Review for Dakar 18. Game for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 25/09/2018
The premises of Dakar 18, recently released driving title, developed by Bigmoon Studios and distributed by Deep Silver, they are quite ambitious. Here we are talking about bringing to the world of racing games, for the first time ever, a race that to define mythical is really an understatement. We are obviously talking about the Dakar, the spectacular Rally Raid that sees the best and most adventurous drivers compete in the most extreme areas of our planet.
This year's edition also falls on the 40th anniversary of the competition, and therefore brings the Dakar to ours PC, PlayStation 4 e Xbox One it could really be a more than valid idea. Too bad, however, that something has gone irremediably wrong: let's see why together.
The basic idea for Dakar 18 - as already mentioned - is excellent: the game is radically different from other similar titles, with a completely open world structure and a career progression that, as far as possible, tries to make the player live an experience as hard and extreme as the real one. To be clear, press the accelerator to the tablet and try to set the curves well, here is of little use.
In Dakar 18 we will have to learn to manage our vehicle and above all to orient ourselves in the desolate and immense South American lands (where the forty-year edition takes place). A stage is completed by identifying and reaching a sufficient number of waypoints. The above waypoints can be conquered in absolutely free order, which will force us to do a lot of planning on the map.
Contrary to many rally games, in Dakar 18 the waypoints will not be indicated clearly and visible on the game screen, but must be reached through the use of GPS and the coordinates that will be provided by the organizers. In practice, getting lost, or in any case making unnecessary and very long laps will be, as in reality, a fairly frequent thing.
In addition to all this, we will also have to be continually careful not to end up bogged down, covered up or, worst of all, with some vital component disintegrated. We will also be able and will have to get off the vehicle to perform the most basic emergency actions, such as inserting blocks under the wheels to try to get out of the sand dunes where we miserably ended up after a jump that we thought was epic.
The vehicle categories available to tackle this grueling marathon are: car, truck, motorcycle, quad and SxS (basically the sidecars). Each type of vehicle naturally has its own characteristics, which make the experience different every time: if with cars and trucks we can count on stable vehicles, of good resistance (and equipped with a co-driver navigator who will help us understand where we have ended up and avoid a kilometric quagmire), with motorcycles and the like we will certainly have more agile and faster vehicles, but also much less stable and much more fragile (not to mention the absence of the navigator and its beneficial support).
So far, everything seems very well thought out and structured. The alternative modes, such as treasure hunts do not shine with their own light, but Dakar 18 is certainly a title of interest for the career mode. Given the niche nature of the competition, perhaps we cannot speak of a title with a very wide appeal, but certainly able to interest a large group of fans. Unfortunately, everything didn't go according to plan ...
If the premises and the game structure are ok, Dakar 18 patches - and unfortunately great - on the technical side. In our opinion, the vehicles are graphically made very well, it is a pity the same cannot be said of the vast environment that surrounds us. Ok that we will largely cross desert and semi-desert territories, but a little more variety in the elements would have helped, making everything less bare and sparse (in a negative sense, even if we are talking about deserts). The animations, in the event of an accident and of our driver when we are called to get out of the vehicle, are woody and really not very detailed.
The worst thing about Dakar 18, however, is the model that regulates the game physics. In the frequent jumps that we will do, but even just taking a particularly bumpy piece of track, we will have to deal with crazy suspensions and a calculation of the damage suffered by the bodywork and chassis that is exaggerated to say the least, even our vehicle was made of tissue paper!
Dakar 18 is really a missed opportunity. Potentially it could have been an interesting and stimulating variation on the racing theme, given that it offers a type of competition never before faced in the videogame world, and it does not lack excellent ideas. Too bad that everything is sunk by an approximate and very poorly maintained technical realization. Only suitable for diehard fans of the real Dakar. Too bad for real.
► Dakar 18 is a racing type game developed by Bigmoon Studios and published by Deep Silver for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 25/09/2018
