We’ve been covering Bigben/Nacon’s WRC series for close to a decade now, but WRC Generations is – for the time being – the last one in the series. KT Racing/Kylotonn is back on development duty, and we played the PlayStation 5 version for this review.
With WRC Generations not being a numbered/annual release, we were curious to find out how different it would be from last year’s version, wondering if the developers were looking to go out with a bang or just build on the engine and content that had built up over the years, throwing it together for a mashup ‘generational crossover’ release. It turns out it’s a little bit of both.
Despite not being an annual release, you still get a fully updated roster for 2022, with all the correct teams, drivers, cars and rally events that come with it. That also means you’ll be driving hybrid cars this time, bringing a slight tweak to the gameplay in that you get to select how your cars handles its power distribution – emphasizing acceleration, for example. The Anniversary mode that we enjoyed last year is missing in action though, which is a shame, because even though we understand you can’t have an anniversary every year it would have been nice had they rebranded it.
As you’d expect from something called “Generations”, there’s a good selection of legendary rally cars to choose from as well, and there are twenty different environments to race in, covering a wide range of weather and surface types. On the PS5, racing through them at 60 frames per second felt and looked good, showcasing that KT has a nicely optimized game engine here. And as for modes to use them in – quick play, season and clubs all return largely unchanged.
Career mode returns as well, and is largely the same it’s been in previous edition, with the one exception being the fact that you have more choice over whether or not you want to engage in team management or just stick to the racing (by joining an existing team). And while anniversary mode is gone, a new one called Leagues is introduced in its stead. This one’s focused on online play and features a ladder/division system that lets you move up and down by competing with others – though the appeal will be limited to offline players. If you like online interaction but aren’t looking for the competitive side of things, being able to share customized car templates will probably appeal to you.
WRC Generations lacks any real kind of innovation to the series, but is a solid new rally racing game at a time where there aren’t too many of them being released. The changes over last year’s effort are perhaps too marginal to recommend this to any but the biggest fans of the sport (this is still a game that is best controlled with a steering wheel where you customize the controls and their sensitivity), but if you’re in the market for a new rally racer this caps off Kylotonn’s run nicely.
Score: 7.6/10
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