for some reason?) – the world isn't all that engaging. While Rider's Republic offers a bunch of collectibles throughout its map – such as discovering landmarks or popping balloons (. Multiple biomes – forest, desert, snowy, et cetera – do a decent job of adding visual variety as you go back and forth between objectives.Īnd, you go back and forth a lot. Giant mountains and deep valleys consume the map, giving the entire game a great sense of varying verticality. Rider's Republic's map looks about as great as any other Ubisoft open world – which is to say it's visually easy on the eyes, but without much meaningful or interesting depth. Somehow, against all laws of national parks and state regulations, multiple states' worth of national parks – including Mammoth and Yosemite – have been reappropriated by the action sports industry for the explicit purpose of hauling ass. Ubisoft's open-world action sports game begins with a promising premise: you, a voiceless action sports aficionado, arrive at Riders Ridge, a mecca for shredders everywhere. But there are 500 mylar balloons.I have never hated a game that I also find immensely fun, but somehow Riders Republic pulled this off. The balloons are collectible, and if there were maybe 50 or 100 scattered around the map I'd try to find and pop them all. I'd spotted some little shiny mylar balloons here and there around the map, and I finally drove through one while on my snowmobile. I'm as big a sucker for collectibles as the next person, and there are a few collectibles I plan to complete when Riders Republic launches in October, like visiting all the landmarks and finding all the hidden gear drops.īut I have to draw the line somewhere, and I found out where. It always leads to wiping out in horrible ways, but watching yourself ragdoll down a mountain after trying to jetwing under a bike ramp is a reward of its own. Did you find a small wooden halfpipe? Time for the snowmobile again. Are you in the desert? Sounds like it's time to do some skiing. Snowmobile down a river, or better yet, up a river. On top of the tallest mountain on the map covered in two feet of snow? Perfect time for a bike ride. You can see what I mean if you turn on the sound in the gif below. It's a good time! The players will mostly miss the landing, leaving you to listen to their avatars yell out in pain and frustration as their bodies sail through the air and collapse on the ground with a crunch. Once you've landed, click the icon to get credit for finding it, watch the cutscene (or skip it) and then just hang out on the spire for the next few minutes and watch as dozens of other players (or perhaps their ghosts) try and fail to land on it, too. It'll make the rest of the sport more satisfying. And this is the important part: land on it perfectly with your very first try. Look for one on a narrow spire of rock or an unclimbable peak. My favorite sport is to land on an especially tricky spot where there's a landmark icon. Here are a few new sports I made up along the way. Thankfully, the Riders Republic map is friggin' huge and enjoyable to explore, and once I'd unlocked the jet-powered wings by collecting enough stars in races and challenges, I flew off to find something else to do besides just an endless series of races. It's fun trying to adjust from going off a jump with a snowboard to suddenly finding yourself wearing jetwings and having to fly through hoops instead of grinding rails.īut within a few short hours of play, I got tired of just racing, even in a dinosaur costume. Some races will abruptly switch from skis to bikes and back to skis, or sometimes even a rocket-powered bike. Jump into a race somewhere in the world, and sometimes it will have a theme: everyone will be in a dinosaur suit or wearing a giraffe costume or some other silliness. Snowy mountains, arid deserts, lush forests, cliffs and valleys, rivers and waterfalls, pretty much any terrain you've dreamed of doing extreme sports on, over, or through, you'll find it here, and it all looks pretty great. Once you've got some stars under your belt you're finally let loose in the open world, where you'll find even more races dotted around the map, which knits together American national parks like Grand Teton, Bryce Canyon, Yosemite, Zion, Mammoth Mountain, and more. Naturally there's a microtransaction store to buy additional outfits and skins. You can guess the rest: rack up points with tricks like rail slides and backflips, complete challenges (like performing a certain trick, finishing under a specific time, or winning the race on a higher difficulty), and you earn cash and stars, which let you progress to better gear and more events. I spent some time with the closed beta this week, and the intro immediately shoves you through a dozen races to teach you how to do tricks on a bike, skis, and snowboards. There's no shortage of races, that's for sure.
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