Assetto Corsa Review

Assetto Corsa

Release: August 30, 2016
Publisher: 505 Games
Developer: Kunos Simulazioni
Genre: Racing, Simulation, XBox One Reviews
PEGI: E
Comments:

 

Comment

Generally on GamesReviews.com, we can play through a game, give it a score, and be confident we addressed any major concerns and provided our readers with a solid description of what the game includes. It’s pretty standard, and it’s fairly easy. Assetto Corsa on the Xbox One proved to be much more difficult, especially when attempting to assign a score. For casual racing fans, this is definitely a must skip, but for those without a PC, who are looking for a solid simulation racing title, it is a must own. Let me explain.

Visually Pleasing

There are a few things in this game that are constant regardless of what type of racing fan you are. Most notably is the look of the game. Although the environments are at times fairly bland, the car detail, but in overhead viewing mode and interior view, are outstanding, bringing real cars to life within the game.

The issue with Assetto Corsa however – which was partially fixed by a day one patch – is how much tearing there is, and how often you may experience frame rate drops. This, oddly enough, really is based on your ability to handle your car. The biggest issues only happened when going of course, or when slamming into obstacles. When I could keep the car on the road, the visual missteps are few and far between. Unfortunately, I rarely could ever keep myself on the road, meaning my experience was much worse.

The takeaway here is that this is a port of the PC equivalent, which is better in almost every way, from game play stability to visuals. Our early recommendation is that if you own a solid PC, that is definitely the way to play, especially with dual monitor support.

Failing So Hard

I’ve seen so many reviews come out where, after you have read them, your only real takeaway was that the reviewer just sucked at the game. I have a feeling someone will mention that to me, because I completely detested by time with Assetto Corsa. The main reason? I suck at the game.

That being said, I don’t think Assetto Corsa does a good enough job of easing you into the experience. Outside of running a few laps on the test track, there is really no in depth tutorial on how you should handle corners, when should you accelerate, when you should use the hand break, etc. Without some time of competent tutorial, I was left to figure these things out on my own, and that took a lot of time.

If you are scared by games with steep learning curves, avoid this one.

Solid Simulation

Regardless of how bad I was, I invited a fellow reviewer to sit in with me. Unlike myself, he is an avid simulation racing fanatic, although he always plays these games on the PC. Regardless, he seemed to pick up things much faster than I did, and watching him play made me with I liked this title.

While the obvious problems still persisted for him – graphical tearing, frame rate drops, etc. – he felt the simulation was still pretty good, although not as good as most PC simulation racing games, the Assetto Corsa PC build included.

Lacking Content?

The obvious problem with Assetto Corsa is the lack of content, which the developers have defended by detailing how much work went into creating a very realistic experience. To their credit, the team went above and beyond when it came to recreating cars and tracks within the game, even doing full scans of the actual real life tracks to make sure they had the most realistic environments possible.

If that was the ultimate goal, than kudos to them. I think it’s brilliant, but I prefer quantity AND quality, not quality over quantity. What I found odd was that there seems to be some day 1 DLC that includes more cars and tracks. With how little is in the original game, we are left with another one of those, “Did they cut content to create DLC” conundrums. I surely hope not, but all signs point to that being the case.

Fortunately, the few tracks and cars that are included can be explored over a variety of modes, including time attack, a free ride mode, career mode, and more.

Conclusion

So here is where the review hits that weird snag that few ever do: I cannot blanket this game with a low score just because I wasn’t good at it. Sure, I think the developers could have done more to help along those without a simulation racing background, and regardless of what level you are at, I think that is a pretty big miss. I also wish the game had more content included in the original release, and not tied a big chunk of extras behind a hefty DLC price tag.

However, hardcore racing fans that have played Assetto Corsa have been pleasantly surprised that a port over to consoles could be this successful. Sure, they will all argue that playing these types of games on the PC is almost always going to be the superior product, but if this is your only avenue for playing games, it does better than most.

If you love simulation racing video games and don’t have access to a powerful PC, Assetto Corsa might be a title you want to buy. Let us know what you think!

Trailer