Brutal Gamer

Colin McRae: DiRT 2 (Xbox 360) Review

By Leigh - September 8, 2009 - 21:59 UTC

A true tribute to the great Colin McRae name.

DiRT 2 is the newest title to speed into the racing genre (and the rally sub-genre). The first Colin McRae: DiRT was a massive hit on each of the platforms it was released on, and the sequel had incredibly high expectations. Even though the idea of a sequel to DiRT seemed unlikely after the tragic death of Colin McRae in September 2007 during an unfortunate helicopter crash – a deal was thankfully struck between Codemasters and Colin’s family. Colin McRae was (and forever will be) a legend in the rally world, will the game be able to live up to his name and be something worth putting the late, great Colin McRae’s name to? You’ll have to read on to find out.

The Rally genre these days is incredibly empty, with very few titles even attempting to incorporate it into their racing titles. This was the reason why DiRT [1] was so incredible – something fresh and original, and it was also the first game in a long, long time to actually do it well. Thankfully, DiRT 2 carries on from its predecessor by ticking all the right boxes that a rally game should do.

When you boot up DiRT 2, you’ll straight away be greeted by the ‘DIRT TOUR’ icon, this is where you’ll spend pretty much all your time while playing DiRT 2 – in its epic single player career. You’ll race in all sorts of different rally events, ranging from your standard, run of the mill rally, to the stadium based rally crosses, the multi-route raid events, the commanding of a track in domination, the trail blazers across lush landscapes, land rushes to get the best time and also by breaking gates to get the best time in gate crasher  - to put it simply, there is a crap-tonne of different types of races you can compete in. Every time you win a race, you’ll earn both money and driver XP which goes towards your driver level which will increase every time you reach a certain specified amount. When your driver level reaches certain amounts, you’ll unlock more races and major events like the Rally X-Games (Europe, Asia and America).

With the driver skill also brings different rated career levels; rookie, pro and all-star, getting harder as you progress but all must be completed if you want to finish the games entire incredibly long single player. A lovely little feature they did add to help you level up your driver level is the in-game ‘missions’, where you’re set to do a certain challenge in your overall career and you’ll earn XP every milestone you hit. For example; overtaking X amount of people or drifting for X amount of metres.

Something you will have to get used to while playing DiRT 2 unlike other racing games, is that you have become a master of drifting due to the sort of terrain you’ll be racing on, whether it is gravel, mud or sand. Normal driving tactics of breaking and going round the corner slowly will work, but expect to lose every race you attempt, being able to drift straight around the corner will improve your times dramatically. Be thankful though, Codemasters had the perfect idea of bringing in the flashback feature from its RaceDriver: GRID title which means if you fuck up a corner (or find one of the many invincible, titanium based bushes dotted around the tracks) or just total your car because you suck, you’ll be able to ‘flashback’ to before you obliterated your car. Colin McRae: GRID anyone?

Although there is an insane amount of cars for you to pick from in all of the many different types of racing events, you’re very likely to end up using the same 2-3 cars throughout the whole game just because you start to understand how the car turns and brakes without fiddling about with the custom vehicle set-ups.

We all know that Colin McRae suffered a tragic death during the game’s development but Codemasters honoured his name within the game by adding the ‘Colin McRae Memorial Tournament’ in which you race in a car similar to his legendary Subaru against other players. Once you win the event, it also runs a small memorial video showing his incredible life and some of his greatest achievements. As well as the memorial parts; throughout the games career you hear of other racers talking about the legend.

The environments you race on throughout the game will dramatically affect how you race. As you travel around the world, (whether it be the stadium based Rally-cross in London, rallying in China or Baja racing in California,) you will find that the terrain has many very different properties, each affecting how much you slide when breaking etc. as it would in the real world. One definitive thing about the different environments is how outstanding every-single-thing looks in DiRT 2. The attention to detail is some of the best to date, and that’s not just in a racing game – in all games; Codemasters has really out-done themselves this time, especially if you compare it to the ugly Fuel or Damnation.

As well as an incredibly addictive and entertaining single player career, the game features a multiplayer game mode in which you put your driving skills to the test against other drivers. In both the team and the single player events you’ll be able to race against people all over the world, in different cars and environments. Also, as in the single player, the multiplayer has it’s own variation of the ‘Driver Level’, named the ‘Fame Level’, which you earn as you win races and complete specific missions.

Final Thoughts

I’m going to make this fairly simple; DiRT 2 is the one of the best racing games you’ll ever play on any console. In all honesty, I did not expect DiRT 2 to be this good, all I want to do is play this game constantly and I never seem to get bored, no matter how much I seem to play it. It ticks all the right boxes and will make this a title you will not forget. If it wasn’t for the occasional fuck-up in physics and the bushes which are as strong as diamonds, it’d be the closest I’d get to calling it ‘the perfect game’. Colin McRae, Codemasters has done your legendary name justice with this incredible title, if the Colin McRae name doesn’t live on in the rally world, it will in this outstanding title.

Find more DiRT 2 Xbox 360 reviews over at Test Freaks

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