Gravel

In short, this game tries to copy:
Dirt 2's gameplay
NFS Prostreet's campaign
Forza Horizon's skill points
Split/Second's TV show theme
It achieves all this, but in somewhat worse ways than those games did. I found the voiceover annoying and disabled it early on, so I can't comment too much on the last point, but the rest is covered below.
Progression
I got 100% within a day. Rewards are tied to difficulty and assists, so I played on the hardest difficulty with no assists. However, even max rewards didn't net enough skill points show points to unlock everything by the end of the campaign. I assume the devs expected people to get the rest through multiplayer, but nobody plays online. Grinding one of the shortest events for half an hour was enough to get the remaining points.
Gameplay
Without assists, the handling isn't all that bad. A bit unresponsive at times, maybe, but otherwise passable. Damage never seemed to have any effect during my playthrough. The AI occasionally presented a challenge but was otherwise very generic, and bosses did nothing to stand out. Unlimited rewinds and a lack of penalties made things easier still.
The real hard parts were when the developer messed up and caused unintended difficulty spikes, e.g., smash-up (gatecrasher ripoff) events being poorly laid out, and certain time attack targets being so hard that only a handful of people have beaten them, per the leaderboards. To add to this problem, not all cars are equal in this game and you'll need to use the meta cars to beat some events on the highest difficulty.
I mentioned at the start that the gameplay is like Dirt 2. By that, I mean this game mimics its event types, vehicle classes, and locations like a broken mirror. The environment artists did a good job making each location look unique, at least, and some more unique DLC content got added later, but the core gameplay is very much based on Dirt 2.
Story
The campaign sees you go up against five bosses for the crown: Ray Krieger, the Grip King; Nate Denver, the Spee... oh, sorry, wrong game.
Gravel's story consists of five middle-aged men looking at you angrily. I don't know what the player did to deserve the looks. Rumor has it the little balls on top of their matching baseball caps touched and they forgot to say no hømo, and now they'll stay mad forever.
Bugs
Yes, there were bugs. No game crashes, luckily, but both player and AI vehicles often interact weirdly with track geometry and with other vehicles. Expect cars to flip over and go flying pretty frequently. There are also time attacks where the race finishes, the game says you came 1st, and then the standings come up and you're not in 1st. The game has rare stutters too, probably an Unreal Engine thing.
I'm putting night events in this section too because they're so dark. Headlights do practically nothing. I doubt I'd have been able to finish these events if not for the unlimited rewinds.
Lastly, HDR was on by default. Wouldn't have been a big deal except there's no in-game toggle for it; it has to be disabled in the config file. I'm not certain the night events' darkness isn't related to this, either.
Conclusion
It might be a knockoff of other games, but you can still get a few days of fun out of it if you can get over the bugs. I got the deluxe version for $4.80. For that price, I'd say it's worth it. Some of the DLC cars are meta cars, so I wouldn't get the base game if you can help it.

I really miss arcade rally game like old dirt series, motorstorm, etc. This game can bring back those memories. Damn, really recommend this game. Specially when discount. 10/10

Man i love this game, i've been looking for an off-road game for so long it's not even funny. this is great pick if you want off-road action, but not a simulator. very arcade-y but that's exactly what the doctor ordered

I'm a really punctual person. Being late is an ick for me so I plan journeys and arrangements carefully and with contingency, and also drive really fast to make sure I don't get behind the target time. It means I'm normally the first there, maybe by a while but hey, that's what a Kindle and glasses of water are for, no?

So I was really annoyed to be so late to this game - several YEARS late. I do love a good racing game and especially Rally games generally. so I do not know how I kept putting off playing this, and I did miss out, it's really really good, and fun, and easy to get into and just....play.

Let's get into the meat: it's not meant to be AAA standards but even many years later it looks really good and plays really nicely today, extremely pick-up-able and pretty much bulletproof - clearly pro devs making a game with heart and requisite talent. Nor is it a simulation game to be clear, although don't let you think that makes it sloppy in the physics area. It is instead a seriously made Arcade rally racer but with accurate, predictable physics and driving mechanics.

I'd most liken it to GRID but for rallying - in structure too. But instead of the slightly twee story stuff you get occasional boss battles who mark your progression. These bosses are excellently portrayed in FMVs that look exactly like the intro to your favourite sports match with the character striking poses as their bio is read - love that! I don't even know if they're real racers or actors or what, but they really pop.

The rallying is great fun - arcadey like I said but clearly with a lot of knowledge about driving mechanics on mud, sand, tarmac, jungle, ice. The structure is nicely progressive with a series of races in order as you improve your standings in each event, and obviously you win new cars and liveries on the way based on your successes. I played with the DLC which just slots into the standard progression nicely (and gives you a leg-up to get extra stars to more easily qualify for the late-game events) And although it's not hard generally, some stages can throw you a curveball so my IRL overspeed driving tactic to never be late works here!

Being so tardy I missed the Multiplayer so it's rare to find someone to race with, but if you have buddies to invite it works well still.

A really enjoyable rally racer with plenty of content and a big thumbs up, And if you're reading this now then like me, you're late. Which means you'll be able to bag it super-cheap especially on sale!

Awesome game loved every bit of it

The gameplay was very easy, some of the cars are difficult to drive.

The graphics are great for an old game, almost feels like this game made this year.

i never had any issues with this game.

most fun ive had in multiplayer, when beating the wife in races hehe.

I would recommend this game.

8/10

I've dipped in and out of this on Xbox One for about 3 years now and always thought I'd like to try this with a wheel. When I spotted this on sale on Steam I picked it up and fired up my G29. It's awful.
I pondered over the refund option for a bit - then thought I'd just give it a go on controller. Pad + high FPS is awesome - this is just an arcade game - no wheel required. Yes it's more Sega Rally 2 over the beautiful original but that's good enough for me. Well worth it on sale.

Overall one of the best racing games I ever played!
The tracks look amazing (being built in Unreal Engine it looks great even for today's standards),
it features a huge selection of cars across a large variety of classes and eras, has nice arcady controls, etc etc. The soundtrack rocks, too. The only thing it doesn't do well is locking a large portion of the content behind a paywall of DLCs. Apart from that it's just plain awesome. You can race on ice, see northern lights, race on runways with aircraft around, jump dunes, see shipwrecks, race on beautiful beaches, blast through ice caves, compete in stadiums, race on official race tracks, in quarries and so much more. There are multiple game modes, from standard races, over multiplayer, time attack, weekly challenges and so on. It really offers a lot to keep you interested and coming back for a quick race every now and then.
I especially like the classic cars like the Lancia Stratos and love blasting around with it. You can choose the time of day and weather conditions for each track once you've unlocked them, which is a nice plus. All in all this game is just so much fun if you don't expect a hyper-realistic sim and take it for what it is. I love it and would happily recommend it to anyone.