life you can secure a drive with a rally outfit (more are unlocked if you’re competitive), take part in a Recce, repair damage at the Service Park, fine tune your set up and compete in 6 events:

England (Gravel) – Pirelli International Rally
Japan (Gravel) – Rally Hokkaido
Finland (Snow/Ice) – Arctic Lapland Rally
USA (Gravel) – The Ramada Express Hotel Casino International Rally
France (Tarmac) – Rallye Mont Blanc
Australia (Gravel) – Subaru Rally of Canberra

(More detail on stages later)

Multiplayer – Compete in a 2,3 or 4 player hot-seat mode. Fight against your friends for the fastest time over a particular stage or a whole rally.

Richard Burns Challenge – Ever wanted to see how you fair against the man himself? Think you could rub mud in his face? Now is your chance to prove yourself. In this mode you can go against Richard over a number of stages and see who is fastest. I don’t think Richard was using a PS2 Dual Shock controller when doing this (lol).

Cars
Cars – There are 8 cars included in this game.

– Citroen Xsara T4
– Hyundai Accent
– Mitsubishi Evolution VII (Unlocked from beginning)
– MG ZR Super 1600 (Bonus 2WD Car)
– Peugeot 206
– Subaru Impreza 2003 (Unlocked from beginning)
– Subaru Impreza 2000 (Bonus Car)
– Toyota Corolla (Unlocked from beginning)

Although not having the variety of CMR or WRC, they’re officially specified rally cars and look like their counterparts. The quality of the cars is not the highest we’ve seen but are acceptable and more importantly handle correctly.

Physics
This is where the game moves into its own. When I first played this game I knew how realistic it was ‘supposed’ to be and told it would take a long time to master it. But to be honest I’ve heard it all before and they were false hopes (except GPL), so I had no reason to believe it was true for RBR. How wrong can a person be! When I first played the retail version I had the idea that the Rally School was for the person who thought Subaru was the name of Shaggy’s Dog not for me, sim-driving extraordinaire. So I clicked ‘Quick Rally’, chose the Evo, full damage because I’m Mr. Cocky (I’m not really, just didn’t think the game would be too difficult) and headed for the English countryside.

Sat at the stage start, I rotated my view through the three options, cockpit, bumper view and behind, choose cockpit. Couldn’t see too much of the cockpit (top of the dashboard) so I looked out the windshield and I saw the timing board and the man counting me down- nice touch. Picked up the revs, played around with dropping the revs and then picking them back up- true rally style . I heard Robert come over the headphones 3-2-1-GO! so I gunned the accelerator. I heard, ‘Easy Left’ followed by ‘Easy Right, into Medium Left’, so all the information flooded into my brain. Took on the easy left, the handling felt heavy, not light like CMR, swung the car to the right, bit too much, felt back-end stepping out, so I compensated. A smile appeared on my face as I braked and felt the nose-dive, I muttered, ‘I like this! Wee!’ but it soon turned into ‘I like this wee, agh!!!’ as I switched the balance of the car to take on the corner without braking hard enough, an uneasy feeling dissipated throughout my body as the un-weighted rear end lost grip and wanted to over take the front. Feeling this, I steered to counter the slide- ‘no rally school taught me this, pure natural skill’ cockily thinking I’ve done enough to save the day. If I was playing ‘Colin McRae Rally? I’d simply floor the car and do a dramatic slide and continue, but this is Richard Burns Rally and instead of a dramatic slide, I had a dramatic crash. I ran out of road and the rear hit something hard, a heavy sound echoed throughout, before I had time to react the front was brought around, no amount of brakes of steering would help me here and I made contact with a rigid tree ‘Oh! Fiddle sticks’ was the politest expression I could muster. Thought, ‘No problem! – Put it into reverse and continue’, sadly not, smoke billowed from the bonnet and my heart sank as I read ‘Your car is too badly damaged to continue, please restart.’ This isn’t right, didn’t even make it to the first proper corner and I’m out, a game has beaten me! This has not happened since GPL! So I restarted and had another go.

The invaluable input from Richard and Robert was not wasted. For the first time in my opinion, a game felt how a rally car looks from on television. When you watch a replay you can see the balance of the car pitching from side to side on corning and to the front under braking. On the tarmac stages when you need to handbrake you can feel the car skip across the surface as the rear is brought around. From watching rallying on television you witness real life drivers getting it wrong and the car coming to a halt, this is possible and frequently done in the early stages of learning the game.

It’s hard to explain in words the feeling of driving these cars through the stages. I found myself holding my breath as I wound through the French village and was generally concerned about pushing too hard. I’ve never felt this in a game, let alone on a console. The relief to arrive at a timing split without crashing is a sensual moment, sounds rather pathetic doesn’t it? But you have to experience it to know what I mean (before you start giving me phone numbers for ‘special’ homes). Then when you complete a whole stage, you feel like you’ve just climbed Everest. The tantalising moments before you pass the finish of the stage, sweaty hands, heart racing, it’s just a game! But it’s not simply ‘just a game’, it’s a title that has moved the genre onto the next level, done what many have dreamt of and given the true rally fans what they’ve wanted for a long time.

Stages
In total there are 36 stages in 6 countries (listed above) based on real events. The stages total up to 270km average stage length 7.5km. The surfaces vary from tarmac, gravel and snow. The stages look both aesthetically pleasing and realistic. Stages are rigged with potholes, trees, log piles, buildings, advertising posts, Armco barriers and a whole list of other dangers.

Think you’ve mastered a stage in the dry? Let the rain fall and this game kicks the confidence out of you again as if to say, ‘When we said Sim, we meant it!’ The stages become treacherous you have to be even more sensitive than before, take care or frustration will come before competence ( lol ). The weather can change throughout a stage or an event, so keep an eye out for the dark clouds.

Graphics
The graphics overall are not ‘Gran Turismo’ level but not too shabby either. The car models are realistic and look like their real life counterparts; the cockpit isn’t very detailed when playing from that camera angle and environmental reflections are perhaps a little over exaggerated, but this is being very critical. There isn’t anything dramatically wrong in any area, just we’ve been used to stunning models in the Gran Turismo series and a precedent has been set, so when a game doesn’t fulfil the same high expectations we could be disappointed.

The stages are wonderfully created and a joy to drive through and the vegetation looks vibrant and realistic. Each country looks like its name-sake with objects lining the roads, ranging from trees, buildings, advertising boards all modelled to required detail, no detail wasted but none sacrificed. The graphics are nothing exceptional but who is looking at the scenery when driving? When watching the replay I hear you shouting! The replay system is again acceptable, but it’s always satisfying to see your car execute a Scandinavian flick or roll in a dramatic crash. There are four views to choose, TV, bumper, behind and cockpit. You can save the replay if required.

Audio
Apart from the annoying air horn that some spectator(s) is using (and I want to find them personally), the sounds are great. The impact audio is fantastic; damage part of your car and you can hear the result, which all adds to the realism. The game supports Dolby Surround Pro Logic II so increase the volume, put on your overalls, slide your gloves on and pretend you’re Richard or is it just me that does that? Right *cough*. Moving on. Not sure what else to say about the audio, it’s as you expect from a rally title. Overall very pleasing although I miss the turbo popping noise though!

Music
Artists include Paul Oakenfold, Andy Hunter, Pepe Deluxe and Plump DJ’s, from what I’ve heard the music doesn’t really add anything to the game but it doesn’t annoy you as it does in some games. In the replays it’s evident but you’re more interested in the footage than the music and you don’t find yourself tapping to the beat neither.

Damage
One of the many reasons why Richard Burns Rally succeeds where other games fail is in the damage department. For too long gamers have escaped high-speed accidents with little more than a trailing bumper. This game not only has realistic visual damage but rally ending mechanical damage. Collide with a tree using your radiator, as a contact point and steam will pour out causing your engine to over heat. Roll the car in a style that Richard himself would be jealous of and the windows will smash, body work dent, suspension damage or even result in crashing out of the stage. This game won’t go easy on you – are you skilled enough to complete a stage without scratching the bodywork?

Conclusion
Want to experience a game that captures what rallying is truly about? Then try Richard Burns Rally. It may take you a while to master it but that’s a positive, not a negative point as it is so rewarding when you do. This game has tried something different, broken away from the norm and given us the closest rallying experience ever seen in a computer game.

Score –
+ Unparalleled physics creating the most realistic rally game ever.
+ Realistic visual and mechanical damage.
+ The ‘Heart in your mouth’ experience.
+ Detailed garage where you can fine-tune your set up.
+ Dynamic weather.
+ Unique features: Helicopter rescues, animal incidents, pace note tweaking and assistance from spectators.
+ Wheel support for MOMO Racing and Driving Pro Force.

– Limited cars and stage lengths (each averaging 3-4 minutes).
– Not accessible for everyone, being a simulation some players could find it too difficult.
– Few bugs and glitches found on XBOX version.
– Loading times – Especially noticeable in Rally School mode (PS2 code)
– Not Colin McRae- meaning, CMR is perceived as the top rally title and people will be reluctant to try RBR.

My Personal View – Don’t cast RBR to one side if you’re playing it with a Dual Shock Controller. Either try or buy a wheel, a MOMO Racing or Driving Pro Force and you’ll see this game in a new light. I found you couldn’t get a good balance or feeling using a controller to play this game, RBR needs to be driven gently and with precision so I plugged in my MOMO Racing Wheel. Playing it with a wheel backs up my belief that this is one of the best rallying titles on any platform, including PC, to date.

How this game creates the genuine uncertainty of going flat out through an easy left or cutting a corner is outstanding. Every other rally title that you play after this will seem mundane and you’ll be coming back to play more. This is why I give it a score of 9 out of 10.