Graphics
Top-notch stuff. Visually, Sierra Nueva needs a monument or two, but I guess the Mexican government limited those to the main map only. Apart from the mesas, I feel it isn’t that distinct from the rest of Mexico.
Gameplay
The pace notes are an interesting idea that doesn’t quite work because they don’t sync. The helicopter doesn’t overly annoy me, but I’d still prefer to be able to ground it. It would’ve been nice to see some circuits alongside the sprints.
The handling is a bit of a pain as if PGG is catering to the drift-to-race brigade. Also, this is probably easier for the controller jockeys to deal with than those of us using keyboards.
The amount of dust kicked up by the drivatars in dirt races is a pain to deal with when you’re behind them in cockpit view, and glare in night races from the helicopter also loses marks (and is another reason to ground it).
Content
I’ve not been through all the cars, but the No. 4 Focus stands out. Apart from tuning the car, I’ve done nothing else with it, and it’s performed admirably. The rest so far seem to be fairly sound performers. I think the Scumbug is great to drive, although as a racer, it struggles.
The races were fine if you exclude the handling from consideration. I like the rally option because it spared me the bother of dealing with the drivatars in initially unfamiliar races.
The boss races are all locked in (I keep meaning to check this; blueprint option?) and don’t always match the kind of racing that you had to do to get there. The Goliath is a bit the same way in that you’re in some rally monster racing against a bunch of off-roaders, which is made worse when Alex in the Polaris RZR zooms away on tarmac as if he’s in the Brabham.
And as for the Goliath vs. the Titan, I currently have a preference for the latter.
The PR stunts weren’t overly difficult to three star, and at least there are no trailblazers. But that danger sign on the north side of the map and breakable trees that trigger a fail… Seriously?!
The piñata trucks were easy to collect. The alien artefacts… I mean, crates weren’t quite the nuisance I feared they’d be.
Don’t care about the new music, but do care that my usual station kept being changed to Radio Epitaph.
Pinned tasks were a bother because much of the time I wanted to do something else instead of being herded into the next event; and you had to do something or you couldn’t exit from the map screen.
Story progression
Relatively fast if you’re just doing the main story, but grindy if you’re also trying to clear out the accolades to get rid of pinned tasks.
Replay value
None. I’ve been thinking about this and can’t really think of some compelling feature that would have me going back to Sierra Nueva.
In Lego Valley, it was (and sometimes is) the Falcon Speedway. On Fortune Island, the drifty boys had the Needle. For me, Hot Wheels has the Goliath (although I admit that I’ve stopped bothering with it).
But Rally Adventure doesn’t really have anything. I suppose the drifty boys might like it because the whole thing is (in my view) one big drift zone.
Like the HW expansion, I’ll be back once a week to do the playlist events, but probably not more frequently than that.
Overall rating
Applying best-fit marking, 6/10, which I think is about right.
