Sebastien Loeb Rally Evo review

[charlesr]

http://sebastienloebrallyevo.com/

Been playing this for a few hours this evening on the Xbox One.
After spending such a long time playing Dirt Rally, I thought it was going to take me a while to get used to this, but I'm hitting 1st place on the novice stages in the Peugeot 106
There's a tutorial to start off - after playing around with the settings, I realised that you HAVE to turn the Stability controls off - I tried the standard rookie setup and it was hopeless, killing the revs at any hint of a drift. Once that's off, it's rally driving as you know and love.

It's more forgiving that Dirt Rally - the snow stages are especially fun, with mind melting speed even in the 2WD rookie cars.
There is not much ground feel - it's all quite flat so far with a few jumps, but you feel the snow at the edges very well.

So then... More Rallisport Challenge 2 than Dirt Rally, with some adrenaline pumping sections. Looking forward to progressing. No one is playing online yet, so I can't report on that.

I'll get a full review up on the site asap, but I think it's going to take some time - lots to unlock.
Progression is via credit, choosing which cars to buy etc.

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[MarioMark]

I really wanted to get on with the demo but struggled with the handling, do you get used to it or is it better with other cars?

I think I'll hold out for Dirt Rally on consoles, I've waiting for a rally game for ages so plan on putting a lot of time into it.

[arcnas]

It seems to be getting a good reaction in most places , and as WRC 5 is rubbish, I think I will get this , as I need some rally on the PS4.

[charlesr]

I didn't try the demo, so I can't compare. Did it have the ability to turn of stability in the demo [MENTION=6700]MarioMark[/MENTION]? Having that on kills the game dead. Turn it off and it's controlled drifting. I spent some time in the proving ground and found the Citroen DS3 (which I think is the demo car) a bit of a handful, finding it tough to gauge the right amount of turn in, either getting too much tail swing or understeer. The 2WD rookie Peugeot 106 is really good fun though - hacking along in it in the proving ground and the stages felt good - a little light, but it's more arcadey than Dirt Rally, so that works. People coming in fresh from Forza are still going to find it tough.

I'll keep my thoughts coming - Dirt Rally is a given when it arrives on consoles if it's close to the PC version, but so far I'm thinking SLRallyEvo is going to be different enough and good enough to make it worth a purchase too.

[Wools]

Sounds promising and as I've been starved of good Rally games on consoles, it could be a purchase!

[charlesr]

I jumped straight into career mode, but I watched a video review which suggested to play the Loeb Experience first. This is a mode that charts various events through his career from the early days through to his 9th WRC win, with various accompanying videos and interviews, so I'll give that a go next. There are cars that you can't unlock unless you've done this mode.

[dvdx2]

The demo had looked to have the same engine as wrc 5. Poor damage model (crumple damage appearing on the boot, when you hit the front on the car/or no damage at all in head ons and Had This really wierd system of finishing times (if you finished really slowly) everyone else seem to as well.

[charlesr]

Just tried the Saxo kit car. Difficult to keep in a straight line. Took me 4 attempts to learn the stage and take the win. The

[charlesr]

Then took the win the next stage (good hillclimb) in the same car, first time, 1 rewind. Just took a short while to learn the car. Stages have all been quite short so far.

[charlesr]

Then got humiliated in a faster Citroen on another stage. lol I blame the brakes being rubbish Going to try Pikes Peak now.

[charlesr]

First short stage in Colorado in the PP Citroen is more fun than Dirt Rally version. Dirt Rally versions have very little grip and are hard to control once grip is exceeded. This grips everywhere unless you are a complete tool and is thus pretty exciting for longer.

Load times are similarly long.

[charlesr]

I'm not appearing on any leaderboards - not sure if this is because it's not out yet or if I'm not using the right mode.

[charlesr]

More thoughts on the PP races. I haven't unlocked the full track because it says I have to complete all the other Loeb Experience races first which will take.... quite a while, unless you just smash through using rewind a lot. There are some test stages though which separate it into 3 chunks. The 2nd one is 4:32 to beat (I've managed 4:34 so far), so quite a decent length stage. I believe longevity on rally games lives or dies on length of stages and how long it takes you to learn them. Dirt3 for example had almost no long stages until one right at the end, at which you point you thought "if only they had all been like this" and never played it again. I can see SLRallyEvo being a long term game as long as they get some more long stages in there. As I said, fingers crossed to see how it pans out.

[Wools]

[MENTION=25]charlesr[/MENTION] Seems like impressions are mixed from yourself?

You played a lot of Dirt Rally and seemed to enjoy it. Although it's early days with Loeb, do you feel Dirt Rally eases you in more effectively?

[charlesr]

No, I was failing massively at Dirt Rally to start with (while having a lot of fun). The early stages in Loeb are shorter and easier to learn the car. The learning curve in Dirt Rally is pretty steep. Loeb, I'm getting close from the off.