Release Date: 25/09/18
Played On: Win
Available On: PS4 / Win / XBO
Time Played: 45h 45m
Progress: Completed full rally in all vehicles (but one).
Developer: Bigmoon Entertainment
Publisher: Deep Silver
As usual with any kind of racing or fighting game, I have to preface this post with a disclaimer. My enjoyment and enthusiasm for racing games is only equalled by my complete lack of skill. The same goes for fighting games, as these are two genres that I always love to play, but am forever woefully awful in every way.
Thus, any experiences I talk about here may not be appropriate for the hardcore racing fanatic, as I don't know all the finer points about tuning cars and driving with a manual transmission. I'm purely a casual racing game player, which suits me fine as I still love every minute I get out of just about every racing game I've tried. I even enjoy the more simulation-heavy games that can be incredibly punishing; so long as I can turn down the difficulty and find my own level.
With that said, I'll ad another caveat for this particular entry, as I have never played a Dakar racing game before and Dakar 18 was my first. Of course I'm aware of the Dakar rally in the real world and have even watched a little bit of it here and there, but I'm no expert. In fact, the most I've learned about it was that Charlie Boorman documentary where he attempted it on a bike, which was how I first found any interest in the competition.
Suffice to say that the idea of playing a modern racing game based on the Dakar rally appealed to me immediately. Not only is rally my favourite racing discipline, but the Dakar is something entirely unique. The prospect of barrelling over sand dunes and through rocky valleys for long stretches of time felt like something I'd be into, and a nice change from the typical circuit racing in so many other games.
Fortunately, I was not disappointed. While Dakar 18 certainly has some flaws, it delivers on its promise for the most part. You have the option of choosing from Cars, Trucks, Bikes, and SXS Buggies, along with a range of different stages that make up the entire rally. I completed a full rally circuit in all but the quad bikes, as they were impossible to control successfully and have a good time with, but the fact that I repeated the process with every other available vehicle should reveal just how much I enjoyed this game.
However, it's not thanks to some incredible physics model, or interesting and varied rally stages. The thing that really sells Dakar 18 is pure novelty factor, which isn't really anything to write home about when you think about it too hard. In fact, if this were any other rally game, I might be comparing it more to something like Gravel, which left me feeling a little short-changed to say the least. The unfortunate fact of the matter is that Dakar 18 manages to get by on its unique premise alone, because there isn't a whole lot else to get excited about.
What makes the Dakar rally different to other kinds of racing, is that it takes place on an entirely open stage. Instead of following a road or a track from point to point, racers are tasked with travelling from waypoint to waypoint, usually indicated by a landmark or a change in terrain, but it's up to the driver to pay attention and figure out where to go throughout the entire stage.
To show the way, each vehicle is fitted with a road book, which is basically a scrolling list of waypoints and landmarks to guide the way. For instance, you might know that in five kilometres the rocky path your on disappears and changes to dense scrub. Once reaching that point in the route, you then switch to the next waypoint, which could be a lone clump of rocks twenty kilometres away on a forty degree heading. It might sound confusing, but it actually makes a lot of sense once you learn how the road book works and what all the symbols mean.
This learning process was perhaps what I enjoyed the most out of Dakar 18, as it made me feel like I was actually taking part in the famous rally and being faced with the same navigational difficulties of the actual drivers. The reason it can be so difficult, is that you might head from one waypoint to another, but perhaps you're 500 metres too far East of the actual coordinates. Hence when you adjust your heading to proceed to the next waypoint, you're starting from an incorrect location. After all the road book assumes that you made it to the previous waypoint and when it said to turn 85 degrees South, it thought you were in a different location entirely.
It might sound confusing, but it's the kind of confusing that feels really good when you eventually figure it out. Especially because you're not only finding coordinates and waypoints, but the road book is full of other information, like terrain conditions, or difficult areas; all indicated with symbols and figures that are as confusing as hieroglyphics when you first set out.
Don't worry though, it's not all about learning how to read a road book and navigate using pictograms and coordinates. In fact, while navigation is a large part of the experience, keeping your vehicle in one piece is the other thing that requires all of your attention. II can't remember the amount of times that I was zooming along through an open area of bushland or sand, only to suddenly crash head-on into a random boulder that I'd missed by tuning out for a tiny moment.
When most of the stages in Dakar 18 take place over very long distances and can soak up a good hour and a half to complete, you don't want to be wrecking your vehicle near the beginning. Each run is covered with hazards and difficult terrain, meaning you have to actually concentrate on your driving instead of simply pointing it at the next waypoint and putting your foot down. There are always rocks and general debris that will mess up your day if you don't approach them with a bit of care and thought. In fact, one of the stages I had the most difficulty with was one where most the stage went through dried up river beds. The river beds were completely littered with old branches, rocks, and random ditches, that even though it looked like a smooth run, it would destroy my vehicle faster than anything else I encountered.
At the other end of the spectrum are the sand dune stages, which are the ones I was super excited to try and the ones I ended up loving the most. Racing over sand dunes requires a unique set of skills, as each dune's layout presents different problems. Some are so steep that you can't simply drive straight up the side, forcing you to snake your way up the edge slowly as you try to avoid sliding all the way back down again. Others drop away suddenly and can leave you running down the side like a torpedo with no way to control your direction.
The most fun though, is cresting the sand dunes and driving over the peaks. You need to be going fast enough to carry your vehicle over the top, but slow enough to ensure that you don't launch yourself in the air and suffer a terrible wreck when you come crashing back down. I managed to get myself stuck on more than one occasion by bottoming out my vehicle on the crest of a sand dune. Thankfully there's a mechanic in the game where you can get out of the car/truck/whatever, equip a shovel, and dig your way out of a jam. Not only is this handy when you bottom out on top of a sand dune, but there are also many patches of boggy mud that will leave you stuck in place with no other way to move.
Some of my favourite moments in Dakar 18 happened when I actually messed things up and had to get myself out of a tight situation. There's something about being stranded at night in a thick bog, while the rain beats down and you attempt to dig your way out. These unique moments were what I wanted when I picked up Dakar 18, and I was thrilled to find out that there were plenty. Besides, there's something to be said for racing across an open landscape while a heavy storm rolls in and what started as a hot/dusty stage, suddenly turns into a dark/wet stage coated in flashes of sky-filling lightning.
The downside is that the rest of the game is pretty much a bare-bones affair. While there are some options for what vehicles to choose from, it's not something to get excited about. What's more, the driving itself feels pretty basic, even though it's serviceable and does the job fine. What I mean is that driving in Dakar 18 often feels like you're controlling a sled across relatively frictionless ground, instead of feeling every bump in the road, as you would with a better rally game, like the Dirt Rally series.
Although, I have to excuse the lacklustre driving physics in Dakar 18, because I feel like most of the development time was spent on making this a game that excelled in the specific areas that make the Dakar rally unique. For instance, the waypoint system and road book navigation is superbly implemented. There are many options for customising how you want to interact with the book, along with the difficulty of navigating in general.
On the easiest setting you essentially never get lost, as there is always an indicator on your compass that points to the next waypoint. Then on the hardest difficulty settings, you have no assists at all and just have to rely on your own skills and how well you manage to stick to the road book instructions along the way. I did attempt to play Dakar 18 on a higher difficulty setting, just to see what the navigation was like, but after the first couple of waypoints I was completely lost and had no idea where I was going. Suffice to say, I kept thing simple and used the assists that meant I would never get lost again.
At the end of the day, this may not be the best racing game on the market, and there are many things that other racing games do a lot better. By no means is this an intricate simulation of driving physics where every piston in the engine gets accounted for, and you can feel every little push and pull on the suspension. However, what Dakar 18 lacks in driving game physics, it makes up for in Dakar unique...ness.
I mean, there's something inherently fun about driving a rally truck up the side of a sand dune, only to burst over the crest and come tumbling down the other side. There aren't many racing games out there that will give you this unique experience, just remember you'll be learning how to navigate more than you'll be aiming for racing lines. It's easy to see how this might not be to everyone's liking, but if you approach it with the right expectations, you might be pleasantly surprised.