Is Need for Speed: V-Rally still good?
Need for Speed: V-Rally is a rally racing game released for the original PlayStation
back in 1997.
Despite the game's title, this is not actually a Need for Speed game, with Electronic Arts
simply tacking the brand onto the game for the North American market.
In fact, when the game was ported to the Nintendo 64, it was simply called V-Rally ‘99, and
published by a different company.
Anyway, semantics aside, V-Rally was developed by Eden Studios who would go on to release
a trilogy of V-Rally titles and then developing Test Drive Unlimited along with the Alone
in the Dark reboot, before closing down in 2008.
As you would expect from a popular franchise spawning an entire trilogy, Need for Speed:
V-Rally was met with mostly positive reviews.
Play Magazine gave the game an 8.7 out of 10 stating, “Without a doubt this is the
prettiest racing game so far and there's plenty to see and do, but as for the difficulty level,
just don't say we didn't warn you…”
IGN scored the game an 8 out of 10 noting, “With the sheer wealth of racing games available
on the PSX, the appeal of Need For Speed: V-Rally really comes down to personal interest.
If you're more of a CART/F1/weird futuristic kind of a racing dude, it probably won't deliver
the thrills you're after.
If you like the thought of driving a powerful car off-road, V-Rally's balls-out racing will
definitely deliver the goods.
If, like me, you really like rallying, it'll blow your socks off.”
Finally, GameSpot disagreed and gave the game a 5.4 out of 10 proclaiming, “All in all,
V-Rally could have been one of the best driving games ever, but because of its shoddy control,
it simply becomes a great-looking game that isn't worth playing.
If you're in the market for a driving game, there are several better choices out there.”
So, is Need for Speed: V-Rally still good, or is it not worth playing?
Let's take a look.
There are two main modes to choose from in V-Rally: arcade and championship.
The arcade mode features three different events to compete in, easy, medium, and hard.
In addition to each having an increased difficulty, each feature an increasing amount of events,
4 for easy, 6 for medium, and 8 for hard.
There are two goals in the arcade mode.
The short term goal is to make it to the next checkpoint before the timer runs out.
Making it through the checkpoint will reward more time as you race off to the next one.
When the timer runs out, it's game over, though you do have a few credits so you can try again.
The long term goal is to finish quickly.
Even though you are racing against a trio of opponents, what matters at the end of each
stage is how long it took to complete.
If you have the lowest overall time after all of the stages, you win the championship.
Backing up a bit, I should mention the car selection.
There are 11 to choose from and they are not broken into any meaningful categories.
However, based on horsepower and weight, there appear to be three different classes.
Whatever car you choose, you'll be racing against other cars of the same class.
This means you could choose the lightest, slowest cars, and compete on the hard championship
if you so choose, rather than being forced to use the most challenging cars on the hardest
rallies.
Moving on, let’s talk about at the controls.
While V-Rally received generally favorable reviews upon release, it's most notable today
for the quirky handling characteristics.
Simply put, Need for Speed: V-Rally is twitchy, extremely twitchy.
For as difficult as the checkpoints are, especially on the hard rally, most of the difficulty
is derived from the controls.
A slight press of the d-pad will have a dramatic effect on the front tires, rather than a gradual
effect.
This means the player will have to lightly tap the d-pad for slight corrections.
Weirder still, the cars exhibit a strange pause while turning.
While holding the d-pad, you'll experience a sharp direction change, followed by a lull,
and then another surge in steering.
It is an extremely odd sensation and unlike any other racing game I have ever played.
This makes V-Rally a brutal game for novices and experts alike.
The learning curve is steep and trying to correct even the smallest of mistakes will
require some serious concentration.
It’s worth noting V-Rally does support Namco’s Negcon controller as well as traditional racing
wheels.
Unfortunately I do not own either of these to see if analog control improves the situation.
Additionally, some have noted the Greatest Hits release adds support for the Dual Shock
Analog controller, but I don’t have the Greatest Hits version of Need for Speed: V-Rally,
so I can’t confirm if that helps the issue either.
All I can do is report on my particular setup, which is the original release with the standard
controller of the time.
On the plus side, V-Rally does have some control nuances in addition to the twitchiness.
There are multiple different road surfaces including pavement, sand, gravel, mud, and
ice.
Additionally, there are weather effects like rain and snow.
All of these drastically affect the handling of the cars.
Tarmac is obviously grippy, allowing the player to take turns considerably faster than say,
mud, which requires the player to slow down considerably to make it around.
Despite this, the controls still feel off, like there is a disconnect between the tires
of the rally car and the road surface itself.
This becomes apparent when going over bumps and hills.
While in the air, hitting the brakes will cause the nose of the car to dive down.
This type of dramatic weight transfer should be impossible while in mid-air, even accounting
for the centrifugal force of rotating tires.
I wouldn’t normally go this in-depth with the physics of a 20 year old racing game,
but I don't want to undersell how bizarre it can be to drive the 11 rally cars presented
in Need for Speed: V-Rally.
In any case, the controls can be mastered and while the hard rally is especially tough,
it's not impossible to come out victorious.
So with that, let's move onto the championship mode.
The championship is broken into a long season, with three stages at each stop.
Unlike the arcade mode, a stage in the championship can be either a three-lap race, or a more
realistic point A to point B affair.
Additionally, there are no checkpoints or time limits.
What is the same are the three opponents in your way, and the ultimate goal being to have
the lowest time in each stage.
As this is a racing season, championship points are awarded after clearing each event, 5 for
first, and zero for last.
You can also save between each country and continue the championship later if you so
choose.
There is also an option to change the difficulty which appears to be a global setting.
Rookie is the default level which I used for the arcade mode.
I bumped it up to Pro for the championship, and played around with the highest difficulty
level, Ace, as well.
Ace basically requires track memorization with fast opponents, while the Rookie mode
is very forgiving, with some seriously slow competition.
Pro is a nice happy medium.
I mention this because as a whole, I did not find Need for Speed: V-Rally all that difficult.
Even on my initial try, I was able to finish first on all three arcade modes in addition
to the long championship mode.
I even placed first on every event in the championship mode, dominating my opponents
with a flawless performance.
The artificial intelligence simply isn’t very good, and once you dispatch an opponent,
they’ll stay behind you, barring any major mistakes.
As bizarre as the controls are, they can be tamed.
This starts with some basic tuning adjustments.
My initial experiment was choosing the suspension level, and selecting soft allowed the car
to race through the mud with much less drama.
This works the other way as well, with a hard suspension making the paved roads much more
neutral to race around.
The second adjustment is the over-steer meter.
Dialing this back a bit does correct a lot of the twitchy behavior.
I assume this is sending more power to the front wheels resulting in understeer, though
I may be giving too much credit to the game's tire model.
Still, after finally coming to grips with the controls, and then experimenting with
the tuning, which is curiously accessible during the race, I began to tame the beast
that is Need for Speed: V-Rally, and finally start having some genuine fun.
Graphically, V-Rally is a great looking PlayStation game.
Now, the car models are extremely primitive, no doubt about it, but the actual environments
to race through look fantastic.
The road surfaces each look unique and distinguished, and the road side detail is exceptional.
Be it the jungle, a swamp, or the side of a mountain, everything blends together seamlessly
to make the player feel like they are at an actual location, rather than driving through
a video game tunnel.
The framerate is also quite good, hovering at a smooth 30 frames per second without a
hiccup.
Even the night races with real time lighting, don’t phase the game engine one bit, with
no framerate loss whatsoever.
V-Rally is not flawless though.
There are some seems in the polygons, a weird glitch when the replay camera changes, and
some pop-up.
The pop-up isn't too bad if I'm honest, never impeding gameplay but also reminding the player
this is an early 3D racer, on the PlayStation.
I will say the texture warping isn't bad either, sometimes vanishing completely, other times
more prominent.
Still, all of the graphic issues are extremely minor.
There are some nice little touches as well, like the background shifting up and down matching
the perspective of the car, rather than remaining a static plane, and there is some obligatory
lens flare.
Overall, the smooth visuals and rich environments do make for a visually appealing experience.
The sound is also of great quality, though expected for a CD based game.
The engine notes are realistic enough, though somewhat muffled, with a smooth transition
as the motor winds through the rev range.
It's easy to hear gear changes and it even helps in the corners, as the motor loses revs
as friction slows the car down.
It does a nice job helping to communicate grip and power levels to the player.
The engine sounds even echo in tunnels, which is a thoughtful touch.
The background music is also pleasant.
From what I can tell, this is not a licensed soundtrack.
To my ears it sounds like a house band cranking out some generic rock tunes.
This is not a bad thing either.
The style ranges from lounge to metal and everything in between, and the crystal clear
sounds, with minimal computer interference, matches the rawness of racing a rally machine
down the rally circuits of the world.
The only issue I have is the slight popping sound between tracks, like the end of the
music was not faded out or cut correctly.
Still, this is a minor gripe.
So, with all of that out of the way, we arrive back to the question asked at the beginning
of the video.
Is Need for Speed: V-Rally still good?
First, there is no doubt this game is showing its age.
It is a 1997 PlayStation game after all.
The polygon counts are low, the textures are pixelated, there are glitches, and many road
side obstacles are bill-boarded, meaning they always face the camera.
While I find it charming for sure, games released on the next generation of consoles look considerably
better, both technically and artistically.
This should come as no surprise.
However, it's the controls that continue to baffle me.
When I think rally racing, I think drifting sideways while my tires chew through dirt.
Drifting and rally are like peanut butter and jelly.
Sadly, V-Rally features no such marriage.
Even worse, I'm not convinced the tires are even meaningfully connected to the road.
The tiniest bump will send each car wobbling side to side while the player wrestles to
regain control.
I find it odd most mainstream reviewers of the day gave them a pass, except GameSpot.
Perhaps this is a sign of the game aging.
Perhaps driving physics for 3D racers was still unrefined in 1997, and reviewers were
more forgiving of such flaws.
But for me, I cannot recommend this game to casual racing fans.
The controls are neither forgiving like an arcade game, nor realistic like a simulation,
and certainly do not accurately convey the feeling of racing on dirt and snow.
However, for hardcore racing fans, there is a lot to like in Need for Speed: V-Rally.
The controls feel foreign and strange, and present a brand new racing style to learn
and conquer.
And in this regard, V-Rally provided me with plenty of enjoyment.
The game demands precision and I found myself rapidly tapping the brake button to avoid
locking my wheels, allowing me to get a better entry into a turn, and then accelerate out.
V-Rally also does a nice job communicating the car's behavior to the player, and it’s
easy to tell where the limits of each car are.
If you dig this type of thing, you’ll find a rather enjoyable racing game lurking within.
On top of this, the track design is very good, with the just the right amount of speed sections
and technical sections, along with a good amount of elevation changes, and most importantly,
the track design always works within the limitations of the cars.
The navigator is spot on as well, allowing the player to find breaking points on upcoming
turns without having already memorized a circuit, and then further mastering a circuit on subsequent
laps.
It’s the type of game I can really zone out on, with the constant left and right handers
presenting a Zen-like experience.
Sadly, there is little reward for getting past the learning curve.
All you receive for victory is a little screen offering congratulations for the winning.
There are no new cars to unlock, no new modes, no tracks, nothing.
The back of the game’s packaging advertises 42 tracks and 11 cars, and this is truly all
there is.
A more structured game play experience; with new tracks and cars being rewarded every few
stages would have been a welcome addition, enticing the player to keep racing.
Instead, the massive 24-race championship is presented in one large chunk, with no rewards
along the way.
Another sign of Need for Speed: V-Rally showing its age.
However I must give credit where credit is due.
There is a lot of variety.
This comes in the form of 8 different locals including Indonesia, England, Spain, Safari,
Corsica, New Zealand, French Alps, and Sweden all offering a wide variety of racing challenges,
from wide open circuits to narrow village streets, different road surfaces, tight turns
and sweeping bends.
On top of the previously mentioned weather, the time of day changes from mid-day, to sunset,
and of course night.
No two races feel alike and it prevents Need for Speed: V-Rally from ever feeling boring
or stale.
Nothing is repeated, ever, and that is kind of amazing.
So yeah, V-Rally is still a good game.
It is not amazing by any stretch, and I wouldn’t even call it great, but for hardcore racing
fans there is more than enough here to sink your racing teeth into.
Learning the nuance of the controls is a satisfying experience, mastering the courses is fun,
the crashes can be entertaining, and the overall presentation is top notch, featuring some
wonderful visuals and a solid audio presentation.
For casual racing fans however, Need for Speed: V-Rally is probably one best to avoid.
The title lacks the easy to learn, tough to master quality something more accessible like
Burnout has, allowing that title and others like it to have a more universal appeal.
V-Rally’s borked controls hold it back from being a classic, and the dated structure void
of any sort of reward system means if you don’t love the simple act of driving a four-wheeled
machine through the mud and snow, there is little here to keep a casual fan engaged.
Thankfully, this is the first in a trilogy, and I look forward to seeing how the series
progressed across different platforms, from V-Rally 2 on the Dreamcast and V-Rally 3 on
the Xbox, among many other ports.
So that about covers it.
This first installment of the V-Rally series is a good game, but definitely not the media
darling it once was, and is certainly not for everyone.