Dirt 5 early review: The GOOD, the BAD & the UGLY

Ahead of my DiRT 5 review on Xbox & PC, here are 10 things I like and dislike about the latest Codemasters rally game.

DiRT 5 is an important game because it’s a launch day next-gen title. Many keen eyes are already dissecting gameplay to see whether the Xbox Series X and PS5 are as capable as their respective companies claim.

I got offered a code for the Xbox One version, which was handy until they told me about a pre-release date patch two days before the embargo lift. Not ideal. Without it, I was told, I’d be playing something not, “fully reflective of the build the public will get at launch”. Oopsie, given that the release date is the 6th of November 2020.

So I then got a PC code and all was better, which means the following 10 negatives and positives have come from playing both versions of the latest Codemasters rally game.

But first an important bit of trivia. If you’ve noticed DiRT 5 has a Forza Horizon vibe, that’s because the DiRT 2 team became Playground Games and that’s who developed the Forza Horizon series.

Based on the gameplay, it would be fair to say that DiRT 5’s arcadey, accessible thrills are most akin to DiRT 2 and Onrush, which is no bad thing.

DiRT 5: The Squeaky CLEAN

The handling is a blast

There seems to be this notion that a racing game has to be realistic to be fun and actually it’s usually the opposite. Do I want to spend tens of hours learning to drift a car and set it up correctly to do so? Sometimes, but sometimes I just want to pick up a controller and feel like a boss instantly.

That’s what DiRT 5 does well yet without being shallow. Slides are easy to save but difficult to maintain accurately while cars, each with a unique feel, like to be chucked around aggressively. Yet there’s a reward for being precise and gentle. Despite being arcadey, the handling is intuitive and you have oodles of control.

Most important of all, tarmac feels like tarmac as opposed to whatever it was trying to be in DiRT Rally 2.0. Well done, Codemasters. In short, DiRT 5 knows how to deliver driving thrills.

Circuits are loud & proud

It’s not just the handling that keeps me coming back, the locations in DiRT 5 are a little different from the racing game norm. Avatar-esque Chinese mountains, steep roads of Brazil, sandy Moroccan desert – it’s all here and your eyeballs will lap it up like a cat to milk.

The circuit and stage design is great too. I like that I can accidentally drive off a cliff one moment and go hell for leather up a very steep rock face in a ridiculous off-roader the next.

Even the more sedate road stuff is exciting because of the rapidly changing weather and lighting conditions and because each circuit tends to have a likeable flow to it. It’s actually nice that hitting a barrier doesn’t end your race, although it will keep you out of the running for a record lap time.

For a game that could have been a Forza Horizon 4 wannabe, I’m pleased the reality is bright, bold and keen to entertain.

It makes you competitive

By being more accessible and more thrilling to play, I feel more inclined to challenge the leaderboards. In fact, I somehow got to the top of them and will be there for all of 10 minutes when the game comes out but it’s a nice feelin (sorry, DJS).

Factor in split-screen multiplayer for up to four players and online shenanigans and I can see a lot of hours spent trying to be the best of the best of the best. Of the best. Although it is annoying you cannot check the leaderboard until you’ve finished a race and gone back to the career mode menu.

Making circuits can be amusing

Track editing was a thing, but that fad died out like dinosaurs, the Dodo and rational thinking. Now it’s back, thanks to DiRT 5. Track editing, that is. Rational thinking is definitely dead.

While you cannot make a circuit in every DiRT 5 location, there are actually just three options, you can build something with enough jumps, flaming hoops, banked twisties, London buses and doughnut zones to make Ken Block unblock his bowels. That sounded better in my head.

Anyway, your ‘playgrounds’ as they are known can be shared with the world to enjoy or you can try out what others have made. Not that anyone probably wants to play my not-so-epic bus jump creation, but it’s nice to know you could.

You should be busy for a while

With five chapters in the career mode, so many cars I couldn’t be bothered to count, ten locations and numerous challenge types, DiRT 5 may not be the most epic of epics but it thrills hard over a reasonable time.

Then again, the aforementioned online and split-screen multiplayer, global leaderboards and track editor all improve your chances of sticking around. No doubt there will be some DLC stuff down the road, too, though probably paid because this is Codemasters we’re talking about.

Also bear in mind that upgrading to the Xbox Series X, Series S and PS5 version is free so you can enjoy higher resolutions and smoother frame rates than on Xbox One and PS4 without having to buy a second copy or wait until your new console arrives.

The downright DiRTy

There are graphics issues

People have been picking apart the visuals of DiRT 5 and I can understand why. Even with my Nvidia GTX 1080Ti, soon to be a 3080 (thanks Asus), it’s a mixed bag. On Xbox One it can be downright basic.

Some moments look stunning, particularly once the heavens open, and the reflections are decent. It also glides along nicely at high frame rates – up to 130fps for my system at higher resolution – and there are some cool fancy lighting effects going such as the sun beaming through canvas material.

Plus the level design, though cool, can be a bit samey in places and some of the colours are off or there’s too much of them. You also get screen tearing to a level that can only be described as jarring. It’s really not pretty.

The Xbox One version is noticeably bad. In quality mode it can stutter hard and although it’s still playable the immersion is harmed. Frame-rate mode does better although the detail suffers and you still see frame-rate drops.

Admittedly, none of this ruins the fun. But I will say that moments are so lacking in detail that you would think you’re playing on a high-end smartphone. The PC version has next-gen moments, don’t get me wrong. Just don’t expect much of the current gen consoles.

I’ve not tested DiRT 5 on Series X, Series S or PS5 so I cannot vouch for how well they do in 4K or 120 frames per second, but it seems as if all versions could do with a spot of optimisation.

Customisation is limited

For those who love to fine-tune their engine and car setup, DiRT 5 is a bad choice because there is no option to do this. All you can do is create a custom design for your car, which is also a limited experience in comparison with Forza Horizon 4.

There’s something nice about the simplicity of an arcade racer so this point isn’t directly a criticism, but I know many of you may find it a problem. Especially if you were burned by Project Cars 3 earlier in the year.

The AI is a mixed bag

I really dislike AI that cheats physics, such as in Forza Horizon 4, and DiRT 5 has its moments. The problem is that on anything below medium difficulty you end up winning by so many seconds you could put the kettle on and enjoy a tea before your competitors finish.

So you up it to hard and very hard, which results in either winning by a mile or you need to keep pace early on or you may never see some of pack again – even if you drive like Lewis Hamilton.

If you do manage to keep up, let’s just say that it’s a good job cars are difficult to spin out as the AI loves to try punting you to bits. In fact, no one seems to worry about car damage, which adds to the chaos.

Medium & hard difficulty are the best options as you still get some intense racing but with generally fewer frustrating moments.

Where’s my steering wheel support?

It’s obvious DiRT 5 was made for a controller. It would, however, have been fun to give my trusty Fanatec, Logitech and Thrustmaster steering wheels a blast but sadly there’s a two week or so wait after the release date for the update that makes that a reality.

Avoid the booster packs

Despite there being a decent number of vehicles ranging from hatchbacks to Ariel Nomads and some ridiculous machinery in between, it’s easy to get them if you have the optional gameplay booster pack.

Within a few hours I’d hit one million credits, which is a lot when many of the cars on sale routinely cost below 100k. I’d also levelled up more times than a Pokémon.

I’m not against the fact it makes DiRT 5 a game you can enjoy in short bursts, but it does make me wonder how long it will be before you’ve bought everything. Better, I think, to prolong the experience and play it normally.

And that’s it for this DiRT 5 good and bad round-up – my full review is coming soon. Let me know if you have any DiRT 5 questions in the video comments. Be sure to subscribe, like, share and all that stuff.