Exo Rally Championship

Finally a [b]simulator[/b] that breaks free of just simulating boring old motorsports on earth. This is the freshest racing game I've played since getting into rally sims decades ago. True open-world stages where you (optionally) plan your path with a drone before-hand. Different planets that act as modifiers in regards to gravity and environmental hazards. (Fuel-limited) RCS thrusters that can be used not just to correct your landing, but also to create more downforce etc for better handling when you need it. And the details. Your 3rd person view is an actual drone following behind you, and you can lose it if it collides, forcing you into 1st person. You have a HellDivers-style command system to perform system repairs. Crew callouts that are actually varied, helpful, and strictly to the point. It's sci-fi, but it keeps itself grounded. It got me modifying my wheel setup to accomodate some analogs for the RCS cause it's that good.

Because "every stage is littered with approximately 74,000 bumps and if you hit even 1 of them while pointed more than 1.5 degrees from the optimal direction then you will be more last place than any human has ever been before" is not, in fact, good game design. Especially when the game's own tutorialized solution of using thrusters doesn't even work. Also whoever decided that the moon stage design was acceptable should be banished there forever.

I would refund this game if I could. The premise, the setting, the visuals, they all are excellent. The experience is really bad. I didn't want to leave a review before at least unlocking all vehicles, but after several hours trying to find proper settings to make the first two vehicles comfortable to drive, I just couldn't be bothered anymore. Let's start with the good stuff. The idea of a rally championship on exoplanets is pretty good, the visuals are nice (albeit pretty devoid of life), and the game runs fine. And... That's it. The worst offender is the absolute lack of grip. I live in a mountain area, I drive on ice every winter. I don't know what the ground is made of on those planets, but it slips way more than real life ice. Sure, you can tweak a crap-ton of settings with the suspension and drive train to make it somewhat okay-ish, but it will still slip way, way, too much. I routinely drive at 70+ km/h on ice with simple winter tires, here I have a hard time keeping grip at 40 km/h (or maybe it's miles, the unit is never mentionend) on mud with the grippiest tires, the "paddle" ones, or any tire for that matter. If you start slipping in a turn you're gonna slip for tens of meters even at the lowly speed of 30-40 km/h. Again, real life ice doesn't slip that much, and trust me I know, I've gone sideways on iced-over roads more than once. The RCS system allows to compensate some of those flaws by selectively adding pressure on the front or overall, but it's still a problem. First, you have limited fuel for the RCS thrusters. Second, defying the laws of physics, they actually build up heat instead of venting it (if you use heat to transform a liquid into a gas and expell it, you're actually [i]cooling[/i] the engine). And finally, using a specialised system on cars from the future to return to baseline grip of current era vehicles is a real bummer. I'd expect it to be an improvement, not a crutch. Plus, despite being controlled by the right stick on controller, it's still only "on / off". The stick controls the direction of thrust, not the intensity, which makes it very impractical. Overall, if you're tempted by this game, just lower suspension stiffness and call it a day, and try to make do with that. What's even worse is that no matter how much time I tried setting things up, I never ended up with a build that was satisfying to drive, but I still was WAY ahead of the reference times. I feel I'm driving lke crap, bouncing about, losing control now and then, hardly being able to properly do a donut around those ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ donut checkpoints (whoever thought those would be a good idea deserves a slap in the face), more often than not doing a crab impersonation when trying to take a turn by going sideways for way too many meters... But there hasn't been a single race I didn't win first place on the first try at default difficulty (75% is default). Yep, drunk driving on super-ice places me ahead of the "AI" (which doesn't exist, really) by at least 20 seconds, on each race, on first attempt, every time. I win against the game while feeling like I'm losing against my car. It is extremely unsatisfying. Then there are some minor annoyances, like the game spouting stuff now and then. "One hundred" or "two hundred" being the most commonly heard, but I haven't been able to relate them to anything useful. And you can't switch that off. Then, when I damaged something, some garbled AI-like voice told me what was damaged, in such an unintelligible voice that I have no idea what it actually was. The options leave a lot to desire too. Graphics options dont exist, it's all global, "low", "medium", "high", with no further details. No "depth of field on/off", for exemple. Control options don't have an "auto reverse" option. When driving on a wheel, I get it, but on a controller, it would be nice to have the option to just go backwards by using the brakes... Like, you know, in every single racing game ever made since the begining of time ? Instead, even if you're using the automatic gearbox, you have to manually shift to neutral, then reverse, then use the throttle. Which is undoubtedly better on a wheel, but really bad on a controller... And how are you going to use the RCS if you're using a wheel, anyway ? There are also some bugs, or what appears to be bugs. Not many of them, but still some. For exemple I've tried racing on the moon (great setting and and excellent idea by the way) but for some reason my automatic gearbox never switches to second gear no matter what. And the final touch, the interface sucks. Someone thought it was a good idea to default to replay instead of a proper after-race menu.While in-race, "retry" means "restart the race", while after race "try again" means return to the menu where you can configure your vehicle to THEN try again. Took me a while to figure that I didn't have to exit to main menu, which resets my vehicle setting, to actually return to vehicle settings. Also, for some reason recent racing games believe we need a story mode. And of course we're the prodigy pilot who's gonna bring an underdog to prominence. Dialogs are uninteresting, and they add nothing. Dear devs, of ervery racing game, please take note : racing games don't need a story, and if you're gonna make it half baked anyway, please kindly don't bother and give me a championship instead. I cannot recommend this game. I love their first game, but this one... It just doesn't cut it. The handling is horrible, the rest is just not great. Hard skip, or deep sale.

great idea, terrible execution. I don't care if it's realistic (it isn't), but a racing game where it takes 5, 10, 20 seconds to correct isn't fun, it's just frustrating.

A beautiful and solid sci-fi rally simcade. A perfect blend of space rovers in a Dakar/Baja-like rally race. It provides a pleasant handling simulation as well as room for strategy mechanics between stages. I just wish there was non-DRM release for this game. It would be ideal to preserve it.

I used to love racing games, but got bored 20 years ago when the only new content was the latest years cars - there is only so much you can do to keep realistic racing games fresh. This game gave me the same feeling Colin McRae Rally gave me all those years ago - the physics, the grit and the addictive nature of the way the cars handle and react to the environment. Unlike a traditional racing game, the wide open off-road nature means there is so much scope to improve your time as the best line is not always obvious. The ability to survey and plan your route and add notes is very cool, giving you a taste of being real rally navigator. The gradual work up from basic UTV to the EXO6 (6x6) class rover eases you into the new mechanics of low gravity and RCS (small rockets that can be used to alter the orientation of the rover despite tire traction) and you feel like a badass managing RCS fuel, speed and damage when you start to master the RCS controls to take risker lines. Exo Rally overcomes the the limits of oversteer, understeer and downforce in a physically accurate way - and it's addictive! This game a true innovation within the racing genre.

I'm having a blast with this game, every time I play it I just think to myself "this game is so cool". I think overall grip is too low, but other than that this is a solid rally experience through and through, but IN SPACE WITH THRUSTERS???

If you have a wheel and a joystick and love highly technical driving then you should buy this and get ready for the best gaming experience you have had since you were a child. It requires skill levels like that of Dirt Rally 2.0. Such a fresh new idea and delivered it so well. This is absolutely awesome. Rig dashes do have to come from controls inputs because no telemetry yet (fingers crossed). (Moza R5 + Turtle Beach V1 Shifter + Generic Ebrake + Turtle Beach V1 Flight Stick + PXN CB1 + 3 Monitors - All supported, no problems). GOOD JOB DEVS!

My favourite game of the year by a huge margin

Feels like this is one of those games made for me. A game where I get that "this is what videogames are meant to be" feeling. It can get frustrating if you're not careful especially on moon stages (those really test your patience and tactical driving skills). It is what it is and it's unapologetic about it. Hardcore physics based point to point rallying on different planets/moons with sometimes harsh conditions like micro asteroids, lava, fog, rain, slippy ice and probably more stuff I haven't seen yet. I would like to see some more graphics options and 25€ are probably a bit much for most people but then again this feels very niche and if you like it you will probably love it and gladly spend that amount like I did.