{"id":1532,"date":"2026-04-11T15:27:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T15:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/5fb61a96e4b082e810c722d8"},"modified":"2026-04-11T15:27:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T15:27:21","slug":"dirt-5-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/dirt-5-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Dirt 5 Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

With hardboiled rally enthusiasts and sim junkies currently well-served by the stern and serious spin-off Dirt Rally 2.0<\/a>, Codemasters has swerved to reshape its main off-road series into a sort of Driveclub on dirt; Dirt 5<\/a> is an accessible and rowdy racer that\u2019s easy on the eye and fun to pick up and play, even if it\u2019s ultimately a shade on the shallow side relative to what I\u2019ve come to expect from these games.<\/output>For a series with its own long and firmly established history, that Driveclub comparison I just threw at you may come as a slight curveball. However, it makes a lot more sense when you consider Dirt 5 was developed by Codemasters Cheshire \u2013 the studio formerly known as Evolution, which made Driveclub before being cut loose from Sony and scooped up by Codemasters in 2016. Like Driveclub, Dirt 5 is a mix of doorhandle-to-doorhandle arcade pack racing and bleeding-edge visuals. This game handles night lighting and extreme weather with particular panache.<\/p>\n

That said, Driveclub<\/a> is far from the single influence on Dirt 5. There\u2019s a heavy handful of Dirt 2<\/a>\u2019s brashness, a dash of Dirt 3<\/a>\u2019s gymkhana mode, and a limited sprinkle of MotorStorm<\/a>\u2019s rough-and-ready brand of fender bending (Dirt 5 even features racing in Monument Valley, the location of the original MotorStorm). There\u2019s even a touch of Trackmania<\/a>\u2019s custom track builder and some subtle hints of SEGA Rally Revo<\/a>, RalliSport Challenge<\/a>, and Gravel<\/a> to boot. This cocktail of influences combines for a well-executed racer, albeit one that seems content to iterate rather than innovate. It\u2019s solid but lacks exciting novelty.<\/p>\n

Land Rush Hour<\/h2>\n

Ironically enough, one key game Dirt 5 roundly ignores is Dirt 4. Built on the bones of Codemasters Cheshire\u2019s Onrush<\/a>, Dirt 5 actually doesn\u2019t feel anything like its direct predecessor, ditching its two-pronged \u201csimulation\u201d versus \u201cgamer\u201d approach to handling options for a single, easy-to-grasp driving model. There are certainly differences in the way a custom-built buggy tackles terrain compared to, say, a rear-wheel drive retro rally car (and there are also some subtle variations in grip across the different surface types \u2013 especially ice) but overall it\u2019s a bit more basic and I found the handling quickly tameable.<\/output>Gone, too, is Dirt 4\u2019s custom rally stage generator tool, and with it, any regular point-to-point rallying at all, actually. With Dirt Rally 2.0 competently overseeing that department nowadays, Dirt 5\u2019s career mode is now an arcade-oriented mosaic of mostly pack racing events across tracks in 10 global locations, including New York, Arizona, China, Norway, Brazil, Greece, South Africa, Morocco, Italy, and Nepal. There\u2019s even a light story woven throughout the career which unfolds exclusively in a series of in-game podcast snippets sprinkled between events as you progress. Hosted by Donut Media presenters James Pumphrey and Nolan Sykes, it\u2019s a low-fi approach \u2013 no character models, no cutscenes \u2013 but even though the segments are entirely inessential I have to admit I bought into the silly back-and-forth and listened to every one of them. It was particularly entertaining hearing the highly-recognisable voices of video game VO veterans Troy Baker and Nolan North regularly sniping at each other in the guise of two rival races.<\/p>\n