Sebastien Loeb Rally Evo: PS4 Review

Sebastien Loeb Rally Evo: PS4 Review

Platform: PS4
Developed by Milestone

Rally driving games are always a degree of fun.

And a degree of gripping the edge of your controller trying to turn the car at times when it seems most unlikely that they will respond to your wheel whim.

Colin McRae, DriveClub, Forza Motorsport - they've all had a shot at turning in an experience of something that really relies on the adrenaline of the moment rather than the virtual reality of it.

This latest is dedicated to the legendary name of the world of autosports rallying and is a pretty solid entry into the genre.

Sure, all the usual tropes are there, the handbrake turns, the inadvertent drifting and the ever-obligatory rewind facility (so useful to so many), but what Sebastian Loeb Rally Evo does is manage to engage you as you go through unlocking the classes and building up your experience.

Rallying, rallycross and hill climbs form a large part of the game and the ascent through the classes too and there's plenty to keep yourself engaged with needs to challenge yourself and other elements to keep going back for more. Challenges get progressively easier the more experience you gain, but there's also a chance they get harder meaning you have to keep your eye on the ball at all times.

Perhaps the disappointment with Sebastien Loeb Rally Evo is that it doesn't seem to grab the power of the next gen console. There was no one singular wow moment that was delivered with the likes of Driveclub - graphically the game feels very much as if it's a last generation console, there's no pop and sparkle with the flat delivery of the cars and the very laissez faire approach to the backgrounds. Occasionally, driving feels like it suffers because of that too - and it's a real shame that it doesn't feel like Milestone's used the power of the engine to improve what's on offer.

Ultimately, Sebastien Loeb Rally Evo is an improvement of previous Milestone offerings and does enough to hold its own on a very crowded track, but it never quite pulls away from the pack, which is a real shame.