Dakar Desert Rally

Dakar Desert Rally is one of the most accessible rally racing titles on the market. Combine that with gorgeous locations and thrilling driving, and you have a game with something to offer all racing enthusiasts, regardless of their niche.

This game is very ambitious and to some extent is able to fulfill that. The environment is gorgeous and driving through the different areas each have their own challenges. The game doesn't fully feel finished. Technical issues ranging from superficial to gamebreaking and some key functions are simply missing. The AI really isn't very good, and the game really needs the promised photo mode and free roam. The game really has potential, and if the promised additions are there, it might be able to deliver.

Despite a lack of content, perfectible driving and unsophisticated opponents, Dakar Desert Rally comes to dust off the automotive genre with style. Based on the sumptuous landscapes of Saudi Arabia, Saber Interactive's game displays a remarkable achievement and should delight those looking for a different racing game. If the developers have kept the requirement of Dakar 18 (with co-pilot, compass, roadbook, etc.), it is now possible to try out Sport mode and its arcade approach. Thanks to these additions, Dakar Desert Rally opens up to a wider audience without cutting itself off from purists. With its impression of successful speed, its panoramas and sumptuous effects and its huge map, there is plenty to have fun while waiting for possible extensions. Undoubtedly the automotive surprise of this fall.

Dakar Desert Rally combines a lot of modern features that great racing games need, but occasionally gets in its own way with technical issues.

Dakar Desert Rally strives for something more but that is not enough. The lack of routes with interesting design and variety make it a boring racer, while this indecision about whether it wants to be serious or not, is an issue that in the future Saber Interactive should see through a different perspective.

There’s a lot to like about this game. The sense of scale and visuals is amazing. However, the core aspects of the game, such as handling and getting access to the main rally, are frustrating. Saber Interactive has done a good job on the macro level of the game. With upcoming pledged updates, I’m hoping they enhance the micro aspects which are badly needed.

Dakar Desert Rally is a game full of peaks and troughs. Your heart will be racing when you’re hurtling through a desert during a sandstorm in a rally car, but when just a little too much throttle causes you to spin your bike and move from first to last in the middle of a snowy battle, you’ll be beyond frustrated. Still, it captures the essence of the controversial rally pretty well. And those willing to put in the time to master it will find it very rewarding.

I like this game. Its a challenge but i really like it. The longer tracks are great. The handling is good. And it runs good on my ps4pro. Great for co-op because you can add BOTs to your races

This is my first game of the kind, and I enjoyed it. There are different vehicles you can use across the large map, like Trucks, motorbikes, a quad bike as well as the cars you'd expect.. The difference in terrain even in a single stage makes for an unpredictable experience and the expansiveness of the map and the inclusion of different rally stages from across 3 years and a couple of fun additions add variety to the experience. The ability to make your own races or even just enjoy the world in a free roam makes it rather addicting. The gameplay can be fun especially with the variety of terrain, but it can sometimes feel frustrating and at other times boring, mostly due to how you can just tackle most stages with full throttle with a bare minimum of innovation in gameplay. Pressing one button for 30mins at a time isn't fun.

Good- Outstanding graphics; Great variety; Flexible difficulty. Bad- Frame-rate issues; Irrational physics. Thoughts- At its core, Dakar Desert Rally does have more going for it than not. With equally gorgeous and gigantic racing environments to enjoy, intuitive management systems, and it’s obviously unique position among other modern big-budget racing games, it’s certainly nothing to sleep on. Most racing fans should give it a look at the very least. Getting hung up on a small handful of little things might slow it down a bit, but for most, I suspect Dakar Desert Rally will provide at least some, if not many hours of fun.

This game has so much potential, with varied landscapes, interesting races, and setting. Sadly however it is rendered unplayable by its abysmal physics engine, it makes one question if the developers have any experience with driving in varied terrain, or if they simply lack the expertise or funding to build an engine that can realize their vision. The steering swings between unresponsive to overly twitchy, drifts and slides are essentially unrecoverable, steering into them makes no difference - it's an arcade-like control that wants desperately to be a simulation and it achieves neither. The difficulty seemingly can't be fine-tuned, at the first level it's essentially bumper cars with a huge beacon to navigate between, but stepping up leaves you battered by the other drivers and at the mercy of your navigator, you'll come to trust him and then learn from that mistake... Speaking of the AI it loves to stop, directly in front of you, on a dirt road with no visibility, for no discernible reason. So yeah, perhaps you can get some fun out of this, I did enjoy my time in the extreme rallies when I didn't have to fight and could just enjoy my time, but I'll be uninstalling and going to back better offerings.

It is a fine game when everything works as it should... which happens rarely. Bugs making you stuck at random places without an option of changing that just makes this game unplayable. And it is damn shame.