I think as a reviewer it can be surprisingly easy to forget the actual point of video games to begin with. There’s all this focus on audio, visuals, performance and so on yet reviews often don’t even tell you if the game is actually fun to play. Whilst playing WRC 6, Bigben Interactive’s newest rally simulator, this cycle of thought kept going through my head. Is this game actually fun?
It would be too harsh to straight up say “No!” for the sake of being an edgy review. WRC 6 does bring some refreshing ideas to the table. I’ll give particular praise to the presence of fully remappable controls, an extremely unique feature in the field of console racing games. I found myself having a laugh trying to make the most dysfunctional controls possible. I found right D-pad to accelerate and clicking the left stick to brake by far the funniest combination. Throw in RT and LT for the gears and you’ve got a recipe for one hell of a drinking game.
WRC 6 drives alright too all things considered. Honestly, it pales in comparison to the superior Dirt Rally but is competitive enough to offer a worthwhile experience. The driving on this game is far from incredible though. It kind of sits in this strange middle ground where it neither feels like a hardcore simulation or a quirky arcade racer. The lack of focus on counter steering makes it feel arcade-like, but the strictness of braking zones and racing line requirements makes it feel completely simulation. Whilst tolerable, I do feel the game would have benefited from a clearer presentation. Rule one of a good racing game is that you pick to be arcade or simulation and then stick to it. Never try a hybrid because you always just end up with something that’s fair at both but not good at either, and that’s sadly the case with WRC 6.
Things don’t get better from here on out either. The lack of content in this game is painful. There are a total of seven unique cars, many of which have several variants (the Citroën DS 3 has three for example). The three classes available (WRC, WRC 2 and Junior WRC) are not that interesting either. A total of fourteen locations however is fairly impressive and they vary enough to not get repetitive over time.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about all of the game modes on display. The career mode is lazily done with it effectively just being rally after rally with no real incentive offered to the player. The general goal is to get promoted up to the main WRC league and then become champion but I just couldn’t have cared less.
WRC 6 also features one of the worst attempts at a tutorial I’ve seen in a long time. It opens up asking you some general questions on your experience with rally games in the past. I clicked that I had played several before and that I enjoyed a more simulation experience. Around twenty seconds later, I was penalized for a jump start because the game made no effort to tell me that. By giving the answers I had chosen, I had put the game into its most realistic experience where this was possible. How was I supposed to know that? Not necessarily a bad feature but you have to make it clear, especially considering it was my first ever race. I’ve since found out that on one of the loading screens there’s a message which says this at random but I don’t fancy your chances at it coming up when you need it.
I had a fair bit of fun on the Shakedown challenge mode in which you are tasked with a scenario to set the fastest time possible. It’s simple enough in premise and I can never get enough of a good hot lap session on any half-decent racing game. It did however highlight just how dead this game’s community is. On my first ever go on the challenge “Tight Curve”, I managed to score 45th in the world on a track I had never driven, in a car I had never touched. I assure you, I am no prodigy. WRC 6’s player base is extremely small and niche. Unsurprisingly, finding a multiplayer game online was impossible.
Performance wise WRC 6 holds up well. I didn’t notice any major frame rate problems and it looks good enough to pass as an Xbox One title. Don’t expect anything near Forza Horizon 3 or Dirt Rally as this is a far lower budget title. It’s much the same story in terms of audio performance. The cars sound decent enough and I was rather pleased with the quality of aural feedback. Operating manual is pretty easy thanks to the clear and refined engine noises and I reckon even newcomers could give it a good go.
I don’t want you to misunderstand though. Driving on this game is tough. Gearing is fine. Even the way cars drive is quite easy to get your head around. However, there’s just too much going on at once. This is by far my biggest issue with this title. Controlling the car, processing everything your co-driver’s saying, watching the track, gearing up and down, accounting for weather and terrain: the list never ends. The problem with this is that it’s very hard to get rid of. Even if you put on every assist and lower the difficulty, many of these problems still stand. That’s fine for dedicated fans but casual players aren’t going to enjoy this. I’m a dedicated racing fan who has played many games competitively and even I struggled at times!
Summary
WRC 6 is a subpar rally simulator with an identity crisis, lack of content and borderline stressful gameplay. Couple all that with the unimaginative game modes and a failure to make it accessible, you’re left with little reason to buy this over Dirt Rally. WRC 6 is not an awful game, but it’s far from a good one either. A handful of positives such as remappable controls, a nice variety of locations, and overall solid performance keep the title from being completely lifeless. This game’s at least worthwhile for big World Rally Championship fans for the licensing alone.
Kurt contributed 8 articles to ICXM in 2017, covering game reviews, and Xbox news with a focus on hands-on impressions and verified-source reporting. Their bylines on the site span the Xbox One X launch year and Microsoft’s wider Play Anywhere / UWP gaming initiative. They post on X as @kurtjp35.