Amid all the news last week, from Nintendo finally revealing the Switch 2 to Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games having their live-service titles cancelled, several announcements did slip under the radar. We’re not talking about the trailer for the live-action Until Dawn (which looks awful), the supposed ARG for Hollow Knight: Silksong, which turned out to be nothing or Dynasty Warriors: Origins turning out to be great. No, we’re referring to the early access launch of Assetto Corsa EVO.
It may not seem like a big deal, but there was some hype for Kunos Simulazioni’s newest racing sim. Assetto Corsa and Competizione were received pretty well, and EVO promised to take things even further. Significant improvements to the visuals and suspension, dynamic weather that affects the track, and the new Driving Academy for players to earn licenses – all of this looked and sounded pretty appealing, especially for long-time fans.
Granted, it’s early access with 20 cars and five circuits (albeit some more famous ones like Imola, Suzuka, Laguna Seca, and so on). However, the future also looked fairly positive with a new open world map, a first for the series, set to arrive this Summer. Everything seemed on track for Assetto Corsa EVO to have a strong start.
Then, early access went live. Suffice it to say that things haven’t gone as planned.
Upon going live, players discovered a rather annoying issue – they couldn’t access any vehicles. Bizarre as it sounds, this wasn’t a bug but rather due to how the game handles offline and online content. Servers were unavailable, meaning players couldn’t go online and drive the 20 cars hyped up for months. The cars, unarguably the most important part of the experience, could not be driven.
It was the equivalent of being given a luxury vehicle for $40, only to discover it came without the keys (or any prospect replacing them on your own time). The entire ordeal brings DriveClub to mind, which launched with non-existent online functionality, resulting in an underwhelming single-player experience.
As several negative reviews hit the Steam page, Kunos released a hotfix the next day, allowing all cars to be used offline. That’s nothing but good news, as players could finally try out all the new systems, drink in the new visuals (though performance optimization was and still is sorely required), and properly immerse themselves. In retrospect, maybe it was a bit overzealous to give EVO a thumbs-down after this one hiccup. After all, it is early access, and the developer quickly addressed a major issue.
It was all fine and dandy, except online mode still wasn’t available. And while you could drive all 20 cars in single-player tracks and practice sessions, you couldn’t access Driving Academy, arguably the meatiest new mode. The Special Events tab, which is supposed to offer Hotstint and Test Drive, is also blank. As of this time, they remain unavailable alongside the game economy.
There have been two other hotfixes since then, the most recent enabling car customization in offline mode. The downside is that your customization will reset upon exiting the game. It’s yet another problem, which will be solved when online mode becomes available, and Kunos has assured that it’s focusing on “the introduction of online mode and its related features.”
It’s worth noting that before early access went live, the developer didn’t once indicate that several features required players to be online. Even its current roadmap, which appears upon start-up, doesn’t specify the same. There’s also the division of support of VR and triple-screen set-ups into two steps, the next due to arrive at some point in the coming months. Again, two features touted on its store listing as “first-class features”, which haven’t been fully implemented, but I digress.
The points about Driving Academy, the game economy, Special Events and car customization not saving will likely become moot when online mode is available. However, it does raise several other concerns for the future. What if servers go down and players once again can’t access these? What if issues like the current ones emerge again, causing online mode to become unavailable again for extended periods?
If Kunos decides to pull servers in the distant future, will all these features be available offline? That last point is a very real concern, as evidenced by the shutting down of The Crew, preventing anyone from accessing it at all. Even Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown received significant blowback for server issues at launch, and it still hasn’t formulated any plans for end-of-life support.
Theories abound on why the developer decided to keep several key features locked to online mode, like wanting to discourage modding, which has allowed the first Assetto Corsa to continue thriving. Perhaps it’s to have a tighter control on what it can monetize, especially given all the work that’s going into things like the new open-world region. There are also the promised post-launch updates. Several tracks may be doled out for free to players, but the developer would likely want the most revenue from paid car packs.
Again, this is all assuming it doesn’t want mods to begin with, but the landscape of the industry has changed significantly since 2014 when Assetto Corsa first launched, so it wouldn’t be surprising. You also have to wonder how much its licensing deals with various automobile brands play into all of this. We may never truly know.
Perhaps the most disappointing part of this whole ordeal is that even with limited modes, tracks, and vehicles, Assetto Corsa EVO is fun. It’s one reason why despite all these issues, the rating is sitting at “Mostly Positive” with 71 percent of the currently 5,786 user reviews giving it a thumbs-up. Bugs, optimization problems, iffy sound, and force-feedback issues in steering wheels aside, there’s praise for the handling and overall visual fidelity.
On the surface, 20 cars may not seem like a lot but they boast extensive amounts of detail, with the physics simulation ensuring that they’re as close to their real-world variants as possible. Even some of the negative reviews are praising it as a future all-timer for the genre. It’s a shame that said potential is already mired in controversy and concern over the future.
As a result, I can’t help but think back to DriveClub and how its reputation was mired by that disastrous launch. However, it continued to receive support for months, improving in multitudes of ways while slowly, but surely winning approval from genre fans. Maybe Assetto Corsa EVO will face the same trials and more on top, even after online mode is restored. Perhaps it’ll be confined to history like DriveClub when Kunos Simulazioni moves on to the next big thing. Either way, it’s a pivotal moment for the racing sim – here’s hoping it manages to bounce back.
