Colin McRae Rally review: rally lover's dream comes true

Colin McRae Rally arrived with a splash in the PC and console world in the late 90’s with its impressive graphics and novel physics engine for the time, and now the game developed by Codemasters has arrived on both Android and iOS. It is a racing game with a precise and realistic physics that will force you to actually use the breaks on your car, a welcome change for realism-seeking virtual drivers often treated to racing games that put all their bets on speed and ignoring the laws of collision physics. This game is not like that. But does Colin McRae Rally keep that excellent PC/console engine in the mobile version, and is it really as good as its siblings on desktop and PS?

First, we should note that the game looks similar to its earlier versions released on other platforms, but with reworked, high-resolution graphics that look great on a mobile device. You’d enjoy beautiful environments - diverse and rich in detail, you’d see the dust on those dry roads, and you’d feel the difference between it and between those times when you drive on a gravel road. There’s even the crowd watching the rally, and while it’s not fully 3D, it’s all well drawn, and the game looks beautiful.

What Colin McRae Rally for Android and iOS lacks, though, is variety: you only have three championships - Australia, Greece, and Corsica, and while they all look great, each with its distinct feel, some of the tracks from the desktop version are not there.

The other beautifully drawn things in Colin McRae Rally are the actual cars: you have two camera angles (a frontal and rear one) to look over your car as your drive, and the car models are in full 3D, looking impressive. Again, though, you have a very limited choice of cars in your garage, and we wish we could unlock more interesting models.

What’s even more fascinating than the graphics, though, is the (relative) realism of everything happening in the races: hit a tree and your car breaks - something that you’d not only see on screen, but also feel, as the vehicle slows down, and requires repairs to get back to its original performance. While in the introductory levels, you’d barely feel a pressure to repair your car - everything is purposefully easy at the beginning - right after those first levels, you’d notice how your opponents race faster, requiring you to keep your car in great condition, and rather than crash and reset the car every two turns, you’d start being much more considerate with your driving.

What sweetens the experience further is that the game uses no annoying in-app purchases whatsoever - no need to wait hours for your car to repair, no need to pay for unlocking cars, and extras, just pure gaming. True, the game costs $2.99, but it’s a price well-deserved, and a very welcome break from the prevalent (but ultimately, extremely annoying for hardcore gamers) in-app purchase model.

In conclusion, we can safely say that Colin McRae Rally for Android and iOS keeps the excellent physics of the early console/desktop version, adding high-resolution graphics, and on-screen controls that are easy to get used to. It’s a dream come true for the rally lover.