Assetto Corsa Evo: Early Access First Impressions

Good Base, but rough.

I didn't even realize it came out until a day later, Assetto Corsa Evo released into early access on the 16th of January. It's... good? kinda? it's hard to say as it's both good and missing content due to the servers being down. The core of the game (gameplay, wheel feel, graphics, performance, quality) is fantastic, but the rest of the game is lacking.

Now this is an early access so it was expected to be a little buggy and have limited content. But at the time of writing it doesn't even have the content that was promised to come out with early access.

What was promised: 5 circuits, 20 cars, practice mode, quick race mode, an economy including car renting, car purchasing, xp ranks, rewards, driver profile, driving academy, driving licenses, VR support, triple-screen support, showroom, and car customization.

What we ended up getting at launch (after 1 hotfix) due to no servers: 5 circuits, 20 cars, practice mode, quick race mode, vr support, triple-screen support, and a showroom.

Listen, I get it. Developing games is hard, something I know first-hand as a game dev student. But why is so much of this content locked behind an internet connection when the game has no multiplayer at all. Why store this stuff on the servers? It just seems weird and a bit short-sighted, these games are modding platforms so why limit it by tying in the core single-player features with a server?

The Core of the Game

Damn good, very VERY similar to Assetto Corsa though. Graphics are a step up from base (unmodded) Assetto Corsa, and even a step up from a lot of the mods I've seen for Assetto Corsa when playing on higher settings.

I haven't had the chance to run this on my main machine, but on my lower-end laptop it runs around 60fps in practice mode on medium-low details. Good enough, though it clearly needs improvement as trying max settings only drops my framerate by around 20fps. It's obviously not fully optimized but it's definitely not the worst i've seen.

The cars are high quality with a LOT of features, including on the fly drive modes, launch control, TCS controls, ABS controls, wiper controls, light controls, ignition and starting with actual starting sounds, etc. It seems like the models have been ported from AC (no problem as they were already world-class there) and updated with the new features. As expected, selection is limited but varied with hot hatches, classics, modern muscle, italian supercars, race cars, and much more.

The AI

Not great, very unrefined and dumb. They don't seem to have a reference of where you are and just crash straight into eachother like it's GRID. Even when they aren't actively trying to kill you or themselves, they're just slow and dumb. Braking during the apex, driving wobbly, leaving the inside open, etc. The AI needs major work and honestly the game is better enjoyed in practice mode hotlapping.

Should you play this instead of ACC or AC?

Nah, not right now atleast. It's too unrefined, however I wouldn't give up on it at all, as I said earlier the core of the game is good. That is by far the hard part of making an early access game, or well any game for that matter. They got what matters good, they just need to take their time in making the game fantastic for a 1.0 release.

If you ask me, either wait till the game becomes polished enough and has the gamemodes you want (multiplayer, freeroam, etc.), or just wait till 1.0 when it'll have everything and be fully polished (or atleast it damn well should be).

It may have been a while but this is pretty much how ACC and AC originally launched, kunos has a thing for releasing unfinished early access versions of their games then letting community feedback and unrelenting work build the games up into what they're known as today.