DIRT 5 REVIEW SERIES

Taking a lot of pointers from Onrush, particularly its soundtrack and visual presentation, DIRT 5 shines in its colourful menus, vibrant colour palette and toe-tapping music. Nonetheless, the gameplay is where it keeps things genuinely thrilling. You can tailor the difficulty to your choosing, though, but DIRT 5 isn't going to offer much in the way of a meaningful challenge.

It's not a particularly challenging game, though in fact, even playing on Medium difficulty, there are moments where you'll simply leave your opponents in the dust, and by a country mile. After a while, the modes and their basic objectives do become fairly repetitive but future updates could easily remedy that. Faster cars may hit those high speeds but you have to take into account the layout of each track, its terrain, and even dynamic weather that can drastically shift the odds away from you. However, there are moments when the game throws you into mini-boss styled races that has you competing in one-on-one dashes or challenges, changing up the flow a bit.įaster cars may hit those high speeds but you have to take into account the layout of each track, its terrain, and even dynamic weather that can drastically shift the odds away from you.įor the most part, there are a handful of modes to conquer, each offering a wild variety of scenic possibilities and, depending on your class of vehicle choice, differing gameplay opportunities.

You can pick a specific class or vehicle and simply customize it to your preference too, which is terrific. Personally, I opted for the Rally GT class as they offered slick and dangerously fast supercars and tuners with a ton of options in handling, physics, performance and visuals. You can choose to ignore a handful of races and modes if you feel they aren't to your liking, allowing players to hone in on a specific class of vehicle. The most welcomed new feature in DIRT 5 is the ability to focus on your specific style of gameplay and progression. Depending on the track and pre-assigned classes, you have to select your vehicles wisely as each performs to certain strengths and weaknesses on the track. Each class operates differently from the next, coming with around a dozen vehicles to choose from. The campaign is where you'll spend most of your time, featuring hundreds of races to partake in, all branching out to circuit races, single-track dashes to the finish line, time trials, and more. A brief introduction by the legendary voice-acting duo that is Troy Baker and Nolan North, who act as frequent commentators across the game, sets you up for a whirlwind of nail-biting rally races across a multitude of classes and modes. You start off as a newbie on the rally racing scene. While DIRT 4 still contained some simulation elements, DIRT 5 foregoes that entirely for a far more streamlined, arcade experience - and to its benefit, it actually works. In a way, it feels far less like DIRT 4 and more like another Codemasters arcade racer, Onrush. However, the most evident thing about this latest entry is just how much it leans into its arcade style. If you know the name of the game for the DIRT series, you'll feel right at home with DIRT 5.

DIRT 5 REVIEW SERIES

Taking everything that Codemasters learned in the past and fine-tuning it, DIRT 5 soars with terrific visuals, tight controls, and a rebranding that the series desperately needed. Most of all, it's also been the flagship series for developer Codemasters' evolution in the industry, going from a relatively small studio to receiving the backing of Microsoft - and that's where we find DIRT 5, one of the few AAA racing titles releasing this year, and also undoubtedly one of the best (though the market isn't exactly saturated right now with compelling racers). Codemasters' DIRT series has gained quite a reputation since the original game's launch during the PS3/Xbox 360 era.

Dirt 5 review