EA Sports WRC Review: A Needed Face-Lift for the Long-Running Rally Franchise?

EA Sports’ acquisition of the World Rally Championship license was a huge win for the sports gaming giant, who recruited veteran rally and racing developers, Codemasters (the team behind the early Colin McCrae games and subsequent Dirt games), to put together this new entry, making it a homecoming of sorts that longtime rally fans and newcomers will appreciate.

While the franchise is basically 10 or so games deep into the mainline WRC franchise, this iteration does feel ‘new’. A new developer, a new engine (Unreal Engine 5), and a revised approach make WRC feel like a high-school friend who has blossomed since the last time you saw them.

The game features 78 vehicles, 18 rallies from Sweden, Portugal, Japan and others (with 200 stages available), and a car builder, allowing you to forge and customise the rally car of your dreams, which has been fleshed out and expanded more so than any other previous entry.

What Codemasters and EA bring to the WRC series is a level of polish and authenticity that is hard to compete with. The meticulous detail given to every vehicle, and track, and how tinkering with your car changes the sound, feel, and performance is a testament to the love and care given to the game. The gameplay feels solid and responsive, with things leaning a little more to the simulation side of things, but having an arcade element when utilising driving assists that will allow any gamer to jump in, even if EA Sports WRC is their first foray into the genre.

The inclusion of ‘less powerful’ vehicles from the WRC 2 and WRC Junior circuits also throw some curveballs, as they require a little more strategy in the way you tackle stages. Furthermore, they also help you appreciate the speed and efficiency of the top-tier WRC rally monsters when you jump back into the main competition.

You can customise your driver (and your co-pilot’s voice), but, obviously, the real attention has been put on the cars and the environmental effects of each track. When careening around corners, dust and sand fly up and the sound of gravel bouncing off the base of the car is all beautifully recreated in its gorgeous muddiness. So, if you get a kick out of hitting a bit of off-road in the real world, but don’t want to damage your precious vehicle, you’ll get some serious joy out of the tactile feel and audio experience that WRC brings.

Of course, there are some small rough edges, as some of the bystanders on the tracks look a little last-gen, while some slight pop-in of the environment is present when you’re screaming down a track at breakneck speeds. However, this is a nitpick and it’s so subtle and doesn’t really hamper the experience in any way.

Because, when it comes down to it, shaving off precious seconds and perfecting a stage is ultimately the drawcard of the WRC series, and add in the fact that Codemasters has delivered their trademark sheen to this experience, and you get a really comprehensive rally game that captures the frenetic energy of the sport, even if it has some visual hiccups.

EA Sports WRC is available on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC.