Gravel

Edit 2018-08-20: since my original review the game has received several patches, including a re-balancing of the difficulty, which now feels more consistent.

First off, let's start with the negatives:

'Difficulty balance' is a common problem for most racing games, especially those leaning on the 'arcade' side. Gravel is not immune to this challenge, and does have problems with this. Even within the same type of racing event there's an uneveness to the difficulty. For example, playing on 'Easy' in one Checkpoint race will make you lead by 20 seconds, play the next checkpoint race on 'Easy' and you're lucky to end up 5th. It's the same disparity with the other difficulty levels, as I've played the game on Easy, Medium, and Hard. You have to adapt the difficulty level on a race-by-race basis.

The difficulty imbalance is especially noticeable as you move between different racing events (checkpoint, smashup, stadium, etc). The Smashup events, where you drive through a series of signboards that randomly change place during the course, are the most affected by this. I struggled to reach the podium in these events on Easy difficulty, and sometimes even on Very Easy. It was bizarre. The problem with this event is that you often can't see or even anticipate where to drive, i.e. what signboard to drive through, until it is far too late. In most cases I had to break and pause for a microsecond before I knew what signboard to drive through, which is not ideal in a timed race. I do like the idea of this event in concept, but it needs some serious adjustments in order to become more fun.

As a side-note: the game does give you the tools to "fix" the imbalance for yourself, from within the game, by switching difficulty in a quick and easy way.

The AI is not bad, but not great either; their spatial awareness is rather low. They are more or less like cannonballs as soon as the race starts. This too can be very frustrating at times as they bump into you and may even push you off-course.

[Minor issues: lengthy loading times, frame-rate lags in one of the stadium races.]

So what are the positives? The game has five standout features, so I'll focus on those.

The physics and controls feel very solid, robust. They are also rather complex, allowing you to play on a surprisingly high simulation level, to challenge games like WRC 7 and Dirt 4 in terms of technical depth. Naturally, the game also allows for old-school arcade settings with various assists, on the same technical level as Dirt 2 and Forza Horizon. You can tune the car in great detail; gears, braking, suspension, and so on. Gravel can most definitely be seen as a sim game, in addition to being an old-school arcade game. It has that range.

The exotic and fun locations are the star of the show for me. You race around in every possible type of environment and weather; desert, mountains, coastlines, snow, rain, and so on. Visual variation is an often forgotten aspect in racing games, and this game offers a great deal of it.

The sound design is another standout feature, whether realistic or not the cars sound awesome, where each model has its own unique engine sound.

I looooove the Time Trial mode! If the game only had this game mode I would be 100% happy with it. You have a large and beautiful set of locations to choose from, where you can choose different times of day (dawn, day, dusk, night) as well as weather effects (rain, snow etc.), you get cars and trucks that are superfun to drive, and you have a sound design that should make the hearts and ears of most motorsport-fan feel real happy.

Playing the game on arcade settings brought back memories of playing Sega Rally and Sega Rally Revo, two of my favourite racing games of all time. It's something that has been severely missing in the racing game genre for 10+ years. It's the diverse selection of environments to race around in and the solid driving physics that makes Gravel feel like this, and to me that's a unique and awesome thing to accomplish.

Lastly, there's the boss fights. These are a very cool touch to the game, they add a sense of humor and lightness to it. You are not supposed to take this game as seriously as a say rFactor 2 or RaceRoom.

There are other positives as well: you have a large selection of camera views, including cockpit view and hood/bonnet view. You get a large selection of vehicles to choose from, each with it's own unique characteristic handling. A lengthy Career mode with at least 30 hours worth of gaming time. You can quickly and easily adjust the difficulty level.

In summary, whether intentionally or not, Gravel feels like a modern spiritual successor to Sega Rally, which is a great thing to me. It has some balancing issues, but these can be adjusted for by the gamer him/herself, for the most part. While the Career mode was certainly fun, the Time Trial mode was pure unabashed joy.