WRC 8 FIA World Rally Championship

Genre: Rally Racing

Players: 1-8 Competitive (Online)

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in WRC Collection (8, 9, & 10), along with WRC 9 The Official Game and WRC 10 FIA World Rally Championship.)

WRC 8 is a Rally Racing game released in 2019 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. In this game, players manage their team and calendar to build up experience and credentials, as well as racing in various events.

When it comes to graphical downgrades in modern multiplatform games releasing on Nintendo Switch, WRC 8 got hit hard. The drop down to 30FPS is disappointing but understandable, and to the game’s credit those framerates remain consistently stable (with the one exception I noticed being in menus between races, which was irritating but didn’t otherwise affect the gameplay). However, the hits to resolution and other graphical issues are more frustrating.

Unfortunately I don’t have numbers to give, but the game’s resolution in docked mode is low enough that objects take on a somewhat pixelated look, with nasty aliasing and flickering in places. In handheld mode, this pixelated look is even worse, actually making it difficult to judge upcoming turns. All of this is on top of other issues like blurry shadows, pop-in, texture pop-in, and horribly bad loading times. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that WRC 8 is an ugly game, and there are even some nice graphical elements like some good detail in your car and the environments, and particularly it’s great the way dirt builds up on your vehicle, but the game’s visual flaws make it hard to appreciate these good qualities, and that they can interfere with the gameplay is particularly alarming.

It’s even more frustrating because this game’s sound quality is really good, with a great amount of attention to detail paid to the sounds of driving on different surfaces, even having the sounds of gravel hitting your undercarriage on gravel paths. The music, only in menus, isn’t nearly as noteworthy, but overall the sound is one of WRC 8’s best qualities.

When it comes to the gameplay, know that WRC is first and foremost a Simulation-style game, which means that players will want to be extremely precise in their steering, gas, and braking. Again, here the Nintendo Switch version disappoints somewhat – not only does the platform lack analog triggers like other platforms, but many complain that the analog sticks just don’t offer the same precision as other platforms. In your average Racing game this can make a difference, but here it’s absolutely vital.

Again, this isn’t to say that the gameplay and controls on Nintendo Switch are bad, just that this is absolutely a downgrade from other platforms. It’s a shame too, because there are some nice features here, such as an RPG-style upgrade tree and some good options for customizing your difficulty level.

In the end, WRC 8 seems like a game that was a solid Rally Racing Simulation game on other platforms, and is still good on Nintendo Switch, but it has suffered greatly in the transition to the less-powerful hardware. If you’re looking for a challenging game in this genre on Nintendo Switch, WRC 8 will get the job done, but if at all possible you should play this game on another platform.

tl;dr – WRC 8 is a Rally Racing Simulation-style game where players manage their crew and schedule and race in various conditions. The core game here is a solid but highly challenging entry in the genre, but it has clearly suffered massive downgrades in its transition to the Nintendo Switch, particularly in its graphical fidelity and clarity. If you’re a fan of this genre and Nintendo Switch is your only gaming platform you will still likely find this to be sufficient, but if you wan play it on any other platform you should absolutely do that instead.

Grade: C+

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