DiRT 2 Review
DiRT 2 is arcade rally racing game that is developed by Codemasters and is available on Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii, DS, PSP and PC. This is the first game in the Colin McRae series since his death and hence his name has been taked off the title of the European releases of the game but all the tribute content in the game is left in. DiRT 2 features many different game types which include the classic rally mode, which see the player racing from point A to point B and the lap time is put against the times set by AI in game. Another race type is Rally Cross or Rally “X” which sees the player racing on a lapped circuit against the computer AI. In this mode the computer AI seems fair and consistent but the narrow tracks means that a fair amount of aggressive driving is needed at the start of the race, the overcrowding also means that if you are using a cockpit view, which limits the amount of the screen in which you can see the track, it is near impossible to see what is going on as the opponent cars take up all the screen. There are also variations on these two race types that only differ in the type of vehicle used such as 4x4 trucks or “Baja” buggies. A new game type is the “Domination” race, which splits the circuit into section and the players times on these sections are scored no matter which position they are in the race. This means that even if you do not finish first you can still win the event if you record better lap times on the lap section. The is a bar on the HUD showing the players position on each section, highlighting in green the ones they have “Dominated”.
There are overall about 50 events in the game, which range from 1 to 5 races. The locations of the tracks also span worldwide locations, such as L.A, London, Utah, China, Malaysia, Japan, and many more. The tracks range from all dirt road tracks to desert locations with large sections of highway to a track around Battersea Bridge. The lack of track deterioration though means that the tracks damage is just cosmetic and do not effect the handling of the car. Overall the handling of the cars is much like an arcade game, meaning it is very twitchy, but is tuned in a way where the player can pull of basic rally maneuvers such as a drift around a corner or maintaining a great amount of speed around and easy corner. The car damage can be set to cosmetic or full damage meaning that the damage the car takes will effect the speed and handling of the car but in my experience with the game you would have to have a collision at an extremely high speed for any noticeable effect.
One of the main selling points of this game is the unique menu system which is viewed from the drivers’ perspective when he or she is out of the car. This takes place in a first person view and looking at different objects in the drivers RV caravan, such as, to activate a race you have to look at a map, or to view your cars that you have collected and bought you must go outside your RV and then look at a garage with your car in it, another example of this is to select a different car for a race you look through Polaroid’s of cars you have unlocked. There are around 40 cars in the game which range in statistics and vehicles type but they all fall into the basic categories of, rally cars, 4x4 trucks and sand buggies. As well as cars to unlock there are various unlocks for you cars such as “Liveries” which are vinyl skins which change the look of your car, there is also “Toys” for your car which come as dashboard toys or windshield toys. These toys range from skulls with moving eyes to a bobble head of rally driver Ken Block to your Xbox 360 avatar, these are mainly for showing off the games physics. These are only really for people who use the cockpit view as they sit on the dashboard of your car or hang from your rear view mirror. This is the main fault with the game in my opinion as some of the features in the game that affect the gameplay are only when you use the cockpit view which is restricting and not to every ones liking. For instance when you drive through water in cockpit view your view is obstructed as water is splashed onto your windshield and slows down your car but in any other camera mode the water only slows your car down. My only other fault with the game is the extreme change in tone at one point in the game. Through out the first half of DiRT 2, the game is stylised to the extreme sports crowd and leans towards the festival feel, until you unlock the “Colin McRae Tribute” race event, which sees the player race in some of the rally legends old cars against a host of Scottish drivers. Once you complete this race the game falls into the usual “You’ve won, awesome”, and then fades to black into a tribute video for Colin McRae. The extreme change in tone seems very out of place and it is weird to be reminded that this is a Colin McRae game, and is a surreal moment overall.
The multiplayer is very basic and general for this genre of game and features all the race modes for up to 8 players online. One feature of the multiplayer that is unique though is the dynamic tournament feature in which the developers of the game set up a new tournament with many different goals every couple of days. The once I have seen range from “Get the highest speed” on a certain track to “Compete in the most online races”, depending on where you place on the leaderboards you receive online experience which can lead to unlocking certain achievements.
In conclusion DiRT 2 is a great rally racing game with a good variety of vehicles and modes but suffers from a lack of tracks which in turn means the career mode will begin to get repetitive after you have raced on the same track for the 25 time. But this game still holds up as an overall fun and addictive arcade racer with challenging difficulty setting and online tournament that will keep you coming back for more.