WRC 8 PC Review

WRC 8 FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP (WRC 8) is a mixed experience, at least based on my time with the game. As a more casual racing game fan, there was admittedly a skill gap required to jump in order to really get to enjoy WRC 8. But, with all that being said, is WRC 8 worth your time and money?

A Review code for the PC version of the game was provided by the developer to Culture of Gaming for the purpose of this review.

Jumping In

First loading into the game, I was brought to the main menu. As small as this may seem, the amount of games on PC that just instantly take you in-game without giving you a chance to tweak settings is high and quite frankly annoying. So right off the bat, a good impression was made.

Trying Again

However, going through the various menu systems to tweak, I began to critique the UI. It didn’t strike me as excellent, but not poor either. The UI is passable. One of the weirdest things is that on PC, even when using a controller, a mouse cursor is still present, and jumps from selection item to selected item. Past that, no glaring issues, except for just getting used to the depth of everything available to you.

After finding a handling setup I liked, I jumped into a couple of one-off races. I came in respectable positions, with the odd first place. Next, I jumped into career mode. IWRC 8 impressed me with this aspect. I was given quite a bit of control right off the bat. Players can pick their crew setups to better fit their needs, and there are even crew perks that give you little bonuses to help you along the way in career mode.

In career mode, you use a calendar style systems to go to and or plan events or activities and work your way from event to event. As you progress and get better and better, higher classes of cars that offer more performance are offered for you to race with. Overall, the career mode was probably my favorite mode of the game and reminded me more of say Madden’s or another sports game’s career mode, as opposed to say FH4’s career progression system.

Control and Terrain

Past the various game modes, there are a couple more points to make. The first is a high point of praise. WRC 8 offers incredibly granular control of your car’s handling and setup, as well as a multitude of gameplay options to further help you the player. So if you’re an experienced racing player, then you can delve into the settings and tweak to your heart’s content. Or if you’re more casual like me when it comes to these games, you can leave the more advanced car tuning alone, and still have a good time.

Another notable point is the terrain and weather system present. There is a noticeable difference from driving on dirt to the more solid road (as there should be). There’s also a weather system, that seemed to be realistically affecting the car’s handling as well. Both of these details further enhance the depth of WRC 8’s racing experience and will need to be accounted for.

Final Thoughts

Overall, WRC 8 was a very enjoyable experience, especially after taking a step back and breaking some of my bad FH4 habits. It offers several (all fun) game modes, as well as a multitude of options and tweaks so players of all skill levels can tune the game to their liking. If you’re like me, I would recommend slowly taking away more and more driver-assist options as you progress and get better. On top of all that WRC 8 looks good, and runs great.

WRC 8 is available on PC (presently only on the Epic Store), PS4, Xbox One, and Switch for $49.99 USD. For more reviews, check out our review section.