TL;DR: Terrible frame rate leaves it barely playable.
This is based on about an hour or so of gameplay, so mileage may vary.
First things I noticed had to be the framerate and the PS2 levels of aliasing going on. Framerate seems to struggle around a very cinematic 20-25 fps. Being as unstable as it is makes controlling the car a chore, as well as a problem I had where it would recognize the R2 trigger as an on-off switch making throttle modulation impossible. In about an hour I also had the game freeze up on a loading screen once.
Technical issues aside I found the game itself to be quite fun. There's a the usual quick race, multiplayer, and career options. As expected it follows the 2015 season with the roster of cars and tracks picked from that year's WRC, WRC2, and junior divisions. After an optional tutorial the career drops you into a choice of contracts in the junior category and you're of to the your first rally stage. The rally is split into days, which consist of a number of stages, usually book ended by a trip to the mobile garage for repairs, setup changes, and to check your place in the standings.
The options offer a choice of difficulty settings, a host of assists, and visual preferences such as on screen hud furniture and camera position. Damage is present in the game, as should be standard in any rally experience. I had it set to the highest level which had interesting results. By the end of the first rally I had ended up with very a sickly Citroën. It was stuck in 3rd gear, the brakes had likely been stolen, probably by the co-driver who had gotten too embarrassed to show up for the last stage, and my world view had shifted about 5 degrees due to catastrophic suspension
failure. The game does also feature a flashback mechanic which rewinds you back up the track a ways, leaving you sitting still in the middle of the road as if you suffered severe amnesia. Though this was very helpful when the game decided at random to fire the pistons out the top of the engine bay when going over a bump in the road.
Overall if you can get over the framerate issues you end up with a serviceable game, though I'd suggest looking into the PS4 or PC version if you're that interested. At least I wouldn't suggest renewing your PS Plus for it.
