FULL REVIEW: Rush Rally Origins

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IN A WORD: COMPELLING

IN A NUTSHELL:

WHAT TO EXPECT:

Indie made. Mobile port. Retro feel and aesthetic. Top-down racer. More arcade than simulation. Three game modes. Realistic seed generated tracks. Multiple terrain effects. Responsive and dependable controls. Sequential car and stage unlocking systems. Simplified car upgrade system. Class tiers for upgrades. Gold, silver and bronze winning times. No damage model. Wide language support. Single and multi player with local and online options.

ACHIEVEMENTS:	Mostly based around playing the game. Some require comprehensive completion of game modes. A number need winning stages without any assistance
STEAM SUPPORTS:	Steam achievements, full controller support, Steam cloud
BUGS, ISSUES & STABILITY:	None encountered. Minimal seen on forums
STATUS:	Complete
FOR WHOM:	Fans of retro styled rally racing games that are more arcade than simulation
VALUE FOR MONEY:	Given its content and fun factor the price is more than worth it

More info below....

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2800956182

CONTENT:

Rush Rally Origins (RRO) is an indie made mobile port with a focus on realistic top down racing. Its main features include: lots of rally tracks that are reused across 3x game modes, 13x dynamically modelled cars with upgradeable components, varied terrain, unlockable weather modes, and a realistic co-driver belting out racing instructions.

GAME MODES

Race in three main game modes: Time trial, Championship and Race in single or multiplayer.
Time Trials are a race against the clock to achieve the fastest time in their their car class.
Championship mode are races across all six stages of a location with the aim of being the overall fastest across all of them.
Race mode races are against five A.I controlled opponents to be the first to finish. Has local and online multiplayer variants.
Saving is done automatically at the end of a race. There are no manual saves.

STAGES

48x varyingly unique stages to race on, across 8x world locations on tracks built using around 100x parameters.
Stages are short, roughly ninety seconds to two-and-a-half minutes to complete.
Each stage is used across all three game modes and are required to be unlocked sequentially by finishing the previous one.
Each stage has three ranking levels, for each vehicle class: gold, silver and bronze.
There are two racing camera modes; isometric or from behind.
Stages are comprised of 5x types of alternating surface including: snow, gravel, dirt, mud and tarmac. They also include a range of turns, bends and obstacles.
4x weather, night and day options are unlocked once every stage in a location is completed.
Tracks have 4x types of turn including: easy, medium, hard and hairpin, requiring the use of braking and drift to maintain the racing line and navigate at full speed.
A co-driver, gives clear and concise rally style instructions such as: turns, bridges, changes in terrain, jumps and ideal speed. Directional arrows provide additional guidance for up coming turns.
Ghost silhouettes from previous attempts (or an online opponents) are represented as a guide in the current race.

CARS

3x cars are available from the start and 10x more can be unlocked by completing race stages.
Upgrade points specific to the car being driven are earned by also completing stages and shown through a progress bar.
Upgrade points can be allocated to 6x components: engine, chassis, exhaust, brakes, suspension and tyres, to increase 4x vehicle attributes: acceleration, top speed, handing and braking. These are interchangeable between races.
A four tier classification system changes every time six upgrade points are spent on a vehicle changing its class from D-C-B-A. Thus affecting the times needed for gold, silver and bronze finishes, for all modes.
In addition car appearance can be customised with minimal options for its livery and colour.
Tyre model is based on real world model data.

SUPPORTING FEATURES

A full set of leader-boards captures the top 8x rally drivers for each stage of each game mode. Here ghost vehicles for each driver can be downloaded to race against in order to shorten winning times.
A simple but vibrant and energetic soundtrack can be heard between stages.
Depending on the device used, visual displays can support 60fps or 120fps.
Its mobile port origins are noticeable in its GUI design and navigation.
Replays can be called upon.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2800958303

TAKEAWAYS:

Key takeaways from my time with the game:

THE GOOD:	+ Great uncomplicated visuals that capture the rallying spirit. Aided by the sound of a suitable solitary soundtrack between racing stages. + Strong arcade style, top-down rally racing with responsive and dependable controls. + Good range of game modes that form a "complete" rallying experience. + Stages consists of enough factors (terrain, weather, obstacles and turns) to make them on the whole fairly unique, across locations. + Time trial mode is very balanced and made for practicing and mastering how to rally. + An unlock system for cars and upgrade points, is a perfect foil for investing time in the game. + A lean, structured and easy to use car upgrading system, with noticeable impact on car performance. + Rally assisting mechanics (co-driver, ghost and time comparisons) that truly aid in racing and manoeuvring. + A range of cars and classification bands ensure a large scope of replayability, as well as a substantial choice of driving style preference.
THE BAD:	- No damage model to degrade vehicle integrity and impact performance. - Racing mode can be a hit and miss affair, with the player always starting at the back of the pack, a lack of room to manoeuvre on the track and a physics model that favours the AI, which is also almost always flawless in its race execution. - Could have done with extended sections to stages, once gold medal times are mastered. - GUI menus lack full mouse support and require keyboard and controller to navigate. - Additional co-driver voice over would have provided welcome alternatives. - A full rally championship mode with elements of management would have made for a perfect endgame. - No random stage generator.
AND THE REST:	* Allowing no penalty restarts makes for forgiving gameplay. * Sequential unlocking of cars, their upgrades and new weather modes in an uncomplicated affair that becomes trivialised as the powers through available stages. * With the ability to restart stages, the Championship mode becomes a lot easier to beat that time trials. * Actual rallying requires retaining focus for the whole of the stage, while maintaining the racing line.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2800957081

FINDINGS:

Analysis from my time with the game:

MY EXPERIENCE

Despite being terrible at driving games I really enjoyed playing this one. The way RRO encourages to just enjoy rallying, rather than worrying to much about periphery aspects of the sport, really clicked with me.

Virtually every aspect of the game from visuals, controls, car unlocking and upgrading work seamlessly. Car handling felt nailed. While game modes, soundtrack, stage design and associated track paraphernalia capture the essence of the sport. However, everything from its overly forgiving gameplay to lack of depth in car configuration results in a lack of realism that makes RRO feel more arcade than simulation.

Its best mode are the Time trials which capture the feel of rallying but also provide the most challenge in achieving a gold medal time. Championship mode while as good, felt to easy and stages could have done with optional restarts for those of us who would have preferred it. Racing does not quite reach the potential of the other two modes due to a number of limitations. However with some determination it was easy to find where to pass opponents and where not to.

The mix of track design, distinct terrain types, weather modes and track obstacles made for some fairly exhaustive content. A quality that was enhanced by the classification tiers, upgrading cars provided for. Short races and the ability to retry any race at any point made for forgiving gameplay, in-keeping with its arcade nature. This shou8ld encourage novice players to pick it up and keep playing, despite making a 'boot' load of mistakes like me. Especially given as once the current race loads, restarting can be done in an instant.

IMMERSION	QUALITY
Despite its undoubtable arcadey feel there is a strong element of immersion from a number of factors. Graphically courses look better than average and are built with instantly recognisable elements that make the experience feel very much like a rally. The weather and day/night unlocks being a nice extra layer of detail. The cars and the upgrading options deliver another layer of immersion that allows players to try to find the car that suits their style of driving. While the soundtrack between racing stages would not be amiss from a rally themed sports entertainment show on ITV4.	Overall every part of the game feels polished and complete. Its easy to see why the store page claims to have the best dynamic car models over its 10 year development cycle. It not only looks great but sounds and plays pretty good for a mobile port.
BALANCE & DIFFICULTY	REPLAYABILITY & LONGEVITY
Excellent controls make rallying more about maintaining speed and the racing line and less about learning the quirks of tapping buttons at certain points on a track. Together the co-driver instructions, ghost car and turn arrows make gameplay very accessible, while unlimited no penalty replays give gameplay a strong forgiving nature. Perfect for novice drivers. Still getting gold medals is not a trivial task and players will need to push their skills to the max to achieve them. I was chuffed with the solitary one I got in a time trial.	It may only have 48x stages but with the combination of driving new cars, customising their class with upgrades and day/time/weather unlocks, these can undoubtedly be replayed a lot of times. That's without factoring in the championship and racing game modes. Together these could take what would be around a couple of hours of base content and multiply it by 13x cars, 4x weather modes and 4x class tiers and that's just for the time trials. Add the leader-board mechanism and a strong desire to make the best times and the game's longevity could be as long as the player desires.

WOULD BE BETTER WITH

To make this an unmissable title, RRO needs an entire layer of dedicated features for the serious rally competitor. From a semi-realistic damage model to a complete championship mode, with management and pseudo-funding to pay for upgrades, repairs, team wages etc. One where races cannot be restarted or if they can, are limited or cost some form of penalty to do so.

Two minor additions would be very welcome. A few minor adjustments such as darker nights to make lighting more distinct and a range of engine and exhaust sounds to make each car sounds stand out would take "realism" up another notch. Asking for a random stage generator maybe too much, but given stages are created from 'seeds' these could in theory be uploaded for other players to try and beat.

VERDICT:

RRO surpasses its mobile origins to bring a challenging rallying experience that oozes quality and is just as inviting to play. It remains more arcade than simulation but is a COMPELLING game.

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