(note: this review is regarding the recent open beta for the game, and not the full game)

do you ever play a game and say to yourself “man, this game isn’t bad, but I’m just having no fun whatsoever”? this is that game for me.

I absolutely loved screwing around in the Crew 2 open betas, but Ubisoft’s actions in recent years regarding abuse have kept me from ever getting it or any games similar to it. Also I actually kind of liked Steep, I actually found it somewhat enjoyable. So the concept for this game intrigued me: some mechanics from Crew 2 and Steep, just much more refined. And, I mean, it’s pretty well done. The world is well-crafted and the controls are nice. Biking with other players is fun, and I really like the sense of community that the massive multiplayer lobbies bring.

Too bad I absolutely hated basically everything else about the game, because it would’ve made for a neat week beta period to play a game I’d never buy. Everything about the story felt so… weird and forced. At least Crew 2 cut to the chase much quicker; I was stuck doing missions and not being allowed in the open world for way too long here. And, given that it’s Ubisoft here, everything feels so disingenuous. If any other company did this (except maybe Activision) I wouldn’t feel this way, and I know it’s a shitty bias to have, but shush. The events it gives you just aren't that fun, and the multiplayer experience felt way more lacking for some reason. It felt like so much was missing here, which probably makes it the quintessential Ubi game. Honestly, I just can't see myself going back to this game even if I wasn’t in the middle of avoiding buying Ubisoft games.

Still plenty to get done in the game but logging the point where the credits role. The game is a tonne of fun and there's no real end point in the game as riding around, doing events and trick battles dont really get boring, but there's a lot of bugs which can be infuriating, mass races suck and setting challenges each week to do a set number of them when you can't even control when you can play one, and then when you do get into one its just a total mess and winning without max level gear just isn't going to happen. Again its a lot of fun, but I hope they change some things in it as the game ages.

Handles well, even with the diverse range of movement types. They've made a decent crack at an all-in-one extreme sports game, not only with the vehicle types but also the huge, diverse map.

The main drawbacks for me are the obnoxious tone (think every annoying quip in an EA Sports BIG game, times ten) and the economy which just doesn't seem very rewarding.

I put a few hours into this and could see myself jumping back in intermittently, but it doesn't compel me to keep going right now.

This is a game that is best played over a long period of time. In this manner some of the game's biggest falts tend to fade away(gameplay events all feel pretty samey). The magic for me in this game was exploring the open world and seeing all of these historical landmarks come to life when cruising around on my bike. Some of the races/trick attacks really were fun or tested my limits, but hour 30 of the game is exactly the same as hour 2, with the exception you have better equipment. Biggest issue is I had a game breaking bug that I could not progress my way around it. I had to contact Ubisoft themselves to wipe out my save file to start over as there was no way for me to do it on my own. All in all this game went for quantity of content vs quality.

Marginally better than Steep, especially in the open-world exploration department with meaningless collectibles (seriously, pointless...), stunts and landmarks. But I still find that the controls are too janky for the racing, for example a drift turn will still send you flying off a cliff and those later events can be brutal for that, so I found myself going straight for the trick-based events rather than the racing. Much more enjoyable pulling off silly stunts.

Obtaining 750 stars just to finish the "core" game though? Rude. It takes a while...

Sometimes all a game needs to do is entertain you for X amount of hours until you're ready to move on from it.

I played Riders Republic for about 30 hours at the start of 2022. I didn't complete it or unlock everything, but the hours I spent biking, skiing, boarding around the map were satisfying, calming, and fun.

I might dip back into it at some point, I might not. Sometimes you just need the right game at the right time, and that's what Republic was for me at the start of the year.

For a follow up to Steep (this is basically Steep 2) this is no doubt the absolute laziest version that could've been made. Such an unbelievable step down in every single way possible that it's honestly astonishing this was made by the same team. Playing Steep I felt as free as a bird and playing Riders I feel locked down to a grid even when I'm hundreds of feet in the air. Even when viewed as a standalone product this in no way feels like a finished game. Completely stiff and lifeless. Don't even get me started on the like 3 year long tutorial it forces you to finish. I'll still keep going at this for a little while longer being I foolishly paid full price for this and there's still some content I have yet to see, but I doubt unlocking any of those mildly neato wacky vehicles will make this experience any better. Was really hoping for this to scratch the itch I've had for years for a next-gen Downhill Domination (PS2, 2003) but now I have the hives for it or just really ANY OTHER extreme sports game. Best to skip this or just wait until it's really cheap (it's a UBISOFT game so probably about a month).

Edit: Have about 10 hours in this now. A few things have gotten better (downhill biking is really a thrill in first person) but most things remain bad or have gotten worse. It's a UBISOFT game and nothing more than that. Though, the game does get 1000x better when you turn off the in-game character's voices/narration.

It really bothers me that this game has such simple yet fun gameplay, but really unnecessarily complicated progression and menus. There are so many menus and how you unlock new gear and outfits is confusing and as always feels like it wants you to spend real money. I think that going for the fortnite style store with availible outifts that change weekly was a bad idea, no one is going to be checking in weekly to this game to see what new outfits are availible to buy. If they have to monitize the game all they needed was some kind of medium sized themed dlc pack with maybe one new type of traversal and a bunch of interesting themed outfits every 3 months or so, and every other outfit can be earned in game at any time.

The gameplay is fun but nothing in the game is memorable, everytime you unlock new races and challenges the game will pause for like 30 seconds to slowly show you on the map, and every few times some random NPC will give some really cringey unskipable cutscene that lasts for like a minute. Why does every modern extreme sports or racing game have to suck so hard in terms of style and story. The only one to do this well is Driver San Fransico and Skate 3, which had a annoying opening, but after that the game didn't drag itself down with annoying 'characters' and the game wasnt about fucking social media followers, which pisses me off everytime a game has that as the players main motivation. All these extreme sports/driving games seem to revolve around some sort of embarrasing festival or event, including Riders Republic, (terrible name by the way) It actually makes me excitied for the new gran turismo, which is a series I usually don't care about, just becuase the UI looks sleek and cool, and it hasn't got this try-hard aesthetic sourrounding it

I miss skate 3 :(

Some surprisingly good mountainbiking and snowboarding controls pinned against the wall by progression systems designed to feel like a merchant is always sitting on your shoulder & peddling wares. The saying goes "you're never more than ten feet away from a drive-thru intercom". When the game shuts up & stops bombarding you with currencies/exp/bad dialogue it's actually a blast lol, wide mission variety and a world map that feels sufficiently frictive and challenging to explore apace. Rider's Republic makes navigating the range something of a Sisyphean task, keypoints connected thru hazy vertical infrastructure designed to jostle and jive. It's not Burnout Paradise levels of map density or flow but triple-a doesn't make games that lean or mean any more. If this wasn't such an industrialised player engagement mill I'd definitely see it further along, best in class downhill biking and some of these ski races hit those SSX notes.
The clarity of intent should be squarely on the thrill of riding, with the rewards being set dressing - but it holds so much back from the player that it feels like you're just grinding to earn the game's trust before it finally places u behind the bars of a new bike frame with +5 Stability and +2 Speed. Give me all the vehicles and unlock all the challenges on the world map from the get-go you cowards.

Tired of this nasty Fortnitepunk aesthetiq too man, the true measure of the wheelman's guile is their faceless peerless performance on the loam road, not the funny emote and neon bunny hat they bought @ the cash store. Every graphic designer on staff emptying their portfolios into a gumbo of oftentimes genuinely good illustrative work that just melds together all messy and mismatched. The soundtrack is kind of a secret bop though.... Chaka Khan blessed.

Generalmente muy divertido, aunque no todos los deportes funcionan igual de bien. Las carreras de bicis y de snowboard/esquí son divertidísimas, igual que las del traje aéreo, pero todas las pruebas de trucos y la mayoría de las de traje aéreo propulsado son bastante sosas.

El sistema de progresión es muy confuso y las recompensas, en general, son bastante decepcionantes. Consigues equipamiento que es mejor que el que tenías antes, pero es algo totalmente inapreciable. Tienes que creerte que es mejor, porque en realidad es una variación pequeñísima.

También es una lástima que la mayoría de opciones de vestuario interesantes estén atadas a un sistema de monetización espantoso y que las recompensas que consigas por jugar normalmente sean del montón.

Y no voy a mencionar lo ESPANTOSOS que son los diálogos, que sobran completamente y a veces son hasta incómodos.

Intenta abarcar muchas cosas y no todas le salen bien, pero las que le salen bien le salen muy bien. Espero que, con algo más de tiempo, consigan sacarle el potencial que realmente tiene. Que aprovechen más sus virtudes y dejen más de lado sus puntos flojos.

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Generally pretty fun, but not all sports work as well. Bike and snowboard/ski racing is super fun, like wingsuit events, but all the trick trials and most of the rocketwing races are pretty bland.

The progression system is quite confusing and the rewards are, overall, a bit disappointing. You get new gear that's better than the one you had before, but it's barely noticeable. You have to believe it's better, because it's a really small variation.

It's also a shame that most of the interesting customization options are tied to an awful monetization system and the rewards you obtain by playing normally are so average.

And I'm not even gonna get into the AWFUL dialogue, completely unnecessary and even uncomfortable to listen to sometimes.

It tries to do many things at once and not all of them stick the landing, but the ones that do are really good. I hope that, with a bit more time, they manage to make it live to its potential. That they make the most of its virtues and set aside its weak spots.

This was a game I was actually legit excited for when it showed up at E3 (I think) for the first time. I had really enjoyed Steep, so I hoped Riders Republic would be that but more emphasis on tricks. Needless to say, I was tragically disappointed. The game looked alright graphic-wise, but everything else felt like a slog. The tricks are weirdly annoying to pull off, every sport that isn't biking isn't fun, the falling isn't as funny, etc. This game is no where near Steep in terms of how much fun I had.