Dakar Desert Rally Review — Glorious Dust-Covered Chaos

Taking on the world’s most gruelling and challenging race might sound like an unpleasant task, but when you’re behind the wheel of tuned-up, gravel-eating machines throwing around horsepower like it’s nothing, it’s a whole lot of fun. Dakar Desert Rally is the latest officially-licensed release that aims to capture the full experience of the iconic Dakar Rally, and it’s safe to say that the game does a great (if not the best) job and bringing that chaotic sandstorm of a journey into your living room.

There have been some fantastic rally games over the years, along with some Dakar releases, bringing some truly immersive offroad experiences to gamers, but it’s fair to say that the technology of modern development (and the consoles and platforms themselves) have finally got to the stage where sand and mud terrain really feels different than driving on a slick tarred road. And this is what Dakar Desert Rally is really all about: fighting with the environment and terrain challenges thrown at you, rather than a pure sprint to the finish.

Handling through sand, gravel, mud, water, and even some roaded sections feels like a game unto itself. Familiarising yourself with how the different ground types affect your car’s steering, speed, and traction is a huge part of the experience, bringing an added element of strategy and planning your approaches to the forefront – whether it’s getting a good run-up on a sand dune or dodging a sketchy pit that could kill precious seconds off your time.

Thankfully, the game gives you a lot of assistance and help where necessary, not to mention access to a wide variety of vehicles to overcome these obstacles, with everything from Audi to Toyota making an appearance. Dakar Desert Rally‘s ‘Sport’ mode is essentially an arcade mode, which adds in waypoints, turning icons, and other useful things you’d see in a normal racing interface. Alternatively, you can go for the more immersive approach and play in Simulation mode, which strips all that away and requires you to follow the map to get through the stage.

A big part of the real Dakar Rally is managing your vehicle, and basically preventing it from falling apart, and Dakar Desert Rally incorperates this by adding a detailed damage system. Ramping carelessly off a dune or colliding with a tree can cause sizable damage to your vehicle, which can be repaired on the fly, but does come at the cost of a time penalty. So, while you can rip-roar through the world, you still need to be conscious of your vehicle’s integrity.

While the cars and tuning options are impressive, the real highlight is the world itself. The game features over 130 stages covering 20,000 square kilometres of deserts, beaches, snowy mountains, and more. It’s easily one of the most glorious offroad environments we’ve seen, and the developers have even thrown in some interesting assets to spice up races, like shipwrecks and abandoned planes, which is a nice touch and adds some variety.

The environmental effects are notably impressive too, with sand and dust engulfing your car on each turn, along with dynamic weather changes including sandstorms and lightning flickering across the desert and puddles. It may seem small, but it all contributes to a really immersive experience that does make you feel like the race is not only against your opponents, but Mother Nature herself.

When the dust settles, Dakar Desert Rally is a fantastic and ambitious game that captures the intensity and integrity-challenging nature of the real-world race. It’s got an element of strategy due to the environmental hazards, vehicle damage concern, and way in which the race is structured, but it also fills that casual market need alongside the likes of Forza Horizon. If you’re a fan of offroad racing, this should be high up on your priority list.

Dakar Desert Rally is available on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Xbox One, PS4, and PC.