REVIEW: WRC 10 FIA World Rally Championship

Is WRC 10 finally a competitor to the DiRT Rally series?

Released: Steam
Type: Singleplayer, Online, Rally
Genre: Racing, Simulation, WRC, Sport
Cockpit view, physics
Developer: KT Racing
Publisher: Nacon
Release date: 2 September 2021

Intro

WRC 10 is a full-sim rally game featuring the roster of the current world rally championship, including all the sub leagues and historical events.

Here is some gameplay of WRC 10 using the special Porsche 911 rally car!

I was surprised by this game!

Gameplay

As I mentioned, I feel like WRC 10 is the first title of Nacon that feels like a full-sim in this series.

The physics, when played on the max difficulty, was surprisingly good. I wouldn’t say there were better than DiRT Rally 2.0, but they sure do put up a challenge. The suspension model in this game is simply excellent. You can see how the suspension extends and bottoms out through the course of a stage. The tire model also seems to be pretty good you can instantly feel the change of asphalt, snow, gravel and so on. Cars feel as if they weigh a ton and not like in previous games. You can tell if a rally car got an all-wheel drive or front-wheel drive, which is standard stuff. The damage model is good as far as mechanical damage goes, but visually it leaves a lot to be desired. Lastly, rally stages are so much better than they are in DiRT Rally games. They feel as if they have a lot more character, a lot more engaging flow to them. That probably has to do with the licenses, but still, this game does it better.

At the start of your career mode you can choose between the WRC junior and the WRC3/2 to start off your career.

The game has multiple game modes ranging from the usual Career mode to the pretty fancy split-screen multiplayer. The online is alive in this game, and I was able to find a game within some seconds. The lobbies aren’t full obviously but you will have some fans with three or four other drivers. I have no idea what the default settings are in this game but I suppose ghosting is always on as that was the case with all of my races. The career mode is the same as in almost any game. You start in the minor leagues and work your way up. You can manage your team if you so desire, both financial but roster wise as well. Historical events were some of my favourites to do, I got a nostalgia hit when driving the Citroen Xsara 2004 which got me back to my Gran Turismo 4 days. Everything felt very well worked on.

Historical rallies are a must play as well!

Story:

The game offers the traditional racing career campaign. You start off in the minor leagues and work yourself up by displaying your racing skills, financial control as well as the ability to lead a team!

I wouldn’t consider this a story, but this is the closest to a story someone will get!

Some Group B cars are present as well!

Graphics / Audio:

WRC 10 uses the K2 engine used in other WRC games, as well as REVIEW: RiMS Racing.

Graphics:
The lighting in this game can be annoying a couple of times. It hinders your driving with god-rays. The interior camera few is a little too close for my liking. You see one-third of the steering wheel and the entire view seems very narrow while within the cockpit view. Other than that you get a usual WRC experience as far as graphics go.

Audio / Soundtrack:
Voice acting is clear and loud which should be expected. Engine sounds are pretty accurate as well compared to their real-life counterparts.
The soundtrack is another basic soundtrack with nothing crazy or memorable playing in the background.

Performance:

  • In-Game:

    AMD Ryzen 7 3700 X, 32GB Ram, Nvidia RTX 2070 Super:
    I was running the game on Maxed out settings at 1080p at around 100 fps.

  • In detail:

    Average framerate: 97.4FPS
    Minimum framerate: 52.1FPS
    Maximum framerate: 144.1 FPS
    1% low framerate: 49.3 FPS
    0.1% low framerate: 14.8 FPS

Bugs / Glitches / Crashes:
I spent around 13 hours with the game and my experience while flying off mountains was pretty stable without any bugs or glitches as far as the in-game stuff goes. My Thrustmaster T150 Pro had some minor issues while connecting, after completing all of that I was able to burn some rubber. A traditional Xbox controller worked flawlessly. I had no crashes either.

Verdict

WRC 10 is a game that improved in some aspects in a very quiet manner. It is a consistent theme with this game series. The game is a true competitor to the DiRT Rally games which shows how much they improved. Still, there are the usual issues with yearly releases. Is it that much better than WRC 9? and so on? I would recommend this game when it’s discounted.

Thanks for checking out this review!
Written by
Sermike
Leave a Reply to Terry Bayliss Cancel reply

4 comments
  • hi i love this game one question i have is when competing on multiplayer stage times gamers are using different views i myself always use cockpit view as i like it as close to realism as possible NOT BONNET VIEW which has an advantage over cock pit view so how does the game determine who uses what view and does it then take into account the stage times set in the particular view your using ??

    • Hello Terry,

      No, the game doesn’t take camera view into account. I doubt it takes assists into account either. I did play a game with a friend (we had latency issues). He had all the assists on while playing using the chase cam, while I was using the interior camera view with no assists. I actually didn’t have issues with that as I won almost every online race, but still, I can understand the frustration behind that as it actually does feel unfair.

      Hope I could give you some insight.

      • hi thanks for your reply i guess in the esports competition they must use default settings in the force feed back ? again they use bonnet cam ? dont understand this as its supposed to be a wrc simulator ? what wrc driver sits in middle of car when driving !!
        lol any how im really enjoying the game i wud be interested in what wheel set up you use i try to make mine as realistic as possible i use a thrustmaster TGT wheel with there load cell pedals stay safe cheers terry

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