Gravel

As the title of this game would imply, Gravel is kind of like a cheaper version of Dirt, but I really enjoyed it for what it was, a kind of simcade offroad racer, leaning more toward the arcade side. It feels like the sort of AA arcade racer that you used to pick up for $20 on PS2 at Walmart back in 2004, in a good way. And unlike most of the Dirt series, it is still listed on Steam and available to purchase!
I chose the term offroad racer intentionally because this is NOT a rally game. There is no co-driver, no pace notes, and most of the racing you will do will have other vehicles on the track. The game has a lot of rally cars in it, but like Sega Rally, you are mostly racing wheel to wheel against other cars. There are time trial events though, and a kind of novel event type where signs pop up in front of you throughout the course with either a red X or a green arrow, and you have to hit the green arrow otherwise you get slowed down. Kind of a unique challenge, but nothing mind blowing, and sometimes it seems like it doesn't give you enough time to react to hit the correct sign, but these events don't ruin the game or anything.
The premise of the career is that you are an up and coming offroad race driver appearing on a show on the Gravel TV channel. An announcer gives a voice over at the start and end of races, and throughout the game you have to face off against 5 different boss racers. These characters have names and actors and custom liveries for their cars, but otherwise have no real personality, for better or worse. The career is divvied up into different "episodes" of the fictional TV show, which each include a series of races, which give you 1-3 stars for completing them, with more stars awarded for better finishing position. Earn enough stars and you can do a series of races against one of the boss racers. Beat the boss and you unlock their special car livery for the vehicles they used, and you can move on in the campaign. Pretty straightforward.
The vehicle and track selection here I thought was actually one of the most impressive aspects. There's about 50 vehicles in the game, and there are both free and paid DLC vehicles on top of that. It's got a lot of the rally cars you'd expect in a rally adjacent game: a Ford Focus, a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X, a few Subaru Imprezas, Ford Escorts, Lancia Deltas. It is missing some manufacturers like Audi, Peugot, Citroen, and Skoda. But it does have a good handful of racing trucks, and some more oddball vehicles, like the Toyota 222D, Porsche 924, Vauxhall Astra, and Volkswagen Beetle. And then the DLC vehicle packs contain some military vehicles and small buggies.
Track selection includes wider high speed courses in temperate, tropical, snow, and desert biomes, as well as some sort of mixed surface rallycross type courses, and tighter stadium courses. A good variety of track types and settings to have all in a single game.
Physics encourage sliding, which is pretty easy but still reasonably satisfying to control. It's accessible to drive without just having you press a button to switch into drift mode. The game also has a points system for stylish driving, awarding points for high speed, drifting, and catching air, and you can string combos together by doing multiple maneuvers in succession. Beating events gives you points, which increases your driver level. Stylish driving also gives you additional points on top, but most of your leveling will come from just beating events. For example you might get 100,000 points for finishing in first, and your other driving maneuvers might get you another 20,000 on top of that. Increasing your driver level will unlock more vehicles and liveries. This game actually has at least 3 or 4 different liveries for most cars, which I had fun unlocking and looking at. A refreshing change from the modern trend of throwing in an in-depth livery editor that requires artistic creativity and an hour of your time applying decals to make something decent looking.
Finishing the campaign probably takes somewhere around 15 hours, and getting 3 stars on every event and maxing out your driver level to unlock all vehicles and liveries, including DLC, might take closer to 20. There are a couple of achievements tied to the online multiplayer. This game wasn't very popular when it came out, and there's probably no one playing it now, so getting those could be tough, but they are pretty simple, one achievement for playing an online race, and another for playing 10 online races, so still doable if you have a friend who wants to play with you online for an hour or two. I got pretty much every other achievement over the course of standard single player gameplay.
I'll add the graphics look kind of washed out to me, like there's a gray filter over the screen. Not sure it's the best way to describe it, and I think it's just a setting on my end that I need to change, but I don't know what the setting is. Even the Steam notifications I get while playing appear in more of a faded gray color than the normal solid dark blue or black. Again, probably just a me problem, and I played through the whole game this way, didn't bother me too much, just a weird quirk.
Quick overview of DLC: There's a Porsche car pack, a buggy pack that adds some Polaris's and stuff like that, and the military vehicle pack which is a pretty cool novelty I haven't seen in other games, including a humvee, a WWII era Jeep or something, and a few other vehicles. Not much for original gameplay, but you won't see such vehicles in other modern games. There are also a few DLC track packs, one in a snowy environment, one taking place on and around a dam, and another just kind of regular offroad course in a desert environment.
The game goes on sale for $3, and all DLC can be bought for another $3. Gravel doesn't do anything groundbreaking, but it's an arcade offroad racer in a time where we don't have a ton of those anymore, there's no overbearing cheesy story, you won't get handed the fastest cars in the game after 30 minutes of gameplay, and you also don't need to grind for premium currency to buy what you want in game. It's a really solid early 2000's type arcade racing experience that is worth its meager sale price and respects your time.

Hidden Gem of a Game, From $20 to Free this game is worth it.
Pro's:
-Drives like a very low grip and more arcade Dirt Rally
-Music Choice is Great
-The Maps are Epic and I get some Acceleracers Vibes
-Lots of Cars
-Lots of Driver assists if you need them
-You can battle the AI drivers they aren't just solid Bricks
-Unlocking and Leveling Up is a Breeze
-You can drive over the competition
-Did I mention the Maps are some of the Best most interesting maps I've driven on in a driving game?
-You can Race Military vehicles
-Free DLC cars
Con's:
-The game is strangely too quiet, even on maxed volume
-The intro cut scene is long and Unskippable
-There is no Gear UI element so in 3rd person you'll just have to remember what gear your in, and in First person hope you car has a readout
-The Physics once a car leaves the ground are wonky
-The Narrator lacks the Energy the rest of the game oozes
Overall this game is Fun as Hell Just get it and play some races with your friends if nothing else.
Score: 7/10
Visuals: 0.5
Presentation: 1
Bugs: 0.5
Stability: 1
Story: 0
Characters: 0
Driving feel: 1
Steering Responsiveness: 1
Tracks: 1
Cars: 1

The lovechild of Sega Rally and Colin McRae Dirt, ends up with the arcade goodness of 'Gravel'. Great tracks, classic and modern vehicles, and a sense of speed and fun that few modern games encapsulate. Bought it at a 90% sale reduction; what a wonderful investment! Wonderful game!

Very decent dirt racing game, at its best moments there’s a feeling of Sega Rally to it. Graphics are good and very much enjoyed some of the car choices that were outside what you’d normally see, like the Vauxhall Astra. Career mode could be a little longer but outside of that it’s a very fun game that’s worth a look.

Pros
* good car selection
* good track and race type variety. Rally, raid, RX, gate crushing, etc.
* good graphics
* decent career mode, definitely better than latest Forza
* easy to pick up. Casual, arcadey. Not to intense.
* has rewinds
* all cars have cockpit cameras
* campy story and cutscenes in career mode
* RX content is the best in the game. good for some quick arcadey rallycross on real RX tracks.


Cons
* follow camera goes silly on jumps
* physics can get glitchy especially at higher speeds
* all cars in same class drive exactly the same. Stats don't matter.
* car can get stuck on the back of AI drivers
* night races are undriveable. Car lights don't work
* multiplayer achievements
* piss color grading filter and UI that is straight out of 2007.
* to much content in DLCs

Overall Gravel is decent off road racer if you are not to picky. It will feel like off brand product next to Codemasters games. With messier handling, no difference between cars, AI rubber-banding, camera glitches etc. I got the game with all the DLCs for about 5€ on sale, and for that price this seems like decent arcade racer. Anything more than that would make me feel like it's not worth it.

(In night races turn on full race line, otherwise you wont be able to see where you are going. Car lights are useless. It's complete darkness.)

So the game is good and fun for a driving game.
The issue with it on Steam Deck, is that, it lags a few times per race (in offline mode) and once I got to the final event, I could no longer complete any races at all. I would be doing a race and the game would crash, it happened 8 times in a row, in 4 different events, so I gave up on it.
If you aim to 100% the game, that may be impossible. Only purchase if on sale, $3 is about all it's worth since it becomes unplayable after about 7 hours of play.

Amazing arcade racing game. For me its a replacement for SEGA Rally, and that is quite the throne to take. Graphics excellent, gameplay excellent, music excellent, content excellent. the ONLY part that is less than perfect is that the AI LOVES to pit you way too much. This is now in my top 3 racers along with NFS HP and Outrun C2C.