Racing Glider
Racing Glider
Game
Game2022
Dakar Desert Rally
Developer Saber Porto Ltd.
Dakar Desert Rally is the biggest off-road rally racing adventure ever developed. Experience the speed and excitement of the largest rally race on the planet, featuring a wide variety of licensed vehicles from motorcycles, cars, trucks, quads and SSVs. From the Steam store page
202 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Mastodon, Bluesky, Lemmy) · newest Nov 6, 2026 · last updated Nov 6, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
38
Rotten
66 positive · 108 negative
95% range 31–45%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 66 | 108 | 0 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 1 | 11 |
| Bluesky * | 4 | 2 | 5 |
| Lemmy * | 1 | 0 | 4 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Mixed
317 of 629 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
38% recommend · 67 yes, 110 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 177 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Mixed (890 of 1,568 positive).
Players widely report that the game is fun and unique when it works, but plagued by frequent crashes. [1][2][3] Many reviewers complain that the developers have abandoned the game without fixing critical issues. [4][5][6] Some players note that the game offers a distinctive rally raid experience with great graphics and physics. [7][8][9]
Liked
Representative posts
- [1]
I love this game, but First and foremost, this game is broken. It ranges from slightly broken to very broken, depending on what you're trying to do, but it can be worked around. If you can work around the bugs, it is so totally worth it, because there is no other game that can offer the experience that this game has. I think to fully enjoy this game, you have to be a bit of a nerd for obscure motorsports, buty even …
- [7]
Every Dakar season I reinstall this game give it another go. At first I didn't really enjoy it, but over the years its really grown on me. Yes Its flawed but also amazing. There are def some odd stability issues that come and go. I mainly just run the bikes in 1st person and in the end, you can run over an hour long simulation stages with 100's of checkpoints. Turn off your HUD, brush up on your French and get …
- [4]
Saber Interactive owes it to the community to finish adding team customization and fix all the crashes, errors, and performance issues. It's a shame that they are going to pull an EA and abandon the game as soon as they legally can to move on to another cash grab. The game's pretty fun when it works and has to potential to be great if the company behind it actually cared to fix its issues.
- [6]
Dakar Desert Rally has so much potential but sadly feels incomplete. The graphics are stunning, showcasing some of the best weather effects in any racing game, and the gameplay fills a unique niche for rally and off-road racing fans. For those coming from Dirt Rally 2.0 or SnowRunner, this game could have been incredible. Unfortunately, Saber Interactive seems to have abandoned it instead of addressing its critical …
- [3]
As a lot of people say, the problem with this game is the frequent crashes. It happens every time I finish an event or some events crash before they even start. That's unfortunate because the game is fun. The map is massive. You can do races and even freeroam on the map which is cool. The graphics are stunning, it looks so good and especially the weather effects. There are a lot of different vehicles to drive. The …
Summarised from 34 of the 208 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 12, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
Players who liked Dakar Desert Rally talk about unique and immersive rally raid experience; those who didn't talk about frequent fatal errors and crashes. Which matters more to you?
Reactions
60 of 202 · most liked firstSaber Interactive owes it to the community to finish adding team customization and fix all the crashes, errors, and performance issues. It's a shame that they are going to pull an EA and abandon the game as soon as they legally can to move on to another cash grab. The game's pretty fun when it works and has to potential to be great if the company behind it actually cared to fix its issues.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →At the beggining the game was fine and entertaining. But a little bit after two hours, it crashed. I launched it again and crashed again and again, and crashes everytime. Now it is unplayable and I can't refund it. Don't bother to buy it. Play other games, games that can be played. At the moment of my review, Dakar Desert Rally is no other thing than a scam. (3hrs of playing) Edit: So I was able to fix the game and play it for a little bit more, but at the end I couldn't avoid the fatal error…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game is awesome until it crashes. It crashes a lot.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Don't buy this game. Saber Porto abandoned it and will no longer develop fixes for it. Steam ought to de-list it from sale. It's a shame because the gameplay is fairly solid, despite the fact the AI literally cheat in order to be competitive.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Dakar Desert Rally has so much potential but sadly feels incomplete. The graphics are stunning, showcasing some of the best weather effects in any racing game, and the gameplay fills a unique niche for rally and off-road racing fans. For those coming from Dirt Rally 2.0 or SnowRunner, this game could have been incredible. Unfortunately, Saber Interactive seems to have abandoned it instead of addressing its critical issues. Performance problems, frequent fatal error crashes, and the lack of…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game play wise its a very decent game however it unfortunately suffers from constant crashes with seemingly no hope for any future updates. Do yourself a favor and wait for another game of this style.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →⚖️ MATCHING EXPECTATION: * 🟢 = Available = Fun +1 * 🔴 = Not Available = Fun -1 * Match Nothing = 0 Fun 🟢 Sprint = Race from A to B 🟢 Many natural jumps 🟢 Damage Management 🟢 Optional Reading note while driving at all time 🟢 Optional Casual Mode = Checkpoint hint on the screen 🔴 Track Walls 🔴 Co-driver voice command in every vehicle 🔴 Versus same ranked leaderboard / Ghost Record 🔴 Endurance = Repeat many laps in a same track fMeter FUN fUN METER…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game crashes every time I play, Just bought the game and first race it crashed and I had to start over again, after 3 tries i got a refund
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Runs slow. Poor graphics, glitches at beginning tutorial race that crashes the game. Saber support isn't helpful. Could be a great game if it didn't have so many issues. Really disappointed about this game. I was really looking forward to it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I see two main classes of bad reviews for this game: 1) constant performance issues and crashing, and 2) "game is too hard." I've been playing for nearly 10 hours now and have had no performance issues or crashes (I cap my frames at 75 FPS to reduce my power bill). I run a mere Nvidia 2080 Ti GPU with a Ryzen 7 1700 (non-X) CPU. My tech is oooold. Yet I have no issues. BUT - I'm on Windows 10. I suspect that this game, like most games, suffers severe performance and stability issues on…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As a lot of people say, the problem with this game is the frequent crashes. It happens every time I finish an event or some events crash before they even start. That's unfortunate because the game is fun. The map is massive. You can do races and even freeroam on the map which is cool. The graphics are stunning, it looks so good and especially the weather effects. There are a lot of different vehicles to drive. The only problem for me is that it seems that you spin out too frequently without…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm still building more detail, but I want to say immediately, the game is good, and the Saudi Map Extension DLC is the sole cause of all the crashes I experienced. I was able to install all the DLC without issue, except the Saudi Map DLC. Once I installed the Map Extension, the game was unplayable with constant crashes. Dakar Desert Rally is perfect for those of us that are tired of Dirt Rally 2.0 crap. When I fired up Dakar, I was locking my screen, pulling the internet cable, and doing all…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Every Dakar season I reinstall this game give it another go. At first I didn't really enjoy it, but over the years its really grown on me. Yes Its flawed but also amazing. There are def some odd stability issues that come and go. I mainly just run the bikes in 1st person and in the end, you can run over an hour long simulation stages with 100's of checkpoints. Turn off your HUD, brush up on your French and get totally lost in the desert, there is nothing else that gives this experience.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sadly, i love this game. it's an enjoyable romp in the desert. It has crashed 6 times in four hours of play. The PS4 controller and DS4 does something wonky with unreal Engine 5 and registers double inputs. Not noticeable on the track, but very annoying to have to use the keyboard in the menu. The FIFA games have this same double input problem. They use Unreal Engine 5, too. If using DS4, you'll need to select 'Hide DS4' in DS$ settings.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Look, I am perhaps the most optimistic want-games-to-succeed customer compared to most. I was hesitant reading the mixed reviews thinking a lot of the negative were people not understanding Dakar. I really wanted this game to be like the old Dirt games, or Dakar for Gamecube 20 years ago. This game is not that. It's arcade-y in a frustrating way and the physics feels off compared to every other offroad game. I have a job so I don't have a ton of time to devote to this review with specifics but…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Crashes everytime you try to quit the game. And sometimes when you're not!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is good and fun to play. And it looks ok for me. But fatal error after fatal error after fatal error . Edit Update didn't help. Unreal Fatal Engine it even says it when it crashes it's a unreal junk collection.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The handling is absolutely awful, motorcycles spin out regularly, or get screwed over by bad physics when going over jumps. Hardly playable, definitely not enjoyable. The lack of sub-classes means the classic dakar rally class vehicles race against modern electric audi's and other things your Citroen 2CV BI-BIP stands no chance against. This game as it currently is, is a waste of money. Put your money into the dirt rally series or BeamNG.drive instead.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →DO NOT BUY THIS GAME BECAUSE I ALSO GOT IT FOR FREE ON EPIC GAMES ONCE AND THOT MAYBE THE ONE ON STEAM DOESN'T HAVE A "FATAL ERROR" BUT IT DOESN'T MATTER BECAUSE THE DEVELOPERS OF THIS GAME ARE JUST SCAMMERS, THIS PROBLEM HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR YEARS AND THEY HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING ABOUT IT UNTIL NOW, ON THE CONTRARY, THIS GAME SHOULD BE REMOVED FROM THE MARKET BECAUSE YOU PAID FOR SOMETHING THAT DOESN'T WORK AND THE DEVELOPERS STILL MAKE MONEY OFF OF IT. I AM GOING TO KNOCK ON THE DOOR OF MY…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Trash total trash I have raced offroad before and competed in the Baja 1000 irl I had high hopes for this game but the vehicle physics are just garbage
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I only recommend this game to die-hard Dakar Rally fans. Otherwise, this game was cleared, released incomplete, and they couldn't catch up on finishing/fixing it. I am sorry for the devs. We need to stop the trend of releasing unfinished games. This game has no support anymore. If you get in good price or free, it might worth it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love this game, but First and foremost, this game is broken. It ranges from slightly broken to very broken, depending on what you're trying to do, but it can be worked around. If you can work around the bugs, it is so totally worth it, because there is no other game that can offer the experience that this game has. I think to fully enjoy this game, you have to be a bit of a nerd for obscure motorsports, buty even the arcade modes are a blast. You have to play through a lot of the more…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Crash, crash, crash.... 2025...still crash
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →[Epic] Dakar Desert Rally. Off-road racing game for Windows, free on Epic Games until 22nd February
neutral · AI labelView post →game is great but need solutions for the crashes
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Regular crashes. Good gameplay but to frequent that you are kicked out.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fatal Error Unreal Engine.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I actually enjoy the game so much, but after a few hours suddenly there's a pop up that read "fatal error" and the game crash to desktop, after some hours trying to look for a solution online I didn't find any that work on my pc and I decide to refund it, it's such a shame that I heard there will be no patch for this game in the future, I really like the game tho. :( (sorry if my grammar is so bad)
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is very ambitious and to some extent is able to fulfill that. The environment is gorgeous and driving through the different areas each have their own challenges. The game doesn't fully feel finished. Technical issues ranging from superficial to gamebreaking and some key functions are simply missing. The AI really isn't very good, and the game really needs the promised photo mode. The game really has potential, and if the promised additions are there, it might be able to deliver.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Good luck getting through to playing the game. Developers broke it with the last major update and aren't going to fix it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Dakar Desert Rally is a fun simcade Offroad-Racer which can be played as Arcade and Sim racer because of the different modes. Its such a shame that the devolpers atleast dont fix the random fatal error stuff because the gore game is good: Pros: + great graphics + good sound design + very well made track routes (in sport mode and professional mode 2 to 10 min long, sim mode 30-1 hour long) + pretty big open world not as big as "FUEL 2009 game" but big enought + good car selection (Dakar cars,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I like the setting a lot and the dakar rally is a nieche that has huge potential. The map, the stages and the driving itself are great but really only enjoyable in sim mode. That was the one i was focused on (you have to play a few hours to unlock it). However the rest is full of missed opportunities. There is no real progression, its like forza horizon, where you can get every car after 2h of playing, just with way less cars. Granted the bikes are a different thing, but at the end you are…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →if you go to Nexus mods and pick up one of the nexus mods to fix the 2 render engines crashes that prevents playing the game overall its a great game just needs fixing
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is just a bad game, no redeeming it. Such a great sport, shameful delivery
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Absolutely the worst co-driver in any rally game I've ever played. The co-driver calls are unbelievably late. It's not a great experience to be told to turn onto traces several seconds after I've driven past the traces, or for the calls to be so late that it's telling me to keep right at the LAST fork as I go zooming through a fork where I need to keep left. There are numerous landmark errors as well. "Between rocks" when there are no rocks present, etc. Given the importance of co-driver…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So the Terms of use Says i down't own this, only renting it and they can revoke it any time. Thanks Embracer Group. You didnt only ruin Deus Ex but also other games. Its.. i mean its nice but not fun somehow, feels too arcade racer, and they wont let you play simulation. I don't want to spend 2+ hours grinding to unlock it only to find out its not any better. Oh yeah and i did pay for Deluxe Edition but i didnt get any of the DLC i paid for. Well... No.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Has a lot of potential but its poor optimization and the unfortunate yet recurrent fatal UE errors make it downright unplayable.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Still sorting out the FatalError Crap, apart from that , when it does play on PC it does play OK, just OK for now.. If the FatalError keeps happening it'll be another in the Bin. To much messing about with FatalErrors,,,, in the Bin its gone!! Should be illegal, Devs getting away with Daylight Robbery really and STEAM should know better releasing it without the fixes.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game is still not fixed...
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It crashes frequently after the race (like every 4th time) and also sometimes within a race with a generic Unreal Engine crash error message: 'The UE3-Dakar2Game game has crashes and will now...' (rest of the message cut off because the error window is too small). It's been known for ages and there are dozens of forum posts, Steam threads & reviews about it. Apparently no one cares. The Saber support site on 'Dakar Desert Rally Crashes' contains a list of 18 suggestions (without explanations on…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Do not play this game if you don't have a wheel, the traction is pretty realistic and a keyboard can't keep up with it at all lol You have to rely on the vehicles with better traction or you're just going to spin out frequently. I have also experienced 0 crashes so I'm not sure what's causing that for some people.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →trash wheel support.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Dakar Desert Rally Free!. Playable on geforce now!
neutral · AI labelView post →Very annoying navigator voice that can't be changed. Game might be good if it weren't for that.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's not as bad as people say but I got it on sale and I'm still requesting a refund.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I just wish i could reccomend this game becouse it looks amazing and its mechanics are great but a gamebreaking bug prevents me from playing the game which hurts so much
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →game not working way?#
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Looks like it could be fun were it not to crash every 5 minutes
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The longer the stages, the better the game. The AI? Rather weak, and the pack racing isn't all that fun. For my taste, it could lean a bit more toward simulation. The physics are okay, nothing more. If you're willing to get into it – and overlook the occasional fatal error – it can be quite captivating. I'm playing it on the Deck, and it runs satisfactorily.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The games gives a "Fatal Error" after completing the tutorial (I tried this 3 times). I've tried things that devs have said to do like unplugging controllers, NVIDIA updates, checking file integrity and so on but nothing worked. Iv'e noticed that this has been an ongoing issue for a while and has yet to be fixed even though many people have made comments and complaints it's yet to be fixed and I don't see it being fixed anytime in the future. Don't recommend this game, at least until they fix…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →'fatal error' popped up while working through the tutorials. + dorky optimization. Saber should focus on Snowrunner.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Wow I love this game not had this much fun since MotorStorm 2 you gotta play this with a wheel & with dashboard cam it's freaking awesome guys! Love the Sahara setting more varied than I thought it would be looks great & runs great too with everything on epic. The choice of different vehicles you can drive & ride too gives good replayability to the already awesome courses. Will definitely buy the USA map next. Glad I didn't go off the negative reviews I havent had any problems but the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Had to refund the game, it just doesn't work at all, keeps crashing at menu, or doesn't launch at all. Devs broke the game with their final update and abandoned it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Refunded. Should have read the reviews about the bugs.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →AVOID. Dakar 18 was brilliant, even without wheel support. Dakar Desert Rally lost the magic that had Dakar 18. I might tell you also AVOID SABER PRODUCTS! They just seems to release games without polishing them. Dakar 18 can be played with launch options while Desert Rally keeps throwing Fatal Errors everywhere. We did not go trough the evolution of win 95 - vista in those years: games that stop working in just a few years means that developers only wants your money then forgets to give you…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game crashes with a Fatal error so often. I'm just thinking this should not be acceptable. I love everything about the game, but the fact it crashes so often makes it a piece of crap.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →great game but there is still a fatal error but maybe it is due to the influence of PC performance
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Took about 2 hours of game play before the fatal error occurred. Switched to another race for now and I'm still trucking in career mode. That's the bad part. I still thumbs up the game because there's nothing like it in my opinion, except maybe Baja? If you are of fan of rally racing, then you'll like it. It is skills based, so at first I thought the controls were just wacked out, but now it is very natural and I podium about half the time. I hope the devs stay on this project and the community…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game looks quite nice and plays alright (as far as I managed to get) but it keeps crashing and I have to sit through the entire intro again, graphics settings aren't persisted and I even have to agree to the same EULA again. I seem to not be able to reach the closest checkpoint so I can skip all of this on restart. This makes it unplayable (for the long run) and I had to request a refund. I might buy it again on sale and change my review if the issue is fixed but I worry that that's…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I think the thing I like most about this game, is the open world and races feel like something similar to Fuel. I always wanted a sequel to that game, and this feels like the closest thing to it. Very challenging game so you have to work for that podium, but overall good feel to vehicles and bikes, and just love the landscape with awesome weather effects with rain, thunder, and lightning. It has several flaws for sure, especially with the fatal error crash. But I don't play that long per…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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