Hynek Hampl Real rally races for iOS have been missing for a long time. There were a few attempts at a proper rally, but either the developers literally threw up on a promising game, or the game looked good at first glance, but was killed by the controls and In-App purchases. But now he's coming to fix it Colin McRae.
First of all, it is important to know that this is not a new game, but a port of the 2 game Colin McRae 2000 by Codemasters. Similar to RockStar Games with GTA and Max Payne, Codemasters has now decided to revive the legend. When I first started the game, I was full of anticipation and immediately wanted to race. However, the game crashed on the iPad mini. And that happened several times. So I restarted the iOS device and the game has been running without issue since then. There was no problem on the iPhone 5 and the game hasn't crashed once since the first launch. Although it doesn't seem like it, this port is quite demanding. You can play it on iPad 2 and above, on iPod Touch 5th generation and on iPhone 4S and iPhone 5. It's quite surprising, given the minimum requirements of a PC game that can get by with 32MB of RAM and an 8MB graphics card.
In the first race, despite the knowledge of the game and the hundreds of hours driven on the PC version, you will spend getting used to the controls. Gas, brake and handbrake are always on the screen, you can control the turns either with the arrows or with the accelerometer. The game allows you to calibrate the accelerometer, but that's where the settings end. Unfortunately, the sensitivity cannot be adjusted, which may be a problem for some. You will probably struggle the first few rides. At the first moment, I was afraid that the controls would write off the game for good. This is not the case, you can get used to the controls after a while. And as one of the few racing games, I find CMR better controlled with the arrows.
The original PC game has a huge amount of cars and tracks, but the iOS port did not. You have only 4 cars to choose from: Ford Focus, Subaru Impreza, Mitsubishi Evo VI and Lancia Stratos. Although I drove most of the PC game with Subaru and Mitsubishi, I miss a Peugeot 206 or the bonus Mini Cooper S. The same applies to the tracks. In the original game, you drove in a total of 9 regions, in the iOS version there are only three. Even though you have 30 tracks in total, it's not a huge amount. I personally hope that Codemasters plan to add updates with new cars and tracks, or at least fan feedback will force them to do so.
also on graphics. Although the textures are original, they have increased resolution. We still only have 2D walls on the sides of the track, 2D spectators, ugly bushes and trees, but overall CMR has nothing to be ashamed of. You just have to accept that it's not Real Racing 3. Up until this point I've been rather badmouthing the game, but the tide turns after a while. Once you get into the vortex of racing, you forget everything else. What made the previous game stand out? Definitely the gameplay. And this also applies to the little iOS brother. Driving challenging tracks as a rally driver on both iPhone and iPad is fun. And what must not be missing at a proper rally? Well, of course, a passenger who navigates you along the tracks of Australia, Greece and Corsica. This is the legendary Nicky Grist who navigated players in the original game. Along with the original music and the sounds of the roaring engine, it is truly an experience. The inability to set the difficulty is a bit frustrating. And the set difficulty of the tracks is different. Sometimes you cross the course with a big lead, sometimes you have work to do to finish first. But even after a few hours, I didn't mind. And don't forget, every mistake is punished, it's definitely not always worth going into a corner at full throttle.
If you don't remember how the rally works in this game, I'll give you a little reminder. You drive individual stages of the regional rally. After every two stages, you get to the virtual box, where you have an hour to repair your, mostly destroyed, car. But don't worry, you don't have to wait here like in Real Racing 3. Each repair only takes 5 minutes out of a possible 60 and repairs one part on the engine, hood, shock absorbers, or body. After winning a rally region, the next region is always unlocked and you get a new car for first place. Simple but fun. Among the game modes, there is a random one that chooses a car and a route for you, then a classic time trial and finally the best – the championship. A little advice: when driving in the championships, you drive for example region 1, then region 2 and then region 1 again. At first I thought it was a bug.
Someone may argue, a woman with a 13-year-old title. And I'm not denying it, RockStar games did it too. But even the revival of this unpretentious legend costs something. And thank God that despite the higher price of the game, you won't find a single In-App purchase here. At first glance, it may appear that this is a failed port. And even at second glance it is so, the list of shortcomings is large. Small amount of cars, fewer tracks, the graphics page is not dazzling at all, you cannot adjust the control sensitivity, you cannot play the game on older devices, there is an absence of any synchronization, except for the Game Center leaderboards, there is no multiplayer, the camera is only from the back or from the windshield, and it would certainly something else was found. However, there is something that the game just can't quite bury. When you're listening to your passenger's navigation, at 100 km/h you fly through a jump on the horizon right next to the rocks and, with the support of applauding fans, you try not to crash your rally special, you forget all the shortcomings. That's what Colin McRae excelled at in 2000, and he still excels at it now, thirteen years later. I'm not afraid to say that Colin McRae for iOS is, despite a few flaws, the best and most realistic iPhone and iPad rally game you can play right now.
[app url=”https://itunes.apple.com/cz/app/colin-mcrae-rally/id566286915?mt=8″]
It's a classic. I don't play much on my devices, but I'll love this one. I'm just sad about what the Codies are doing with the DiRT series. Where did those 20-minute erzets go, when you were sweating even on your ass. Erzets in DiRt are barely 3 minutes long... I really miss a proper rally even though I'm a console player.
Well, I'm not talking about the absolutely unrealistic control when you stop from 200 km/h on gravel in 100 meters... free CMR2 was great, so I'm looking forward to trying it out and hoping for some packs in the game :-)
Totally stripped down port…
If they keep adding new cars and tracks, I think it won't be so bad.
I would rather see a port of games like: Metal gear solid, resident evil 1-4, parasite eve, final fantasy 6-9 (there are others), tekken, colin mcrae 1 and a lot of other epic psx games.