Ubisoft isn’t giving up on extreme sports yet. Steep might have gotten lost and buried but Ubisoft Annecy is taking another crack at making an open-world extreme sports game with this spiritual successor, Riders Republic.
Riders Republic puts a focus on the new bikes as well as racing said bikes, but it’s still a Ubisoft salad of various gameplay styles, checkbox-ticking objectives and maybe a bit too tryhard to present itself cool to the kids.
I’ve given the game a fair shake, I tried the beta, as well as the one-day trial for PC players. Now after spending the first four hours during the trial week ahead of the game’s launch tomorrow, I feel that Riders Republic have something big to offer. The question is if the offer is good enough for you.
A Whole New Open-World
In Riders Republic, you are an up-and-coming new rider that is climbing their way up through the five careers of extreme sports. You’ll start with bike racing, but later on, you’ll be involved in doing snow tricks, air sports and snow races as well. Along the way, you’ll be guided by the legendary and retired extreme sports person Brett, who, sometimes is a perfect dude that give clear instructions to the tutorials, and other times, extremely cringe-y that I wish he would shut up and never appear again.
The open-world this time is an amalgamation of the various national parks in the USA- from canyons to snowy mountains, you got a whole world to explore- enough to hide 500 collectibles, urgh.
Unlike Steep, you do get more tools to explore the world freely. You will get the rocket wings and a snowmobile early one that will let you roam around the world without the constraints of needing the force of gravity. That said, skis and snowboards still feature in the game, but not the main selling point this time around.
Steep can be a lonely game, and it feels like the devs have taken the feedback to bring more of the zany and lively vibes that should be more appealing.
The open-world is huge but instead of it being empty, you’ll see dozens of NPC riders loading in and out of your view. Everyone is having fun, riding their routes or even goofing off and crash somewhere. Open the world map and you see thousands of NPC markers moving around, all having the time of their life.
It’s all an illusion, but it’s an illusion I rather have. The day where open-world games are filled with other players like a lively MMORPG isn’t today, but the feeling of you being part of this bigger community, even if it’s by way of seeing pre-programmed NPCs running their paths, makes Riders Republic feel more alive.
Ride On Time
But we haven’t gotten to the part where Riders Republic is really good at, which is interesting enough, the racing part. When you’re racing, it’s goosebump-inducingly thrilling.
If you haven’t seen it yet, go and look at how Riders Republic plays in the first person. You’ll be pedalling bikes at only 70km/h, not as fast as your regular car racing game, but it’s intense. The sound of your character losing breath on each stroke of the pedal. The feel of having no control of the ridiculous acceleration as you go downhill, the fear of not seeing which way the course goes and having to hold your breath hoping you got the landing of the big jump right.
Somehow, it got my eyes wide open and body hair raising as I hope I make just the right inputs to take the corner while maintaining speed.
I’ve compared my experience of racing in Riders Republic in the first-person with GoPro footage of actual people doing downhill mountain biking. Both gave me similar experiences.
Racing events are where Riders Republic is at its best. At its best, Riders Republic is fricking fun.
And it makes more sense now why Mass Races is being touted as a big feature. These are limited-time race events (you need to wait a bit before matchmaking for it appears) where more than 20 (close to 60 on next-gen consoles and PC) players race together. Think Trackmania with (inconsistent) collisions on, or Fall Guys but as an extreme sport and you’re not far off.
What I did not know beforehand is that Mass Races are not just Ubi riding on the latest video game gimmick. Mass races, in particular for mountain biking, is a real thing. Having most of the field wiped out on turn 1 and seeing the leaders pull away thanks to good luck and avoiding making other mistakes is a real thing.
Riders Republic is wackier and zanier than Steep ever was, but it still has some elements where it pays homage to the real extreme sports disciplines that inspired the game. And I find that to be absolutely rad.
Bumps On The Road
However, not everything is all roses. I do have some nitpicks. When you start Riders Republic, the game explains that they are two different control options- the Racer is optimised for racing events (you get camera control on the right analog stick), while Trickster is optimised for trick events (the right analog stick lets you set up spins).
There is one thing the devs have not considered enough: accidental trigger presses. When in the air, the triggers let you do grab tricks instead of making you accelerate or brake. Guess how many times I may have mistimed my brakes and got air instead and it’s not enough air to safely land a grab trick?
It’s even worse when playing in first-person, as each time you pull off a trick the camera snaps back to third-person view, which can be disorienting when you are just focusing on winning a race and care not for style points.
Speaking of the first-person camera, it’s a shame you can’t wiggle the right analog stick to control where you are looking at. Sometimes I do feel disoriented for not being able to see my character, bike or snowboard. Sometimes you see too much of your own person to the point you clip through the body.
Another bit of disorientation is how you respawn after a bail. Instead of letting you respawn back on track, you have to mash a button to get back up. That’s cool, but it doesn’t account for when you bailed and went off track, which then you just lose a bunch of time to mash buttons and get back on track again you might as well take the L and restart/quit.
Even worse is that not all bails can be recovered by mashing buttons. You have the backtrack feature, which is similar to the many rewinds/flashbacks feature in racing games, but it doesn’t pause time- even for single-player. There are enough times where I ended up having to use backtrack multiple times just to recover from one mistake because it didn’t put me far enough, or I have to use multiple backtracks to get to a place where I can recover.
I prefer a consistent respawn system that puts me back on track and just before the missed checkpoint, thanks.
Closing Thoughts
Technical issues and other gripes aside, Riders Republic feels solid. Steep deserved another chance, and the addition of bikes- both mountain bikes and road bikes- for this title is done tremendously well.
The question is, do you have an appetite for extreme sports? Do you like racing over and over, and go do trick runs over and over? And can you tolerate the tone they are going for with the presentation, as well as some of its inconsistencies in its gameplay?
Riders Republic is fundamentally a game you’ve played before, a Ubisoft game at that. But there are more sprinkles of flavour and some good bites in-between the familiar formula.
If you are itching for an extreme sports game and have friends that are willing to ride together, Riders Republic might be something worth checking out, especially if you haven’t touched a Ubisoft game in a while.
Riders Republic will be out tomorrow, October 28, for the PS4, PS5, PC (Epic Games Store, Ubisoft Store), Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
Played on PC. Impressions based on experiences from the Riders Republic beta, PC Free Week And Trial Week, which were publically available