Nestled in-between the hardcore simulation racing titles are the laid back arcade racing title, such as the latest iteration in SEGA’s long-running off-road racing series, Sega Rally Revo. By the time you’ve read this, the game will be on the verge of hitting store shelves. After getting some hands-on time, I’m happy to say that I’ve grown to be pretty comfortable with Sega Rally Revo’s controls and I’m happy to report that the visuals are beautiful and silky smooth.
In a market seemingly dominated by the hardcore simulation games such as Gran Turismo and the arcade titles such as Need for Speed, there’s the even middleground, and this is where Revo comfortably sat. SEGA decided to put newly-formed developer SEGA Racing Studio behind Revo and it looks like the game will hold tradition with the series’ easy-to-pick-up controls and wonderful visuals. I was surprised about the game’s performance; the game looked rather stunning and ran very well with everything jacked on high.
The level was your standard romp through a dirt racing track located deep in a tropical landscape. One of the first things I noticed is that when you drive through mud, it’ll stick and adhere to the bottom of your rally car. Thanks to wonderful bump-mapping, you can immediately notice the icky mud and it certainly looks dirty. Other neat effects include water reflections, HDR lighting, motion blur and water or mud splashing onto the camera.
The game will ship with multiplayer; up to 6 players online, or a two-player split-screen racing mode. For you single-player folks, there’s your usual quick race option or you can pursue the Championship mode, which contains three different difficulty levels.
Within the Championship mode are 5 unique environments (Alpine, Canyon, Arctic, Safari and Tropical) spread throughout 16 different tracks. One of the landmarks of the Sega Rally series was the different racing surfaces and friction properties and you can bet your money that Revo will certainly feature plenty of its new technology. In addition to different surfaces such as ice, dirt, snow or sand, Revo will feature a unique deforming track system.
You’ll notice the deforming in the demo. As you and the other racers constantly race through the mud, your cars’ tire tracks will leave imprints, which can affect your traction if you’re not careful. Flying across a mud track at 80MPH only to clip an un-even tire track can spell disaster.
As for the arcade feel, it doesn’t feel completely "dumbed" down for us casual racing fans, but the presentation is rather clear. Heck, in the demo, you’re immediately thrown into a race as soon as you pass the intro movie. It looks like SEGA decided to cut all the fluffy game menus and just put you straight into the action. While you’re racing, the game is laid back; you’re not penalized or won’t suffer a severe momentum loss if you graze another driver, you just hit and keep on going like nothing happened.
Boasting other features such as intelligent racing AI, realistic physics and a dynamic weather system, Sega Rally Revo will be a game racing fans will clamor over. The visuals are nice, the presentation is excellent and the controls are very easy to grasp. Sega Rally Revo will be released next week for the Xbox 360, PS3, PC and PSP.
