DiRT Rally 2.0

What it is

DiRT Rally 2.0 sends players through a selection of iconic real-world rally stages in powerful off- road vehicles, where a single mistake — clipping a tree, misjudging a hairpin, trusting the wrong gear — can end an entire run in seconds. Developed by Codemasters and published alongside Electronic Arts, it's the direct sequel to the acclaimed Dirt Rally, refining that game's punishing simulation approach with real-world locations, career progression and multiplayer modes. It released on 25 February 2019 at NZD 24.79.

Its review corpus, 18,832 in English, sits at a strong Very Positive 89.6% (16,875 to 1,957), and reading through it in depth confirms the driving itself is rarely in dispute — this corpus's genuine, substantial disagreement concerns two specific, checkable business and technical decisions layered on top of that acclaimed core.

Driving that earns near-universal praise

Reviewers consistently credit DiRT Rally 2.0 with genuinely excellent, skill-rewarding driving physics. One detailed reviewer opens with a full beginner's guide to co-driver callouts, explaining the corner-severity numbering system in detail specifically to help newcomers appreciate what makes the navigation calls so essential once understood. A separate reviewer, not typically drawn to racing games, describes real, unexpected enthusiasm: "generally speaking I am not a racing gamer... this game is different though, and I REALLY like it," crediting the rally format specifically over more conventional racing genres they'd previously bounced off. A particularly thorough review, written after reaching 100% completion, still delivers genuine, earned praise despite real reservations: "despite the game being technically solid with what it does," the core driving commands real respect even from a reviewer explicitly warning newcomers about its unforgiving difficulty.

A career mode that has genuinely erased player progress

This corpus's most serious, specific complaint concerns an always-online requirement tied to career mode that multiple independent reviewers say has cost them real, substantial progress. "'Connecting to Racenet...'" begins one detailed, highly-upvoted review before describing broader frustrations. A separate reviewer states the failure directly: "we found a discrepancy between a local save and Racenet on your career progress and are resetting your current championship. Hours of game time reset because of 'always online' nonsense. I'm playing this as a single-player game. Why would it [be] server authoritative?" A third reviewer independently corroborates the identical failure mode: "while in a loading screen right before I get my rewards I get a message telling me my 'team rally season has been reset due to server synch.' I got no rewards, no money, and the 5 hours of racing has all been reset." That's a specific, repeated, independently confirmed technical failure — not a single disgruntled account, but the same server-desync error wiping real progress across multiple unrelated players.

A Deluxe Edition that later required a second purchase

A separate, equally consistent complaint concerns the game's post-launch content structure. "I did buy this game with the deluxe edition option. Now they released the third and fourth season selling us another deluxe edition? I feel kinda scammed... we never got a warning about the [Deluxe] edition being a half deluxe edition," writes one detailed reviewer. A separate reviewer corroborates the exact same specific grievance: "what was not made clear was that it was only for season 1+2. If you want season 3 and 4 then that costs extra now." A third reviewer puts a specific number on the cumulative cost: "if you buy the base game you will be buying a very incomplete version of it! The rest is divided in more than 40 paid DLCs that currently will cost you 136 euros," adding that "a few of them [are] reused from previous titles." That's a specific, checkable business-practice complaint distinct from ordinary "too much DLC" griping — buyers who purchased what was marketed as a complete edition found it wasn't, after the fact.

Real, more minor technical rough edges

Beyond the two dominant complaints, a smaller thread raises specific launch-era technical issues. "Wheel support and FFB is bad, game is not aware for what cars it should use H-shifter and for what sequential, so it's up to players to configure settings each time," writes one detailed reviewer, alongside a broader observation that the game "feels unfinished" for a sequel that should have inherited more polish from its predecessor. A separate reviewer raises a platform-specific complaint: EA's decision to drop Linux support after purchase, leaving affected players unable to use the game as originally advertised on that platform.

What the achievement data confirms about the difficulty

DiRT Rally 2.0's achievement curve shows a notably low ceiling even at the very top — the most-earned achievement sits at just 40.3%, falling steadily through the 10-30% range for mid-tier accomplishments and collapsing to under 1% for the hardest, most specific achievements. That's consistent with the corpus's repeated warnings about genuine, punishing difficulty — a meaningful share of buyers appear to bounce off relatively early, corroborating reviewer accounts of a driving model that demands real patience and skill investment before it clicks.

Verdict

DiRT Rally 2.0 delivers genuinely excellent, skill-rewarding rally driving that stands as a real improvement on its acclaimed predecessor, and that core achievement is rarely disputed even by its critics. But an always-online career mode that has independently and repeatedly cost players real progress, combined with a Deluxe Edition purchase that later required a second purchase to actually complete, are serious, checkable problems distinct from the driving itself. Worth it for sim-racing fans specifically as a complete Game of the Year edition on sale, with clear eyes about the server risk to single-player progress.