Assetto Corsa Competizione – Review (PS4)

Assetto Corsa Competizione brings GT3 racing to life with extreme realism. Set against the backdrop of eleven circuits, you’ll find yourself behind the wheel in one of twenty-four different cars and over 200 drivers as you fight your way through twists and turns in order to cross the finish line and take the win. The closer we get to photo realistic graphics the more opportunity niche games like this will have to finally reach a wider audience. Even if you aren’t a fan of racing, getting to experience these cars and tracks like we’ve never been able to do before is quite an experience.

GT racing, however, is not for the faint of heart. These races can go on for long periods of time. “How long?” you might ask? Long enough that you can actually save the game mid race and pick back up whenever you’re able to sit behind the wheel of your car once again. The fact that races can be long helps to give Assetto Corsa Competizione a little extra oomph considering the content here is a little light.

You can choose between single player, multiplayer, career mode, and championship mode. Single player lets you practice or complete full races while multiplayer lets you do this with other human players. However, the heart of the game is the Championship and Career modes and they are exactly as they sound. Championship mode lets you live out individual championships in the GT circuit while career mode takes you from aspiring amateur to professional elite classes over the course of your career.

There are many different modes that you can experience during your time with Assetto Corsa Competizione. Practice is just that… practice. You can test out all the various cars, tracks, weather, and racing conditions in order to be the best when it actually counts. Hotlap lets you experience the track with all of the optimal settings for the perfect lap. Weather, temperature of the tires, and tracks are set so that you can give it your best shot at having your best lap ever. After each lap everything resets, and you can try all over again.

Hotstint is where you experience just a portion of a race instead of the whole event and do everything you can to stay ahead until the “stint” is over.

Last, but not least, is Quick Race where you can experience a whole race without dealing with qualifying or any of the deeper championship or career mode sessions. Just one race and then you start all over again.

Multiplayer will include special events that were not live at the time of this review, but expect to race against other opponents against particular circumstances as you try and climb the leaderboard during these timed events. In multiplayer, you’ll need to have enough track medals to prove that you have a general knowledge of each track before joining. This will help to keep the playing field level between all players.

Using motion capture technology, Kunos Simulazioni really wanted to give the player the ultimate realistic experience. Every twist and turn that you take behind the wheel feels incredibly real. Each car handles and feels differently as a direct result.

A lot of though was given to how the game looks and feels. Weather and time of day can be specifically chosen or left to chance. It’s amazing how much a game, especially a racing game, can change just based on these little factors. Add a little rain into the mix and the car handles completely differently. Regardless of what weather conditions are, the game looks gorgeous. You’ll feel like you are actually behind the wheel of these high-end vehicles and that is a huge testament to the care that went into all of the vehicles and tracks.

Assetto Corsa Competizione is a realistic GT racing game that will thrill fans and bring in new ones that may not be familiar with the circuit. With beautiful graphics and realistic driving mechanics, the only thing holding this game back is the amount of content provided at launch. But at $39.99, there is plenty to keep you busy. Assetto Corsa Competizione is available now on PC and is coming to Xbox One and PS4 on June 23, 2020.

Check out our Review Guide to see what we criteria we use to score games.

*Assetto Corsa Competizione was given to the reviewer by the publishing company but this fact did not alter the reviewer’s opinion*