Phar Lap is one of the best horse racing games that are playable on the current generation consoles, such as PlayStation 5.
This is also one of the most realistic horse racing games that include beautiful 3D graphics, as well as many things that happen behind the curtains of horse racing, such as breeding, earning prestige, participating in big racing events, training, and betting on famous racehorse names.
Considering that it holds the name of a legendary horse called Phar Lap from 1930, it is obvious that we expect the best from the horse racing world.
Since this is one of the few games available for PS5, let’s take a look at its gameplay on the new console, and find out whether or not it is worth your time.
Phar Lap Review on PS5
Gameplay
Diving directly into the story. Here, you’ll create your very own rider from a small pool of assets. Once you’re satisfied with your rider and you’ve named them, you’ll be taken to the story hub. The hub spans the likes of a homestead, an education facility, stables, and races. The crux of play sees you taking part in the latter to improve and upgrade the previous. Rinse, and repeat. That’s approximately as deep as the sport gets.
When you take part in races, you’ll earn cash, EXP, and a few useful items to be used in the game’s additives. The stable is your domain, and here, you’ll work to improve your storehouse and your charge of profits.
The storehouse lets you bulk up the capability of your wares, gradually allowing you to preserve an increasing number of gadgets all through. Your profits, however, are your flow of bread and butter, so to talk. You’ll revisit this tab pretty regularly to take in some cash, with greater cash rewarded as development is finally made.
Mechanics
In terms of mechanics, all the horses and visuals run equally well on both PS4 and PS5 consoles. The horse racing mechanics are one of the best we’ve seen in the selection of horse racing games. Additionally, there are plenty of things you can play with that can improve your result in races and help you earn more EXP and prestige in the horse racing community.
The racing itself is painfully simple. You’ll accelerate using R2, sprint to max velocity through the use of the X button, and slow down with the square button. Movement is tethered to the left stick, with L2 allowing you to glance at the back of you. That’s as easy as it’s miles.
Out on the field, you’ll start off in the gates following a random draw that determines what gate you’ll dart out of. Just because the race starts, you’ll see a gauge gift that provides you a quick boost if you’re quick and precise sufficient to pulse acceleration at simply the right time.
Visuals
When it comes to visuals, Phar Lap is one of the best horse racing games that includes realistic 3D horse racing. The game is not at the same level as Red Dead Redemption 2 in terms of graphics, but it still provides present visuals, that are miles better than other horse racing games, especially on the PlayStation 5.
Objective
The main goal of the game is to start with horses that are not really good for racing and train them until you improve their skills and eventually win more races. All horses in the game come with rank and a level.
You can buy horses from stables and also breed horses. When it comes to the breeding section of the game, you’ll need to select a stud and a mare and pay a lump sum in order to get a new horse.
Final Words
Overall Phar Lap is a good game to play considering the low competition in the horse racing game category. This game comes with its own issues, and one of them is becoming boring after a few runs. However, if you are a horse racing lover, then you’d find hours-long fun in this game.
It runs smoothly on PS5 and the new console doesn’t improve the game by much, except maybe it runs a bit smoother and has slightly better visuals.
