art of rally

Probably my favorite racing game so far. It's really special. It's a simcade, so don't expect an easy arcade racer if you're coming from Forza for example. It's closer to Dirt Rally. But this game really shines in showing the history of rally from goup 2 to group B, and explores what could have happened if group S was never scrapped, and group A had no power limits. It takes some artistic liberties, like ignoring the fact that group S was supposed to have a power limit below that of group B. All in all this is a fantastic experience, and a great introduction to rally history if you are a newcomer. This game got me into rally by making me interested in learning more about group B where I learned about Michele Mouton, the greatest woman rally driver of all time. A truly amazing piece of history. And you can drive her car and even race her in career mode, which is awesome! Highly recommend

very much enjoyed this game, soundtrack goes crazy hard and the graphic are a good difference from other games.

Note: for the best experience (IMO) play with a controller.

Phenomenal little game. 100% takes sometime but I was never bored doing it. The driving is very fun, the cars all feel unique. The Fujin is excellent if you love rolling after hitting any size incline and the rotary vehicles are excellent if you love spinning when tapping the gas! (I love both of these vehicles) My only gripe is some of the track borders can be inconsistent. Some maps you can cut heavily while others (germany/sardinia) if you even slightly go off track your car is reset. But that's only a minor critique. Fantastic work dev team! Excited to see what you do in the future!

Fun to learn the cars and how best to drive. The cars are all really distinct and engaging to learn. The maps and tracks, while simple at first glance, are really well thought out and clearly were crafted with a lot of care.

breddy guud

not realistic obv but probably my favourite arcade racer
its got a sense of humour
got a wide range of cars
got a neat free roam mode with collectables
plus its not so popular that i cant get my track times into the top 1%!

only trouble i find really is that the tracks could do with a bit more variation in terms of width, surface, bumpiness etc like in real life

also all the "misc" vehicles like trucks and the scooter should be put in the same category

good job on this one

The Good:
- Driving physics! There's a big difference between FWD and RWD cars: RWD are more nimble but oversteer whilst the FWD cars understeer but are easier to control. Different surfaces all have their own feel (dirt vs pavement vs wet pavement) etc. and provides a lot of nice variety.
- This game is gorgeous, the soundtrack fits nicely and they're lots of nice touches like the branding, car backstories, fans jumping out of the way, the brake rotors glowing red hot and more. The Jumps are also sweet.

The Bad:
- Overpriced, not enough content to justify buying it off-sale
- Could definitely be better optimised, I found it pretty demanding to run on maximum settings.
- Zones of compression/decompression do not mess around and will make your car stick to the ground like glue or make your car slide like its on ice, way more than what would be expected. Its nice to see this added to the physics of the game but its over exaggerated for sure.


Overall this game is great, especially for fans of old school rally, just wait for a scale and don't expect super arcade-y physics.

Driving distilled, with fantastic handling and physics. Simple visuals hide a deceptively-realistic experience.

Amazing priorities maintained here. Great job, devs!

Lighthearted yet challenging rally game, perfect for achieving that zen state I only seem to find in a racing game.

Decently fun rally driving game.

Gameplay

Both career and free roam modes are available.

Career mode brings you through 6 different eras of rally: group 2, group 3, group 4, group b, group s and group a. Each era (at least up to group b, i haven't played any further) covers 5 seasons, which are made up of one or more rallies, with each rally having one or more stages (the individual driving parts). You are able to restart stages, however not doing so gives special rewards at the end of the season. Note that you need to play the campaign to unlock new cars, however some cars of all classes present in the campaign are available from the start.

The free roam modes consist of large, open maps with 4 types of collectibles scattered around for you to obtain. These are cassetes, image spots, letters and a van. The image spots and the van do not unlock anything, however collecting the 5 casettes unlocks a new song and collecting the 5 letters (R-A-L-L-Y) unlocks the next free-roam map. Cars cannot be unlocked from playing the free-roam maps, however, the default group s and group a cars should have enough power to collect all of the collectibles available.

Driving the cars is reasonably difficult, especially with the faster cars in the game (e.g group b). If you're struggling, i would recommend to practise with the group 2 or group 3 cars in free roam, as these are more controllable than others.

Art and music

The graphics are made in a low poly style which looks very different to other games, but in my opinion looks very nice. I also really like the music.

Performance and bugs

The game performs very well. The only bug I've encountered is a minor visual bug, which has since been fixed. While I have a pretty decent laptop, I have never encountered any issues with lag or slowdowns.

Content

The game has enough cars that you can find a vehicle for every playstyle, at least up to group b. There is a decent amount of tracks and environments, so it doesn't feel repetitive and weather options allow for new challenges on the same tracks.

Summary/important points

Rally driving game with career and free roam modes.
Would recommend it if it's on sale, not sure about it for full price.
I find it fun.

A love letter to the sport. If you have even a passing interest in Group B or rally in general, you'll love this game!

It's a bit tough starting out, but by the end when you git gud, you'll be throwing 800+HP group A monsters comfortably into every corner. The recent performance patch made the game much smoother. I just wish we had pace notes!

Incredibly easy to pick up & have fun with. Difficult to master. Serious bang-for-your-buck of a game. Great car selection with a lot of obscure choices that you'll find yourself going back to. Would absolutely recommend to any racing enthusiast.

It doesn’t matter if you’re new to racing games or a seasoned pro - this game is an absolute blast.

With simple yet stunning visuals, the game strikes the perfect balance between accessibility and depth. Driving is easy to pick up but challenging to master, making every race a thrilling experience.

The car selection is impressive, featuring a wide range of iconic vehicles from different eras. Each car has its own unique handling and sound, both of which are incredibly well-executed and authentic.

Add to that endless replayability, and you’ve got a racing game that’s worth every penny. Whether you're chasing lap times or just enjoying the ride, this is a must-play for any fan of the genre.

7/10

Pros:

* Top down rally experience.
* Beautiful art style.
* Realistic fan behaviour.
* You get to drive a Kamaz rally truck.

Cons:

* Barely playable with automatic transmission. I almost stopped playing after a few hours on automatic. Switching to manual made a huge difference.
* Contrast on some levels is very poor and can make it very difficult to identify the track.
* Lack of pace notes and co-driver.
* Random stuttering, which can sometimes get very bad.

Art Of Rally is very simplistic at the surface. It's just you and your car versus the track and times (allegedly set by "AI" opponents you never see). But all the cars do handle differently, so it's worth figuring out which you like the feel of. The gameplay settings let you tune the driving experience to just the right balance between arcade and "sim" feel, so you can get just the driving challenge you want. And nobody would say this is a real "sim", but it does tap into the same locked-in zen focus state I liked from real sims. It's like a minimalist, controller friendly, much calmer sim-lite *experience*

Not for everyone, but unique and excellent at the thing it's doing.

This is my favorite casual racing game. It's easy enough that you don't need a racing wheel to do well, yet challenging enough that you'll still be learning new ways to improve your times long after beating the career mode.

The career mode progression through various classes of rally racing really helps you gradually acclimate to the faster classes of cars. I also really like that there's more rewards for not burning up your restarts. The rewards for not using resets are only cosmetic, so you're not missing out on vehicles if you do use restarts, but it's a nice incentive to not immediately reach for the restart button every time you make a minor mistake. For me at least, having that extra incentive helped put me in the mindset of adapting to my own mistakes, rather than striving for the perfect run every single time as I went through career mode.

On the topic of striving for perfect runs though: time trials are a fantastic way to try for those perfect runs. I only checked out time trials after beating the career mode, but it's been quite fun challenging myself to beat my own ghosts in time trials mode, and doing so adds a lot of replayability.

One of my favorite racing titles. It distills the rally experience into the leanest form possible and presents from a different perspective with beautiful visuals and a fantastic soundtrack.

I really like the way that the cars handle. It's not "realistic", but I don't think that was the intention. While not a "sim", there is a lot of simulation happening -- the weight of the vehicle, the traction between each tire and the road surface -- and this lets the game capture the feel that makes rally so exciting. Tapping the brakes to shift weight and then flicking the car through a tight corner, waiting, waiting, waiting, and then gunning it and shifting your way back up when the tires bite. When you get it right, it feels as good as RBR, Dirt, or any of the other best rally titles.

Unlike Dirt 2.0 and WRC, you don't have to be online to play the singleplayer. DLC isn't constantly being shoved in your face (even when you already own it, no less!!). Menus are snappy and quick to navigate. From the time I press "start game" on Steam, I can be in a race in less than 30 seconds. Getting into a race in Dirt 2 takes in the order of minutes. In Dirt and WRC, every action (e.g., repairing your car) needs to communicate with EA's servers and this turns something that should be instant into something that takes seconds to complete. As a rally enjoyer, I am not spoiled by choice and it took this game to remind me how fast and fluid a game should feel in all of the parts that aren't driving.

The game has a non-competitive leaderboard that seem to be mostly free of cheated runs. The stylized graphics are beautiful and the atmosphere is perfect.

A few things that I didn't like, no in particular order:
- No wheel support.
- The camera takes a bit of getting used to.
- You don't have a co-driver and there are no pace notes.
- Asphalt feels like slightly more grippy gravel and rain feels like extra slippery gravel instead of being their own surfaces.

Content-wise, there are 7 (+1 DLC) locations, each with 12 stages (including reversed stages). Stages are between 3 and 7 miles, and an average player should be able to drive one stage in around 5 minutes. The career mode is basic but serviceable and should take 15-20 hours to complete.

I love this game. Probably my favorite game ever once I knew it was spearheaded by one guy, Dune Casu. Inspiring as a fellow someone who also likes making games. Very quirky and silly

Impressed that this runs kind of decently on my levono vivobook. Anyway, this is a great rally game. Physics take getting used to, but are super rewarding once you figure them out! Car list is nice, its very rare to see Group S in video games and the logging truck, three wheeler, and dakar truck are all awesome! The maps are all beautiful, and the music is amazing. 10/10 game.

Its just a great way to get that racing/ rally itch and not needing to have your wheel setup. Just zone out and race... its just a great time

The retro vibe, attention to detail on the car, easy to use hard to master mechanics. It is a wonderful game and a great homage to legendary rally stages and cars!

Great chill relaxing game for exploring maps or lock into the races where every second counts

Phenomenal physics and inviting graphics. The perfect racing game!

This game is beautiful and charming and I'd love to love it. But I don't know how to drive a rally car. And as far as I can tell, the game makes no attempt to teach you how to drive a rally car. It just assumes you've played these kinds of games before or maybe drive rally in real life? I think it's the responsibility of a good game to teach you how to get better at it, and I'm not getting that experience at all. All my driving around is just confusing and disheartening.

I'm only 4hrs in but it's great fun! It's challenging but once you start to wrap your head around handling the great variety of vehicles (hint: steer with throttle) you can feel yourself continually improving and making progress. Love the overall aesthetic too.

Really fun racing game. Pretty simple but in like a really fun arcade sort of way. 100% recommend

This game is glorious. I've owned this game for years and I keep coming back to it.

If you like Dirt Rally 2.0 but are too mentally drained for the day to play it, this is a great cozy alternative while still retaining the sim racing experience.

Gameplay: The handling physics are like a mix between forza horizon and dirt rally 2.0 but in the isometric perspective. the different terrains don't really feel all that much different (except for rain and snow. Those are significantly more slippery) But there's enough hairpins, jumps and elevation to really keep things interesting so it isn't really a big deal to me.

Visuals & Audio: The music is synthwave that has the energy of a speakeasy bar. So it's kind of relaxing but not where you'd fall asleep. Visually, everything looks great and colorful in low poly with a lot of attention to detail. If you like what you see in the trailer, you will like what you see in-game. You can tell the devs poured a lot of passion into the game and the vision and vibe they're going for is executed really well.

I yearn for the days of groin B to come back. This game takes place in an alternate universe where it was never cancelled. You learn the history of rally and work your way through different “groups”, cars and tracks in different nations. I love it. Very fu and can get intense. Totally recommend it.

Great gameplay. I loved the free roam mode as well.

Fun, cute rally race game. Tough enough to provide a challenge but arcade-y enough to be approachable and not fall in the Sim category.

I've waited way too long until I got this game. Now I have it on Steam and Xbox and have combined playing time of 100 hours and I'm no way near exhausted. It's the first time literally in 2 decades since I played a racing game where racing itself was the most rewarding part for me. Usually I play my "Forzas" and "Gran Turismos" to be able to purchase that car that I then rarely drive. Art of Rally is about driving and it feels exhilaratingly amazing. Braking for shifting weight to the front, Scandy Flicks, left foot braking or clutch kicking to intensify your drift. I literally feel like Colin McRae when I go flat out. And the game has an amazing learning curve. My leaderboard times are getting better by the day. The different locations with their own challenges (weather, road surface, roadside objects, elevation changes, looks) absolutely rock.
Career mode is good too, the division into years and the ability to play through the history of rally is a clever idea!
The cars feel super different to each other and it is worth trying them all. They also do sound really really cool! A rotary engined Mazda, an Inline-5 Audi, a Flat-4 Subaru. They all sound authentic and really really cool. The music is also really fitting although I have to admit I turned it off because I 100% want to hear the cars only. But that's just me.
I like the simple low-poly graphics, they're perfect for that game. It runs well on my Steam Deck.

One more thing: The game really clicked for me once I played with the car settings:
Stability Management 0% (or 10%), Counter Steer Factor 100%, ABS 0%

Awesome little game to just unwind with.

Art style is perfection
Banging soundtrack
Easy enough to jump into, difficult enough to master

Will this be your main game? Nah. Will it be great for quick romps? Absolutely

Pleasant graphics and, a nice sound.
Ideal for the fans of Rally. It's also excellent for those who want to spend not a lot of time and just chill, this is a game for.

As the SteamDeck user:
Everything is working fine, I'd say that Deck was created for such games to play with (especially offline mode, which means you really can play it whenever and wherever you want).

However, I must say that controls are hard. It is a whole new skill, particularly when you turn in manual transmission. And you need to learn them, but when you make it, it is just a joy to play.

I'm an avid sim racer with both track and rally but sometimes after a long day, I'd like to race but just don't have the energy to focus. All of you wheel jockies know exactly what I mean.

*enter art of rally

With great physics and car feel that is intuitive in nature, art of rally captures the essence of car handling on a gamepad perfectly, similar to the benchmark feel of the Forza Horizon series. With the quirky context of the alternate universe of Gr.B dominance, this indie title exemplifies the type of developers that deserve our hard earned money in an age of the death of AAA developers. On those select days of low energy but a need for speed, I can now rally & chill with pure enjoyment. Highly recommend for any racing fan!

A great little arcade rally game with stunning visuals and great soundtrack. Don't expect rally sim-level handling, but it's still really fun to drive. My only complaints (which are minor) is that 1) there's no first-person view and 2) one achievement requires completing 1000 stages.

Absolute legendary game on the Steamdeck. Simple, fast, fun, great visuals and excellent soundtrack. 100% recommend.

3시간쯤 하니까 게임 끊겨서 재접하니 괜찮아짐

굉장히 차분한 게임인데 배경음악이 요란함

배경보면서 힐링 하려고 해봤는데
게임 끊겨서 힐링 안됨

Great vibes and aesthetics, the ramp up in speed teaches you the best way to drive with time as well!
I just wish there was workshop support or something to keep the game going besides the small studio making new maps (WHICH ARE GREAT) I just think more people = more content and longer life

This is such a good synthwave album! It also comes with this nifty rally game to play while you listen.

Super relaxing, fun game to play on the couch. Beautiful art style. Good music!

Performance is really bad (on 3080). I like the game, but this is unacceptable. High refresh rate doesn't work, locking to 60 'works', but also constantly dips to 30FPS, distractingly bad pop in.

I really wanted to like this game but I just can't.
It has a bunch of small quality of life issues that'd be annoying in themselves but the main thing that kills it for me is the physics and driving dynamics.

Let's start with the smaller ones:
- If you go off course, you get a 5 sec. penalty and put back on the track. This is useful if you fly off into the forest and can't really come back, but is supremely annoying when I misjudge a corner and take it a bit too widely. I could absolutely make it, it's not cutting the corner, but the game still penalizes trying to be quick and making a slight mistake. (in a rally game :D )
- Trees go see-through if they get between the camera and the car. Sounds good, except it's not the whole tree, just a circle that let's you see the car. Unfortunately that's not particularly useful, because chances are you still can't see which way the road goes so you will likely either crash or lose time for slowing down. Trees are also prone to simply obstruct your view ahead.
- Buildings or terrain won't go see-through at all, so sharp corners where the road curves behind a house or a cliff, you can only hope that it goes like you either remember (if you have run that track before) or how you guess it does.
- Most roadside objects are non-destructible, meaning that on some maps, misjudging a turn even the slightest (looking at you Germany with those "tombstones" right next to the road's edge) you will at worst damage and get hung up on the obstacle, needing to reverse, loosing a lot of time for a tiny mistake or at best, damage but spin around so you mostly just lose speed. Also, the map in non-deformable which is probably a little too high of an expectation to be fair, but no snow-banks, mud, loose dirt etc, if the terrain looks bumpy it will make you car bounce like a ball.
- Complete lack of a navigator. Why? This is literally one of the most important staples of rally. Not to mention that it'd at least partially solve some of the issues above.
- No steering angle indicator, so I always have to guess which ways the tires are pointing and why the car is not actually travelling in the direction I'd like it to.

And now on to the driving:
First of all, with the default settings I almost refunded the game right away. It feels terrible. I gave it one more shot by turning everything down (not every assist can be turned off) and putting the transmission into manual with a clutch.
It improved the experience drastically but even like this it's leagues behind most arcade racers I've played.
- The front wheels recenter just as slow if not slower then turning. Or at least that's how it feels. This makes correcting small mistakes will almost always result in a much bigger mistake as you are trying to correct for an input you didn't give nor can cancel. This might have something to do with the limited slip diff logic too, as clutching in can somewhat improve on this, but even then it feels wrong and you will likely be fishtailing all over the place.
- It seems to me that if you slide out in too sharp of an angel you will loose essentially a 100% of your grip, which means that neither braking nor downshifting and getting on the gas will save you. This is (in my experience) not how physics work and once again the game feels like it's trying to punish me for trying to go as hard as I can and making a mistake which again is not exactly unheard-of in rally racing.
- Physics are just inconsistent. Breaking stops the car unreasonably fast, while sliding will loose you almost no momentum. Landing a jump slightly off-kilter can throw you car into a spin even if you landed with the clutch in. Low power cars will under-steer at low and over steer at high speed. Why? How? Some 4 wheel drive cars have pretty intuitive driving while others feel like they were untested on some surfaces. (also why no RWD in Group S?)
- Similar cars will drive drastically different. You mean to tell me, that an NA 3 rotor rotary makes less torque than a turbo inline 4? I know that rotaries are less torque-y, cause I happen to own one IRL, but not to this extent. Especially not when they make north of 600 horsepower. Meanwhile the aforementioned turbo i4s will have torque from down low, which, ok, this is an alternate timeline, maybe they have variable-geometry turbos or something, but then why not give the rotary variable length intake then to increase the torque.

Am I over-analyzing a simple little rally game?
I absolutely am.
Can you overcome it's issues, find a car you mesh with relatively well and learn how to drive it?
Sure.
But even if you get over the handling which really is quite an ask in a racing game, there is the myriad of QOL issues that coupled with the driving almost create a negative feedback loop.

The game is pretty, it has the vibes and seems to have been crafted with love full of amusing little easter-eggs, but man it's infuriating to play.

The most aggravating and rage-inducing racing game ever created. This would be a good tool for CIA operatives who are tired of not getting any solid interrogation results from waterboarding or ripping off fingernails. Might also be a good gift for your enemies.

To say that this game is a sim would be incorrect. What it does, however, is boil down the rally driving experience to exactly what makes it, "it". The driving mechanics and physics FEEL real. As a person lucky enough to own a car that wouldn't be out of place in this game, and some fun places to drive it, this game captures the spirit of driving perfectly without any of the fat.

An absolute masterpiece. Ever since getting a steering wheel over a decade ago, you couldnt convince me to play racing games on controller again. But this game, not only made me consider it. It has me absolutely hooked, and my wheel collecting dust this past week. Well worth every penny. 10/10

1. Best 3-finger action I've ever had :D. The flow is amazing.

I instantly fell in love with it and bought it for me and 3 of my friends/family members. :)

2. Cheers to the team at funselektor for providing us with such a beautiful, and although simplistic for some, very intricate rendition of what driving a rally car must feel like, at least "vibration-wise" :D. All accompanied by glorious music and aesthetically pleasing visuals!

3. PLEASE GIVE US MULTIPLAYER !!!
This "arcade-ish" rally game really begs for a true multiplayer experience.

So far it has been fun and im going to finish this with my steamdeck. (played both pc and SD)
1) Performance could be better on SD
2) One of the most annoying things is when a rally game decides to "reset +5 seconds" for you. Definitely an option to consider FunSelektor! Let me actually select the fun.
A UI QoL would be to give an option the game thinks the player might want to reset but not a forced system. Feels bad when you hit a corner slighlty big but will be back shortly after. Kicks the fun out of the perfectionist.

Lastly, the "Yaaay" Kids sound effect is a bit much for me after winning stages (;

cool game all together!

iz fun, cute art style, cool gam, chill but funny at times, pls play

Surprisingly vibrant in the sense that the controls need some getting used to especially because each car handles in a different way, meaning a lot of time is spent on getting accustomed to the cars themselves. Once you do, it's a lot of fun! Graphics might look a bit odd at first, but its in line with the overall vibe of the game that is not trying to be too serious about itself. Definitely a good and fun way to spend your time if you want a break from the more realistic stuff. There's still plenty of realism in the sense of handling and the way cars feel, but overall its less of a grind and definitely a fun experience all around. Good value for money!

Very fun game, the simple retro-style low-poly graphics with popping colours remind me of older mobile games in a sense. But it's also very difficult and hard to get the hang of. It's a beautiful, stylistically-unique game with great driving. Music's pretty dang good too!

After a few hours I can confidently say that Art of Rally is one of the best racers I have played in years.

I’ve logged quite a few hours in the Dirt series and many other more realism focused rally games, and while I thoroughly enjoy the technicality and intensity of those titles, I am playing them for the challenge. Art of Rally on the other hand is pure fun.

At first I was a bit frustrated to not have an in car view as it’s how I typically play, but after a few minutes and finally stringing a few corners together, childhood memories of Mario Kart and the old Sega Rally series brought it all back and I’ve loved every minute since.