Cast your mind back a couple of years to 2016’s Steep from Ubisoft Annecy, a game that was as gorgeous to look at as it was frustrating to play. Ubisoft’s take on winter sports, Steep was a gigantic snowbox of skiing, snowboarding, and paragliding, set across some of the most gorgeous alps ever captured inside of a digital game. It was also kind of boring and rote, but its greatest moments came from digital tourism that you could sit back and marvel at.
Lessons were learned from Steep, and now a few years later, they’re being applied to Riders Republic. On the surface, Riders Republic takes the idea of Steep’s extreme sports and expands on it massively, throwing in a number of different outdoor pursuits that can be tackled without fear of crushing your bones in real life. It’s also a game that plays much better than Steep, offering more polished and fun options for shredding some powder or going ludicrously fast down a mountain road on nothing but two wheels and a daredevil attitude.
Think The Crew 2 but extreeeeeeeeeeme. Say what you like about Ubisoft turning every new game from its studios into an open-world live service experience, but there’s no denying that the company at least knows how to create an interesting world to inhabit, and Riders Republic builds off of those strengths to offer something that’s both competitive and cathartic when you take the time to zone out.
What’s it all about?
As mentioned above, Riders Republic is a massive sandbox, populated with a number of sporting activities, and filled to the brim with dozens of players in any scenario. Put together by the same team behind Steep, you’ll be able to take part in skiing, snowboarding, downhill mountain biking, and aerial pursuits across a number of different biomes. Each section of the gargantuan map is connected and you’ll be able to visit places like Yosemite, Grand Tetons, and Bryce Canyon.
How does it play?
Really well! When you first start Riders Republic, you’re given the choice of either Racer or Trickster controls. Racer is the beginner-friendly option that gives you energetic control with more forgiving assists, while Trickster focuses on skill and control as you attempt to drift through corners or nail an impressive trick on the slopes. This idea also extends to Manual and Auto landing options for the various disciplines on offer, as Manual forces you to land properly while Auto makes it nearly impossible for you to bugger up a set of moves when you get some airtime.
Compared to Ubisoft Annecy’s icy sports game effort, Riders Republic improves on that game’s steep (heh) learning curve in the controls department, but it does so in a way that provides organic and easy-to-pick-up inputs. There’s still some work to be done in the controls department though, particularly in the snowboarding events where the sport just didn’t translate the weight and momentum of that event properly when you cruising through fresh powder or grinding rail.
Mountain biking on the other hand is a masterclass of fun, one that has a paradoxical familiar yet alien feel to how it handles when you’re gaining momentum on any of the tracks available. Hitting the brakes, sliding through a corner, and just blasting your quads while hoping that your stamina holds out, just made every other cycling game look like a tour de farce in comparison. As for the aerial sections, these once again required a shift in mindsets, and if you weren’t a fan of high altitude pursuits, chances are you won’t be for this either.
Still, if Disney ever wants to hire a studio to develop a new Captain America game starring the recently-promoted Falcon, I’m hoping that Ubisoft Annecy throws its shield into the ring because the rocketeer sections were some of my favourite parts of the game.
So what do you do in Riders Republic?
SPORTS! And lots of it, as Riders Republic is all about seeing who’s the fastest, most trick-grabbiest, or gnarliest person on any track. There’s a Forza Horizon atmosphere to the carnival on display, as you’ll be going head to head with players and AI opponents, completing challenges and unlocking new gear and cosmetics along the way. Each career can be completed with up to five other players in co-op or on your own. A number of PvP challenges put you up against human players and their ghosts, but the real main event are the Mass Races of Riders Republic.
These are simply massive meat grinders, races with 50+ opponents where you take part in multiple sports across three races. The caveat here is that on PS4 and Xbox One, these races are limited to around 20 players, but on PC and current-gen, the massive bump in athletes makes for a mad scrap to the finish line. Whoever gets the highest score from the three races, wins the overall event and when you throw in human players as experienced in the beta, it’s pure chaos.
But the good kind of chaos, helped by collisions being turned off for a few seconds once the race begins so that you don’t have to worry about causing an unholy fusion of digital flesh and outdoor equipment when you bump into other ghosts. Combined with sprawling courses, these Mass Races show Riders Republic off at its very and most energetic best, especially when you need to start keeping eyes in the back of your head to prevent any pile-ups once the collision physics are switched back on.
At the same time, the Zen mode moments of Riders Republic captured most of my attention, as the idea of cycling to landmarks and soaking in the scenic beauty on display made for a cathartic change of pace from the intense competition. It gave the game an MMO edge, and on PS5 at least, those landscapes were breathtaking to absorb and marvel at.
Who is Riders Republic for?
One of my big takeaways from starting Riders Republic was that the game has very “How do you do fellow kids” energy to it, an atmosphere of try-hard relevance that attempts to be a colourful blast of extreme sports that feels a bit disingenuous. I know I’m getting older, but the game has some truly cringe-worthy moments that make Gen Z kids look like pensioners in comparison. It’s zany, but there’s a fine line between capturing youthful energy and coming off like a mid-life crisis.
I’m confident that Ubisoft Annecy can eventually fine-tune that atmosphere enough to make certain that people don’t recoil from horror at imaging youth culture as being so absurd, but for the core meat ‘n potatoes? I’m actually surprised that it’s taken this long for someone to make an extreme sports live service title. Love ’em or hate ’em, the business model is here to stay, and Ubisoft is making a good first impression in this space.
The activities on offer are fun, there’s plenty of variety to be had, and the entire experience feels like an ambitious and youthful blast of positivity, leading the way towards establishing the biggest and first extreme sports MMORPG of this era. If Ubisoft can continue to build on this foundation, it might just be one of the best open-world experiences that it has ever created.
Riders Republic launches on October 28 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.