{"id":130911,"date":"2022-12-29T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-29T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/#article-142735"},"modified":"2022-12-29T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-12-29T14:00:00","slug":"review-wrc-generations-rough-looking-rallying-with-too-many-compromises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2022\/12\/29\/review-wrc-generations-rough-looking-rallying-with-too-many-compromises\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: WRC Generations – Rough-Looking Rallying With Too Many Compromises"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/div>\n
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\"WRC<\/a>
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s only taken 11 games to figure it out, but publisher Nacon has finally realised that numbering its WRC games has perhaps started to get a little ridiculous. As such, this sequel to WRC 10<\/a> has ditched the numbering system, and goes by the more approachable title of WRC Generations<\/a>. It\u2019s an interesting time to finally make the change, however, because this is the last game in the WRC series as it stands before EA and Codemasters take over the wheel from KT Racing.<\/p>\n

The WRC games have something of a reputation on Switch for not quite delivering optimal performance, and for the most part that\u2019s the case here too. Generations looks ever so slightly better than WRC 10, but that doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019re now looking at Forza<\/a> or anything like that.<\/p>\n

Texture quality is still very low, scenery still pops in from only a matter of feet away, and some stages continue to have that extremely distracting effect where shadows appear on the ground just ahead of you and draw themselves out as you drive, almost as if you\u2019re chasing some sort of ghostly snake down the road.<\/p>\n

\"WRC<\/a>
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld\/Undocked)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In terms of how it controls, the handling is extremely sensitive, and still requires quite a bit of tinkering before you can find something that best suits your racing style. And, as before, acceleration and braking take a hit because their default controls are mapped to the ‘ZR’ and ‘ZL’ buttons, which aren\u2019t analogue. This would be one thing in a typical racing game but for a rally game you really do need more nuance in your pedal control rather than a flat on-off for the brakes and throttle.<\/p>\n

The main way to remedy this is by instead assigning the accelerator and brake to the right stick \u2013 move it up to go, down to stop \u2013 which thankfully can be done in the options. However, you then have to find somewhere to assign the camera, which is usually what the right stick does. Annoyingly, the game doesn\u2019t just let you decide you don\u2019t want camera controls (why would we want to look to the side to see more ugly scenery?) so we ended up jamming it onto the ZL button just to keep it out of the way. It\u2019s a solution, but hardly an elegant one, and a preset right-stick acceleration control scheme would have been welcome.<\/p>\n

The main addition to gameplay this time is the inclusion of hybrid cars, as featured in the latest real-life WRC season. The idea is that these cars give you an extra boost of power when accelerating, then charge the battery while you brake. We\u2019d be lying if we said we noticed an enormous difference between driving a hybrid and a non-hybrid, so it feels more like this is just a gimmick than a genuinely game-altering experience.<\/p>\n

\"WRC<\/a>
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The only other selling point is alluded to in the title. As well as the tracks featured in the latest WRC season, Generations includes a selection of tracks from previous WRC games, bringing the total number of courses to 165 across 21 locations. It\u2019s a nice variety and should ensure that those who can put up with the drab visuals and awkward controls will have plenty to race through.<\/p>\n

While it may appear, then, that WRC Generations is basically an enhanced update of WRC 10, it\u2019s not quite as straightforward as this. Indeed, one of our favourite modes in WRC 10, the 50th Anniversary mode, has been completely removed this time, meaning anyone else who loved it in the previous game will have to make do without it this time.<\/p>\n

The 50th Anniversary mode allowed you to recreate classic rallies from WRC history, which added some decent variety to the game. This time, the historical races have been shoehorned into the otherwise near-identical Career mode as calendar events, meaning you only get to play them once as you progress through your career and don\u2019t get to freely choose which one to play. This is a rather poor compromise for what used to be a brilliant extra mode and has now been relegated to an afterthought.<\/p>\n

\"WRC<\/a>
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld\/Undocked)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But hey, it\u2019s not all bad news, there\u2019s also the brand-new Leagues mode where you get to challenge other players online in a series of regularly updating competitions. Or that’s what we\u2019d be saying to you if we could actually find the thing anywhere.<\/p>\n

Despite the eShop description<\/a> quite clearly stating that \u201cthe new Leagues mode lets players challenge opponents with a similar level online,\u201d and that players can \u201cfinish ahead of your competitors to move up the ladder in the Legends category\u201d, there is precisely zero online content to be found in the Switch version of the game at the time of writing, a few days after the game\u2019s digital release and some four weeks after its physical one.<\/p>\n

Indeed, this review would have been published earlier had we managed to get to the bottom of this, but we\u2019ve been contacting PRs, scouring forums, and traipsing through Discord servers, and so far we\u2019ve seen nobody from the game\u2019s development or publishing team shedding any light on why a major new feature being advertised on the eShop is completely AWOL, without even so much as an asterisk indicating that it\u2019s coming later in an update.<\/p>\n

\"WRC<\/a>
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld\/Undocked)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the reasons this concerns us is that WRC 10 also promised \u201ca particularly competitive eSport, with daily and weekly challenges and clubs so you can create your own competitions\u201d, a claim that remains on the game\u2019s eShop description to this day. Despite this, no online features were ever added to WRC 10 either, which strikes us as somewhat misleading. The idea of regular challenges would be a great way to add longevity to the game, so their absence \u2013 both in the previous game and now in Generations too \u2013 is a big let-down.<\/p>\n

As such, given what happened last time, we\u2019re not giving WRC Generations the benefit of the doubt and just assuming Leagues will be added to the Switch version of WRC Generations any time soon, despite being advertised. Its exclusion weeks after physical launch with no explanation is a sign of poor communication at best, and at worst is a case of a mode being abandoned and leaving behind false advertising. As soon as we get a response, we\u2019ll update this review accordingly.<\/p>\n

For now though, let\u2019s assume Generations won\u2019t have any online play and that, at the very least, you certainly shouldn\u2019t buy the game based on the promise of regular online competitive leaderboards \u2013 at this stage in the game\u2019s life, it\u2019s simply not a feature.<\/p>\n

\"WRC<\/a>
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Instead, purely as an offline-only experience, WRC Generations is similar to its Switch predecessors in that it looks rough (particularly in handheld mode) and has an overly sensitive handling system which requires quite a bit of tweaking and practice. We only hope that Codemasters and EA decide to keep the Switch in its plans when it takes over the WRC licence, because otherwise this would be a bit of an underwhelming end for the sport on Nintendo\u2019s console.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

WRC Generations marks the end of a series that has never really hit cruising speed on Switch. Like its predecessors, its look and feel are subpar and while it has a lot of content, it’s a struggle to enjoy it fully given how many compromises you have to make. After a lot of time spent with it, you\u2019ll finally start to see results, but this is a game that perhaps requires too much compromise on the player\u2019s part to appeal to anyone but the most ardent rally fans.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked) It\u2019s only taken 11 games to figure it out, but publisher Nacon has finally realised that numbering its WRC games has perhaps started to get a little ridiculous. As such, this sequel to WRC 10 has ditched the numbering system, and goes by the more approachable title of WRC Generations. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-130911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130911\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}