art of rally

16 hours of peace. That's how I felt playing through this game, even when I was constantly crashing out from being unable to control the car. It's simple in premise and almost all the way there in terms of execution but for what it is, it's brilliant and an excellent use of my time.

The cars themselves felt different to each other to drive in subtle ways that really mattered when I was trying to drift them at a 100km/h. The general driving model felt great to play with on automatic (I haven't found the courage to try and hit those drifts with manual shifting yet haha). I chose to turn down steering assists and counter-steering by a significant margin and turn up the damage setting to the maximum because it made me drive more carefully. Driving more carefully made my pace a lot better though, funnily enough. I could definitely feel the lack of grip on the dirt and wet roads which made regulating my speed a fun challenge.

The tracks, although slightly repetitive, were really well done, with a mix of high speed and low speed sections. I personally struggled a lot with the 90 degree corners (which were usually blocked off on both sides) more than the hairpins and the high speed corners so I wished there was just a little more space for me to use all of the track on more than one occasion. I'm happy to write that off as a skill issue, though.

The music was decent. Some nice tracks on there but personally I was hoping for something just a little more ambient. I enjoyed the simple visuals but I was getting surprisingly spotty performance on a PC that should be crushing games that look like this. I also liked the little bits of information and history that the game gives you about rally as a sport. Generally, the aesthetic felt congruent, so good job to the team there.

It's a great game and nice way to unwind, especially when you start getting a feel for how to control the cars and extract pace from them. Art of Rally is a relaxing, yet moderately challenging game where you need to be focused, and I can heartily recommend it.

this game is meditation. when you're in the rally your attention is in the moment and any spare brainpower it occupied by the banger soundtrack.

it takes a long time to get good. that's ok. any individual moment isn't that important. this is sort of a racing game roguelike, where you gradually learn the (fantastic) physics as you progress. so just enjoy it.

it does a good job of capturing the history of rally cars, and you can look them up if you're enthusiastic enough. but it doesn't matter and it's not a rally car simulator.

it scales up to a pretty fast computer, but the core experience can be had on modern integrated graphics. if a friendly racing roguelike appeals to you... this is a banger. i adore this game, but recognize not everyone is gonna vibe with it. but it's something special that i revisit even though i've played the campaign twice.

Absolutely amazing.
I love the artstyle.
I love the music.
And the driving physics... They are the perfect balance between realistic and fun.
If you are kind of a petrolhead or just like racing games in general and think the (very well made btw) trailers look fun, you NEED to try out this game!

highly recommend if you like racing. great semi-realistic time trial game, except for the spectator AI, which is incredibly realistic (they have a death wish just like real rally spectators)

Straight up addicting, and simultaneously relaxing

Great driving experience. The game is hard but super rewarding.

Difficult to control with keyboard but fun

Art of rally is a gem of a game that brings to the racing genre things that AAA devlopers wouldn't dare to bring nowadays. that being an abundance of character and charm. the soundtrack is glorious. the driving is fun. the visuals are fantastic. This game is well worth whatever price it is for sale at as you read this.

Originally my gripe with this game was the controls, which given that you spend the majority of this game driving RWD cars doesn't help. It doesn't help that grip seems to be a binary value, where you either turn like you have velcro grip on your front tires or endlessly pendulum back and forth no matter what you do with the throttle. Eventually I managed to get used to them so I could generously say that this game has a "learning curve" or whatever. That's fine, pretty much every good rally game ever made does.

The real problem here is the performance. Why does this game run so ABYSMALLY bad? I can run just about any modern game just fine (4070Ti, i7 12700k, 32GB RAM), and yet this game runs worse than Burning Rangers on Sega Saturn. Absolutely unacceptable. I feel like I need to vomit having paid $25 for this.

One of the great indie racing games. Hard enough to stay interesting, physics smooth enough to build a high skill ceiling, very pleasing art direction and sound, a great selection of cars (including an often forgotten power plant: the wankel rotary engine, one of my favorites) and a great selection of locales and surface types. Early on, I emailed the developer to compliment the game, and to my surprise I got a personal email back, which was really nice.

Well worth the price, and a cool developer.

frame rate drops in the half a second range to full second range. At minimum settings. There's obviously a bug, or this game is just very, very poorly optimized. Unplayable.

Дідько, чому це так шикарно? Ця милюшна інді гра відчувається і виглядає куди цілісніше, ніж всі сучасні ААА раллійні проєкти

i just started playing and already this game is one of the best ive played. you can just feel how much love was put into this project. the driving feels great, the music is great, the photo mode and cutscenes are great, everything about this game's vibe and gameplay is perfect. everyone please support these devs :D

(one downside is no optimization so lower end PCs might get lag spikes, but i didnt get any issues with a pretty middling build so i say try your luck, especially if its on sale)

Charming graphics, but 20 quid for a game with no basic settings or optimisation is nuts. As a fan of rally games, I wanted to love this but the physics and controls did not live up to my expectations at all.

Can't believe I didn't get this game earlier. An arcade looking game with some actually really nice physics. Definitely nowhere near as accurate as you'd get with an actual sim title, but the lean towards realism makes it very enjoyable to learn and improve. My only gripe with the game is that the width of the road is always the same.

This is a great racing game with semi realistic physics and really fun once you learn how to drive the car

once i figured out you can set the camera to rotate exactly with the car this game became peak

It's not a bad game, but for $25 dollars, the lack of basic options and poor optimization (seems to bog down from light effects in game) makes it a wait for it to be on sale type of game!

Perfection of the driving genre. Beautiful design. Excellent soundtrack. Relaxing and fun. A joy to play.

Amazing game to relax and enjoy. I love the art style and the vehicle handling is much better than I had ever expected from the game.

Takes some getting used to but is so fun when you get it right

I bought this game and forgot about it until just today watching a youtube video a guy mentioned it. I was like I have that, installed it and wow. I am hooked. This has to be one of the most fun rally games EVER.

Great game but it's not for me.
You get to drive lots of cool cars around lovely looking maps, nothing to dislike about that.
However, my issue with the game is that your eyes have to constantly jump from looking ahead and looking at the car, which gets straining after a bit.

LOVING THIS GAME!!!!! As a rally sim fan this is a great casual game to play. It looks beautiful, the tracks and cars are great, and the physics are perfect for a game of this style.

Two things I think that need addressed though. 1. Frame rate stutter when the draw distance is large. I am playing on an ultrawide so this might stress it. 2. A voiceless go-driver would be a nice addition.

i love the art style game has a learning curve kinda but its fun

Awsome casual racing game with enough depth to keep me going!

perfect if you want to drive some meditative laps through the countryside but don't feel like using the sim rig

Really great game just to chill and atst learn abt rallying. Lots of ways to drive with customizations for both beginners and experienced racing players

Fantastic little rally game, bringing you through the history of rally racing in an easy-to-learn difficult-to-master package. It tows the line between sim and arcade game in a way that makes it really rewarding to put the time in. All the cars feel very different from one another and there's a ton of variety in car selection and track choice. It's a ton of fun, I've been obsessively playing it every chance I get.

Don't let it's low poly aesthetic fool you. This is the absolute best simcade racer with and a top notch synth soundtrack that money can buy. Bar none.
Each and every car feels different and unique, you can actually feel how the car is behaving. i have no idea how they managed it but boy did they absolutely nail it down to a T. The soundtrack is like crack to me, i've listened to it for nearly 2 years and haven't got sick of it one bit and anything else just doesn't scratch the itch.

I expected a rally game to be about actually testing my skill against complex and difficult tracks.
Turns out, this game is about selecting the less frustrating car and driving thru mediocre tracks, battling the actual physics of the game.
To add insult to injury, the performance is trash, UI/UX is nonexistant and the soundtrack is exactly what you will never want for your racing game - mindnumbing repetitive retrowave slop.
Please, save your money and your time and avoid this game.

I have a great habit of testing the spectators diving abilities.

Its good but not having co driver or a map is unnecessary difficulty

My favorite feature of this game is that I can put it on 'easy' and I can easily get 1st place and progress through the career stages even if I crash multiple times.

Usually games in this arcade/sim category put the game on easy, you crash like twice, forget about placing first.

This game manages to be chill, yet relatively demanding. I suck at this game, but I'm still having fun.

This game runs great on Steam Deck, and really shows off the dynamic color range of the OLED screen. I'm torn playing between silkier 165hz frame rate on my laptop vs the more vibrant colors on the perfection of the Steam Deck OLED screen.

Despite this being an indie game, Funselektor Labs has achieved AAA gameplay, graphics, and menu design. Both accessible for newbs and hardcore rally fans. The perfect balance of sim and arcade. They have truly turned rally into art.

gorgeous game and great racing!
Wish it was multiplayer though... luckily their next game will be though!!

I wanted to wait until I completed the career mode, and after doing so, I would say this game is worth it at full price. Every car feels unique, every map is fun, and the career mode is a ton of fun. Free roam is a fun way to unwind and time attack is good for when I'm feeling competitive. I could have wrote "game good" and I don't know why I didn't.

I have just started the game by completing some rallies and two freeroam maps and I have to say that it is really polished. Like the driving felt super good right as i booted it up, and it is really a joy to play. Would recommend full price, but it tastes even better at a sale. Looks and feels amazing all in all.

Beautiful Art Style, Simple Racing, Takes me back to childhood when games were simple and fun.

Reminds me of playing with die cast cars, I can hop in game for a casual 15 mins which is great nowadays.

The trailer does not lie.
I like it, it's quite a zen rally game.
Only one con.... I lost all my savec after reinstalling my pc...

But it's fun to start again as well :)

Cool physics and overall vibe. Historical rally cars.

its an absolutely AMAZING game. i got into it a few years back from my dad downloading it on the Xbox via gamepass, as he was into just trying out small indie games and all of the sorts. this was one of the few games that deserves to be popular, and its magnificent.

however ive figured out that on PC, if you hook up a racing wheel the game will recognise the axis like its a controller, which with how the joystick linearity works, isnt exactly the best for realism. its still extremely fun though, but itd be cool if we were able to adjust the linearity of that joystick input, as thatd also allow the true input of a steering wheel to be used, making it like one of those 90s top down arcade racers.

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.