First of all, in my CMR review I praised that game for its handling-tweaking abilities. Playing Sega Rally 1 and 2 made me realize that CMR did not invent this, and I'm having a suspicion Sega Rally didn't either. Whoever came up with it, it's always a welcome feature, and while it was quite primitive in the original, here it is sophisticated enough to add some variety to the game. Although, of course, it doesn't have nearly the same effect as in CMR, since the handling there is extremely responsive, and any tweaks to it alter it significantly. Whereas Sega Rally 2 has a pretty simple and limited handling. In fact, it's this game's biggest flaw.
While the original Sega Rally played relatively normal, this one places a much stronger emphasis on the drifting. It feels like drifting is 90% of what you're doing here, and these are long, OutRun-esque drifts. This kinda thing can work, but here it's so overdone that you feel like you're driving on oil. Cars are always either underresponsive or overresponsive. It's not nearly as bad as in the Ridge Racer series, in fact it's still quite playable, but nevertheless feels like a huge downgrade from the first game, which had a decent handling. While in CMR it felt rewarding to make difficult turns, here it feels more like luck. Furthermore, this unhinged drifting distances the game from reality so much that it doesn't even really feel like rally anymore. Among other problems, in my review of the first game I mentioned how I didn't mind the timer since I never ran out of time, but here I did on numerous occasions, and it feels incredibly frustrating.
Another big downgrade are the visuals. While not bad by any means, they're pretty unremarkable, especially compared to the first game. The music is great though, just as in the first game. Though impo its optimistic and energetic tone clashes with the now more realistic and blander visuals.
Honestly, even though I should be a bigger fan of this than CMR, I'm not. Despite being a simulator, CMR wins me over with its immersiveness and amazing handling. Sega Rally 2, however, is still more "fun" than the original CMR, due to its exaggeratedly high speeds and and energetic music. But I will take either CMR 2.0 or the original Sega Rally over it any day.
While the original Sega Rally played relatively normal, this one places a much stronger emphasis on the drifting. It feels like drifting is 90% of what you're doing here, and these are long, OutRun-esque drifts. This kinda thing can work, but here it's so overdone that you feel like you're driving on oil. Cars are always either underresponsive or overresponsive. It's not nearly as bad as in the Ridge Racer series, in fact it's still quite playable, but nevertheless feels like a huge downgrade from the first game, which had a decent handling. While in CMR it felt rewarding to make difficult turns, here it feels more like luck. Furthermore, this unhinged drifting distances the game from reality so much that it doesn't even really feel like rally anymore. Among other problems, in my review of the first game I mentioned how I didn't mind the timer since I never ran out of time, but here I did on numerous occasions, and it feels incredibly frustrating.
Another big downgrade are the visuals. While not bad by any means, they're pretty unremarkable, especially compared to the first game. The music is great though, just as in the first game. Though impo its optimistic and energetic tone clashes with the now more realistic and blander visuals.
Honestly, even though I should be a bigger fan of this than CMR, I'm not. Despite being a simulator, CMR wins me over with its immersiveness and amazing handling. Sega Rally 2, however, is still more "fun" than the original CMR, due to its exaggeratedly high speeds and and energetic music. But I will take either CMR 2.0 or the original Sega Rally over it any day.