Developer: Kunos Simulazioni
Publisher: 505 Games
Platform: Xbox One, PS4, PC
Tested on: Xbox One
Assetto Corsa Competizione – Review
Years ago, we reviewed Assetto Corsa and Project Cars 2 when they came out. Assetto Corsa Competizione was already available for PC, yet 505 Games decided to port it over to consoles years later. Both titles are highly renowned in the racing sim genre as being the best bang for your buck. The first Assetto Corsa was especially loved on the PC for its expansive mod support, while Project Cars 2 was a great game to just get and play. As both are still regularly played by many people around the world, they will serve as a great reference for Assetto Corsa Competizione.
Story
This time around, you are recruited by the Lamborghini Youngster Programme. As you get introduced by Mirko Bortolotti, the 2017 Blancpain GT Series champion, he shortly explains how it will all go. They will lend you a Huracán to try on the track but you’ll have to bring it back in one piece. As you go through the tests of the LYP, you will graduate and now you can create your own team. Select your vehicle of choice from the 2018 GP series, craft your team, pick your number and name your teammates. The career just progresses like in other games, you race to win and if you place high on the rankings, your team will become famous and loved.
Graphics
Reviewing games at the end of a console era isn’t always exactly fair. The gap between first-generation consoles (not the HD ones such as the Xbox One X or PS4 Pro) and PC can be pretty large. As this game has been tested on the early console you immediately see the cuts that have been made in order to make it run (somewhat) decently. The gameplay is locked at 30 FPS, which means that some assets can look pretty horrible. The overall quality is below average, even the two older sim games named earlier have better graphics on console. In the showroom, the cars will look pretty nice, but this seems like a bait and switch move once you load into a race.
What makes this all worse is that the content presented in the title is way less than in the other games, so it is not understandable why the cuts in the graphical sector have been made. You will find random debris on the track (which could refer to rubber remains from tires) yet they do not interact with the player in any way. There is good attention to small details, yet it won’t make up for the many flaws in the overall graphics department. The HUD is very clear and shows all the information that you will need and does not feel unwanted, yet most information is up to spec in the dashboard of your car.
Sound
Where the game slightly makes up for its shortcomings is the sound department. There are a few different engine types in the game and they get well represented during events. While the quality isn’t that high as any other simulator, it is good that there is at least something to it. Another realistic innovation that greatly helps is your radioman. He calls in over the radio where opponents are, so you don’t crash into them. This is helpful, but as the AI is horrible, crashes will occur.
Gameplay
Assetto Corsa Competizione is a racing simulator that puts you in the seat of recent GT3 cars. What makes ACC different from its predecessor is that you are limited to only one class. Not only do you now have 24 cars (with around half of that being the same model with a different setup), you can only enjoy them on eleven tracks. Content-wise there isn’t very much to start with, which makes this title less interesting to pick up at full price than the already cheap alternatives.
You can start the game in a few different modes; championship, career, quick race and multiplayer. The career mode is great if you want to have a sense of progression and the feeling that you are part of the racing scene. As races will take a long time, be sure to have enough spare time to complete said races. The first real race you will have to do is a 40-minute endurance run (so not for the feign of heart). If that is not really your cup of tea, then just freely pick a car, track and race in quick mode. Now you could nitpick about things being advanced, but sometimes they just cause a nuisance. In quick mode, you can select between 2018 and 2019 GP. The race settings will be completely different for both years, so you will have to set them up for both years. As this only limits car selection, it feels strange why you have to adjust the race settings for both years.
There has been a lot of complaining already without delving deeper into the gameplay. It isn’t the time to take a breather, things get worse from here. As you might expect for a racing simulator, is that the controls are smooth and responsive. Well due to the game running at what feels between 25 and 30 fps, it not only makes it run pretty choppy, it also means that input is way rougher. It feels impossible to have precise steering unless you are actually using a steering wheel setup. Racing feels more like a chore than it is fun as the handling is reminiscent of the old NFS Underground games making the cars feel like bricks that fly over the road. Navigating through the menus is only possible with the Dpad and this feels so clunky that it seems like your controller is broken (either does not respond or doubles the input)
Not only is the driving and overall gameplay bad, but your opponents are even worse. They are robots that will only follow their line instructed like North Koreans follow their leader. If you do not fit in that line, they will just crash into you and you get the blame. This is especially irritating when you are getting used to the game, or make a small mistake and they just steamroll over you.
Conclusion
If you are looking for a racing simulator on the console, then just pass on Assetto Corsa Competizione. There isn’t much good to say about it, it runs sloppy, graphics are sub-par and there isn’t that much content to play with. For beginning drivers, the career mode is way too hard to progress in and the game controls pretty horrible. It could be the limitations of the older hardware, but the two games that we compared it to, ran much better and were much more fun. Finally comparing the price points and the low amount of current content, it’s better to just pass on this game for now.
Assetto Corsa Competizione – Review,
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[…] Nearly two years ago we were given the chance to take Assetto Corsa Competizione for a spin on the Xbox One. We concluded that the game was horrendous to play on Xbox One, and we recommended picking up the old version for PC. Nonetheless, the game did have a few interesting simulation aspects present, and we did hope the game would get another lease on life. Now, the PlayStation 5 version of Assetto Corsa Competizione has been released, and we were curious to see if the next-gen version had any redeeming qualities. While the game didn’t break any world records yet, it was a massive improvement over the last-gen version. We will only be diving into the improvements here for this review. Those wanting to read our original review of the last-gen version can do so by clicking here. […]
[…] for a place in the official Lamborghini Esports team. All races in this event will take place on the Assetto Corsa Competizione […]