Ubisoft talentless as ever, tackles extreme winter sports with Steep, a bastard half realistic and half arcade experience.
Snowboard, ski, wingsuit, paraglider and more, well it doesn't matter, the move list for each is so limited it feels like Ubisoft shoved a leash up players' asses. Let's take snowboard as an example, if the game does not feature the crazy tricks SSX games offered, somehow it doesn't even allow to do basic and realistic butter presses on the ground. This right here, Ubisoft's incapacity to fully commit in either realistic or arcade, is the reason why Steep is a constant disappointment, a fait accompli which can be applied to every aspect of this game.
The G force system is poorly implemented, acting like a health system and supposedly making the game more realistic. From an arcade point of view, it is merely another layer of restriction on top of an already limited gameplay. From a more realistic point of view, one can wonder why this system only applies whenever it suits Ubisoft's mood, if riders are affected by this G force system, somehow it's not really the case for the rocket wingsuit DLC, oh yeah did I mention there were DLC for this shitty game ? Oh well, not a surprise anyway.
Ubisoft obliges, players are thrown into a vast map filled with points of interest, if some areas could very well resemble actual mountains, some others make no sense at all. Not necessarily a bad thing, however when you take in consideration this game is some sort of a love letter to real life mountains, all of sudden those fantasy areas look out of place and are laughable. To illustrate this so called love letter, I could mention a mission, in which players have to follow a random NPC while listening to an eerie voice reciting a poem about Aravis which is a French mountain range, sweet, but it doesn't make sense, 2 minutes later I'll be back on some JRPG looking snowy plains.
Execution wise, everything is painfully easy regardless if the trick safety option is activated or not. Between the most basic trick and an IRL Winter X Games winning trick, the satisfaction is roughly the same : non existent.
At least it is easy to play, easy to master and easy to uninstall. Which is handy, considering uninstalling this game will be the only thing left players can do. Steep is actually one of these games which require a connection, one day, Ubisoft will probably terminate its services reminding players that, from their point of view, you might buy a game, but it doesn't mean you own it. In other words, they will redo the exact same things they have done to The Crew.
Once again, barely surprising coming from Ubisoft. At this point, can't expect much from this retarted company whose treats all its games like live services, but only when it comes to pricing. Between 2021 and 2023, only one patch note was released during march 2023, however it is so majestic and full of wisdom I want to share it, quote : Connect client update, end of quote. A grand total of 3 words in the span of 3 years, truly the ultimate form of communication, congratulation Ubisoft your vision of what should be a live service is outstanding.
This patch note is, I imagine, related to the recent problems people encountered not being able to connect to the servers, at least that's what some recent Steam reviews indicate, back when I tried this game it was already a clusterfuck between Steam and the formerly Uplay, but with patience one could eventually manage to play this game. In any cases, if you didn't play this game, rest assured, you didn't miss much anyway.
In conclusion, less fun and compelling than the first SSX released 16 years ago, less realistic than Shredder which probably had 1/1000 of Steep's budget, and a total absence of ethics, no doubts, it is an Ubisoft game.
Snowboard, ski, wingsuit, paraglider and more, well it doesn't matter, the move list for each is so limited it feels like Ubisoft shoved a leash up players' asses. Let's take snowboard as an example, if the game does not feature the crazy tricks SSX games offered, somehow it doesn't even allow to do basic and realistic butter presses on the ground. This right here, Ubisoft's incapacity to fully commit in either realistic or arcade, is the reason why Steep is a constant disappointment, a fait accompli which can be applied to every aspect of this game.
The G force system is poorly implemented, acting like a health system and supposedly making the game more realistic. From an arcade point of view, it is merely another layer of restriction on top of an already limited gameplay. From a more realistic point of view, one can wonder why this system only applies whenever it suits Ubisoft's mood, if riders are affected by this G force system, somehow it's not really the case for the rocket wingsuit DLC, oh yeah did I mention there were DLC for this shitty game ? Oh well, not a surprise anyway.
Ubisoft obliges, players are thrown into a vast map filled with points of interest, if some areas could very well resemble actual mountains, some others make no sense at all. Not necessarily a bad thing, however when you take in consideration this game is some sort of a love letter to real life mountains, all of sudden those fantasy areas look out of place and are laughable. To illustrate this so called love letter, I could mention a mission, in which players have to follow a random NPC while listening to an eerie voice reciting a poem about Aravis which is a French mountain range, sweet, but it doesn't make sense, 2 minutes later I'll be back on some JRPG looking snowy plains.
Execution wise, everything is painfully easy regardless if the trick safety option is activated or not. Between the most basic trick and an IRL Winter X Games winning trick, the satisfaction is roughly the same : non existent.
At least it is easy to play, easy to master and easy to uninstall. Which is handy, considering uninstalling this game will be the only thing left players can do. Steep is actually one of these games which require a connection, one day, Ubisoft will probably terminate its services reminding players that, from their point of view, you might buy a game, but it doesn't mean you own it. In other words, they will redo the exact same things they have done to The Crew.
Once again, barely surprising coming from Ubisoft. At this point, can't expect much from this retarted company whose treats all its games like live services, but only when it comes to pricing. Between 2021 and 2023, only one patch note was released during march 2023, however it is so majestic and full of wisdom I want to share it, quote : Connect client update, end of quote. A grand total of 3 words in the span of 3 years, truly the ultimate form of communication, congratulation Ubisoft your vision of what should be a live service is outstanding.
This patch note is, I imagine, related to the recent problems people encountered not being able to connect to the servers, at least that's what some recent Steam reviews indicate, back when I tried this game it was already a clusterfuck between Steam and the formerly Uplay, but with patience one could eventually manage to play this game. In any cases, if you didn't play this game, rest assured, you didn't miss much anyway.
In conclusion, less fun and compelling than the first SSX released 16 years ago, less realistic than Shredder which probably had 1/1000 of Steep's budget, and a total absence of ethics, no doubts, it is an Ubisoft game.