I really love me some racing games. From arcade to more simulation heavy I have played a good portion of them. So when I heard Dirt was coming out with a new game I got really excited. But it isn’t your usual Dirt you know and love.
Hard left to jump over crest no more?!
Dirt 5 differs from the previous games released before. Instead of going the sim-heavy, authentic (point-to-point) rally approach it goes more arcade racer. This with the less challenging difficulty and learning curve makes Dirt 5 more accessible and forgiving for people who are introduced to the franchise. The Dirt series was the best rally sim racer out there but now has taken on a new direction. I can best describe Dirt 5 as a bit of a mix between an off-road racing game and Forza Horizon racing events. This doesn’t have to mean it’s a bad thing, of course, it depends on what you like.
Since the game is more arcade-like this means that the controls of the cars in the game veer more towards simplicity. Just slow the car down before taking the turn and you’re fine. Because the game is less sim-heavy the damage your car takes is also far less than in previous installments. This all doesn’t mean that Dirt 5 isn’t fun anymore, but I think it will appeal to a different audience. Veterans of the franchise should step into the game with an open mind about the change in gameplay.
The game ditches the Rally aspect and is more an off-road racer now. You will race with 12 other competitors at the same time for 1st place in the race, like a regular racing game. There are a couple of different events. These go from the point-to-point event (Rally Raid), lap based events like Stampede to you driving over ice in Ice Breaker and doing sprint races. For me, the most fun event was the Rally Raids. This because it gives back that feeling of not knowing what to expect around the next corner. There is one event I tried to skip over if possible and that were the Sprint races. These are oval race tracks driven in sprint cars, that are uncontrollable on anything other than clean tarmac, which is hard to come by in a game called Dirt.
Breathtaking views
In Dirt 5 you will drive through beautiful landscapes. Race around the globe from the chilling colds of Norway driving with the northern light in the sky to the beautiful Chinese towns. There are 70 different races to race between 10 locations across the globe. Not only the landscape and different courses add variety but also the variety of surfaces, times of day, and weather you’ll encounter in your races. These weather effects range from thunderstorms, heavy snowfall to heavy downpour. I feel like the rain doesn’t impact the driving all that much, but the snow and ice for sure do. Here as you would expect, you slide around on the ice which makes it harder to turn.
Career and Playgrounds
The career mode is a bit shallow. The game is narrated in a podcast manner where the hosts introduce the events and make silly comments that are on the verge of being cringe. You will progress in the career by choose between a couple of events you want to race in. But you can of course go back to complete the events that you have skipped over. When completing these events you will be earning XP, reputation, money, and unlock player card customizable. Each event has a specific objective to earn more rewards when completed. The player card is the card shown off at the end of each race. The card can be customized by adding a different nickname, sticker, effect, etc. unlocking more the more you play the game. To me, this doesn’t add anything of interest to the game.
You will also gain sponsors who have specific objectives for you to complete. Each chapter is finished with the main event. This event can be entered only if enough stamps are earned. The only thing you can spend your money on is either to buy Player Card cosmetics or by buying a better car for that specific type of event. Each car has its own stats. The livery can also be changed to customize your car as you please.
Outside the career mode, there is the usual Time Trails but there is also a new mode to the series, fitting the arcade-style they’re going for, called Playgrounds. These are user-created course that is a bit like Trackmania or the stunt races in GTA V. There are 3 game modes within. One has you go through all the checkpoints as fast as possible, the other one has you earning points by performing tricks and the last one has you smashing objects to earn a certain amount of point in the fastest time possible.
Conclusion
Dirt 5 is a beautiful and fun off-road racing game but not a rally game. The game veers a lot from the other installments that came before. This makes Dirt 5 more generic and gives it hard competition in Forza Horizon 4. I feel like they should have gone with a different title to make it clear it’s a spin-off of the original Dirt. I rate the game on it being a good racing game but gets some points detracted for the lack of compelling career and departure from its predecessors.
