Riders Republic Review - Extreme Sports Made Special
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Ubisoft is at it again with another extreme sports game. In Riders Republic, they take what they started in 2016’s Steep and expand the concept by featuring multiple sports, delivering various gameplay experiences that are satisfying in their own little ways. This is an open-world game that’s all about having fun, as it never takes itself seriously. I went in with very little expectations, but kept an open mind, since I rarely play these types of games. But after hours of competing in the different events that populate the game world, I’m glad I left my comfort zone, as I found a newfound appreciation for games like it.
The setup is pretty simple - you’re a rider with “potential” and are introduced to the ‘Riders Republic’. They show you the ropes regarding what you can do and walk you through the events you’ll need to participate in order to make a name for yourself.
You’ll first start with mountain biking, racing through events in mountainous terrain that eventually lead to you earning enough Stars to unlock the other sports. As you progress further, you’ll unlock bike ‘Tricks’ events, ski/snowboard racing and Tricks events, and lastly, you’ll take to the skies to race with a rocketwing, or glide like a squirrel with a wingsuit to see how many points you can accumulate when passing through rough terrain. Each of these sports levels up separately, and progression leads to unlocking new gear and events.
Riders Republic’s gameplay is more akin to an arcade racer with its unrealistic (but hilarious) wipeouts, and drifting physics for bikes and snowboards that defy science. This isn’t a game that is trying to give you a grounded representation of these sports; its goal is to simply capture the unique thrills found in each one. If you stop wondering how you can pull off a 1080° spin while easily doing another trick without having built up the requisite speed, you’ll get more enjoyment out of this game.
I Believe In The Republic
What’s interesting about racing here in Riders Republic is that every race requires you to go through check marks, forcing a set path and leaving little to no room for an advantageous shortcut. If you go off-course and skip a check mark, you are forced to rewind Prince of Persia: Sands of Time style, giving your opponents a chance to go past you.
Tricks events - either with bikes or snowboarding/skis - just remind me of Tony Hawk Pro Skater, as all you have to do is to land sick tricks to score the most amount of points, either before the time ends, or with a set number of tricks. During these events is where I also noticed that the game’s soundtrack failed to be a suitable pair for each event you partake in the game. It didn’t mesh well with me when I was playing to the point that I preferred to turn off the music and play my own playlist as I play.
Performing the tricks are easy, but the system has a few layers of depth for players to learn before they can pull off the game’s craziest trick combinations. Landing is a factor, and pulling off your go-to trick can feel different depending on where you attempt it, resulting in your adjusting on the fly. It can get deep once you fully understand the mechanics and find yourself up against fierce competition.
With my lack of experience in these kinds of games, I was expecting to eventually get bored of moving from one event to another, but it never happened over my 20+ hour playthrough. Each event has its own personality and set of challenges that kept me from feeling like I’d done the same track before.
The real kicker as to why Riders Republic’s gameplay loop works is that it’s not tied to one sport, as it has an assortment of gameplay flavors to cover a wide range of players. I for one prefer one sport over the other and never felt forced to play a specific sport at any particular time. I can do them whenever I want, or simply ignore them altogether.
For added variety, Riders Republic also has races that involve more than one sport, such as starting with a bike, then suddenly switching to a rocketwing when you reach a certain point in the race… then hopping back onto a bike once again to cross the finish line
Dress to Thrill
There’s even funky races with hilarious gear. You’ll be bike racing to see who can deliver all the pizzas first, all while dressed in a panda suit. There’s even funky gear like skis attached to rockets. Why? Again, don’t think about it too much. These kinds of activities regularly relay Riders Republic’s wacky identity, which shines more as the game opens up to you.
Another surprising feature in Riders Republic is how each single-player event is populated with other players' scores and ghosts, making it unpredictable as to who you’ll be going up against. This kept me alert at all times, as it was hard to establish patterns for your foes when competing in events. This strengthens the game’s replayability.
The series of activities seem to flow so well in Riders Republic that when you get into it, you can easily find yourself in a time-sink where a gaming session meant to be just one hour suddenly becomes four.
A massive playground at your fingertips
The whole of Riders Republic’s experience feels seamless, which is a big achievement as this game has an open world that hosts various biomes and massive landscapes that cater to each extreme sport. You need to physically travel to where the event is happening. With this being a Ubisoft game, each area has conveniently placed fast-travel points that bring you closer to your preferred event, though some will still require a bit of travel to get there, which is enough travel time to appreciate the vistas, as it’s a gorgeous-looking game due to its scale.
Ubisoft was also able to give you the impression that the world is densely populated despite its large scale, as you’ll always see folks passing by. They might be running a race or simply doing tricks for no apparent reason. Most of them are randomized player ghosts from what I gather, but mixed in are actual players just going from one event to another and even gathering the usual open-world collectibles meant to please completionists.
Every section I visited felt alive, as you’ll undoubtedly encounter something unusual, whether it’s a player crashing into a tree, or an avatar doing random emotes and emitting weird sounds.
Go wild! Compete with the rest!
Multiplayer is also surprisingly satisfying, as players can queue up for anything between a simple 12-man race to a 6v6 team battle to see which team can earn the most points through tricks.
The main multiplayer feature event, which occurs every hour or so, is the Mass Race - a lengthy three-leg multi-sport event with up to 64 players competing at once. Just imagine the madness with that many people racing in a small set path. Think Fall Guys as you can easily go from top 10 to last place, thanks to far too many people shoved into one path and bumping around unintentionally.
The Mass Race has its moments, but it was the only activity that slowly lost steam for me, as there aren't that many Mass Race tracks to ease the sense of repetitiveness after participating in more than 10 of these events. I started to grow tired of going through the same path. Thankfully, that feeling is exclusive to this mode.
This was a pleasant surprise overall, as I didn’t expect to enjoy Riders Republic as much as I did. It felt great just traversing the open world with any of the gear loadouts. Be it through snowboarding or jetpack, it was satisfying to stroll around this massive playground and do whatever fits your fancy. The amount of customization options to represent your character is also broad at launch, and thankfully, the developers have come up with some sweet designs, so you can really stand out in a crowd.
Riders Republic is a solid game all around; even in terms of its technical aspects, I hardly experienced hiccups that would hamper the experience. It can make you a believer in games like it - Ubisoft has a clear winner on their hands that, if nurtured properly, could spawn a community that will gladly take in any new content coming their way in the future.
9/10
Highlights
PROS:
A seamless, massive open world
Every sport feels great to play
Multiplayer modes run smooth, with no latency issues even during Mass Races
Strong replayability all across the board
CONS:
Mass Races loses their appeal after a few runs
Collision can be a bit unpredictable in multiplayer
The soundtrack overall is a big miss
What I’ve Played
Reached 506 Stars
Completed the bike race and snow trick boss events
Reached level 21 in Bike Race, level 12 in Bike Tricks, level 12 in Snow Race, level 19 in Snow Tricks, and level 11 in Air events.
[This review is based on a PS5 review code provided by Ubisoft]
