a good representative of WRC
Disclaimer: this review is for the PS4 version.
In short, WRC 6 is a fast-paced fusion of simulation and arcade racing, similar to the previous WRC games.
WRC 6 has some of the toughest stages I've yet to play in a rally game, and I've played most of them; from early Colin McRae and Richard Burns Rally to the latest WRC 7 and Dirt 4. In fact, only WRC 7 can claim to have topped WRC 6 in terms of stage designs. Regardless, WRC 6 has some seriously demanding stage for you to survive, which is a fantastic thing. They may not be as realistic as in Sebastian Loeb Rally, but they are tough and I love that.
Visually the game looks fantastic; the colours are crisp and full of depth.The lighting effects are also noteworthy. Effects like the early morning fog and the blinding light on snow-covered tracks are executed really well in the game, it looks very realistic, which increases the visual immersion.
The various weather effects and day-night settings looked very nice as well. It's a highly immersive game in terms of visuals. Because of the night racing and rain/snow effects, WRC 6 is a great representative of the real-life WRC event. Something previous WRC games were somewhat lacking in (i.e. Milestone's).
Sure, the game does not look as good as Dirt Rally, but that has to be fully expected from a much smaller studio and publisher. It is completely unreasonable and irrational to expect the same visual quality when the developer budgets are so vastly different.
The physics is on the sim-arcade side, on the same level as Dirt 1 but with an edge or "bite" to it. It is slightly more sim-like than the previous WRC games, as it requires more technical skill to handle the car. However the game is not a "hardcore" sim in the same way Dirt Rally and Sebastien Loeb Rally are. Whether that's good or bad depends on what kind of game you are after. I like every type of rally game, whether arcade or sim, so I did not care that much about this matter.
You get three classes of cars to race with, and all countries are represented from the real world event. There's a Career mode, a Championship mode, and some multiplayer stuff (which I haven't touched). So there's a great deal of content in this game. I've spent at least 60 hours on the Career mode and the Championships.
What adds to the replay value is the sheer difficulty of the game. Because of the technical difficulty of the rally stages, it becomes very easy to make mistakes in this game, which can be very punishing on higher difficulties. To me this is true to the real-life WRC, where a single mistake could make you loose an entire Round. The game is harsh but fair. I do recomend the harder difficulty levels (Hard +) if you are a racing game veteran, as 'medium' is far too easy in the game.
What can be improved ? a Career mode that feels more interactive and personal, not unlike F1 2017 or Valentino Rossi The Game. Something that really cements the role-playing you are engaging with, of being a racing driver in WRC. You could have press interviews, interactions with your manager, things like that. If they could build on this aspect they would have a 5/5 game for me, because that is what I think is missing from the WRC games.
In a summary. this is a tough game, with technical stages and great visual immersion.