In this RIDE 6 Review, we take a look at Milestone S.r.l.'s latest venture into the series, which brings new gameplay improvements and more. RIDE 6 marks the sixth entry in the series, offering an improved Career Mode, more vehicles, and more. But do these improvements justify the game's price tag? Let's dive right in and find out.
RIDE 6 Review – What is RIDE 6?
RIDE 6 is a motorcycle racing video game and the sixth entry in the RIDE series. It is developed and published by Milestone S.r.l., an experienced developer with decades of experience in racing games under their belt. They're also known for developing the MotoGP series, so they're no stranger to modern bike racing game development.
The game feature will feature over 340 bikes (base game and DLC included) divided amongst seven categories. You can use these bikes and even modify them before heading out onto any of the courses
The game is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
Gameplay – RIDE 6 Review
I should admit right off the bat that RIDE 6 is the first RIDE game I've ever played. And if it's your first, prepare for a bit of a learning curve. The game does offer a “riding school” that serves as a tutorial. But to be honest, since I didn't know much of the terminology, I just learned the gameplay on my own.
To be honest, learning HOW to play the game was perhaps my favorite part of my experience. Watching my character fall off his bike and ragdoll around was really fun. And with the game's rewind feature, you can immediately fix any mistakes.
But fortunately, it's a lot easier to learn than other Milestone titles like MotoGP. And if you're a fan of the series, you'll feel comfortable with what's offered here. Overall, the gameplay experience itself feels familiar to RIDE 5, which is perfectly fine.
RIDE 6 also offers an Arcade or Pro experience. The former is great for players such as myself who never played a RIDE game before. Arcade makes everything easier, including turning and braking. But if you're a grizzled RIDE veteran, Pro will likely feel like previous games.
One of the biggest changes in RIDE 6, however, is the inclusion of off-road maps and bikes. You no longer have to race just on circuits and roads, but on dirt tracks as well.
The off-road racing quickly became my favorite type, mostly because I was better at it. But I also enjoyed them because of the course design and quickness of each race. Riding on an off-road track at night time with fans packing the seats looks and feels awesome.
But for classic RIDE fans, you still have plenty of familiar tracks. Whether it's the 24 Hours of Le Mans circuit, on an open road, or on a motard in a stadium, there's a wide variety of maps to choose from. Overall, RIDE 6 will feature 45 tracks (including DLC), so there's no shortage of tracks.
So in terms of gameplay, what exactly can you do in RIDE 6? Well, to sum it up, you can:
- Play Career Mode (We'll get into this later)
- Play Quick Modes (Single Race, Time Attack, Endurance)
- Buy & Customize New Rides across the various vehicle classes (Garage, New Bike Dealership, Used Dealership, Editor)
- Play Online in private or public lobbies (Multiplayer)
The Quick Modes are a great way to get into the game's controls and physics. You also have a lot of control over the course, weather conditions, and time of day. Furthermore, you can even control things like race length, your Grid Order, the number of opponents, and if you want different things like tire wear.
Overall, the customization in Quick Modes is crazy, and lets you create almost any scenario you want. Whether you play Arcade or Pro, you can create a real challenging race. However, Quick Modes can get pretty boring, considering there's very little sense of progression. But it is good for casual play.
The game offers not one, but two different shops for new bikes. The used dealership is a nice way for early-build players to find a specific bike for dirt cheap. These bikes aren't necessarily great (for the most part), but their price makes it easy for you to start building your garage collection.
The new Bike Dealership is where you really want to save your money. The bikes are expensive, but totally worth decking out with new components. Speaking of components, you can buy all sorts of improvements for your bike. From new brakes to new air filters to new exhausts and control units, you can improve various aspects of your vehicle.
Not every bike can really be upgraded. But upgrading your best bikes is definitely worth it. These same bikes can be used in certain Career levels or even online against other players.
To acquire new bikes, you need credits for the most part. Other bikes can only be unlocked by completing certain career levels or objectives. But you'll mostly need credits to buy and upgrade your vehicles.
Fortunately, I find that you earn credits very easily. Playing the career mode can net you enough to fill your garage with some sweet rides. So trying to unlock all vehicles and improve them is a time-consuming but doable task. But it's also quite fun to see your progress in collecting them.
Not only can you upgrade your vehicle, but you can customize them, as well as your racer. The in-game editor is pretty in-depth, and you can get sucked in for hours just making a new ride. Whether it's the livery editor, suit editor, or you just want to slap on some stickers, the world is your oyster.
Lastly, RIDE 6 also offers an online component to race against others in private and public lobbies. During my time with the game, I didn't actually play a single online race. But I'm probably better off, as I'd likely lose every race by a mile.
So, now that we covered the game's modes, how does it all feel?
Well, I certainly enjoy the gameplay. Milestone has racing gameplay figured out, and they have for a long time. And there are also a lot of vehicles and courses to drive in/on. Furthermore, the customization and upgrades give you even more things to work towards.
But with everything I do like, there is a downside.
Firstly, while the gameplay is fun, like every other sports game, RIDE becomes boring over time. Unless you live, breathe, and die on this genre, you will grow tired of the gameplay loop offered here. And while that tends to be the case with most sports titles, RIDE 6 is no exception, and tends to become more tiring faster than the average sports game.
The Quick Modes do allow you to create any race you want, but there's very little reason to do so. It's fun to create your ideal race, but even that becomes boring over time once you do everything you want. Outside of earning credits and raising your level (which can be done in any other mode), there's not enough incentive for me to put hours into these Quick Modes.
But besides Quick Modes and Career, there really isn't much else for players to do besides multiplayer. And if you're not a big online player (like me), then you'll really be limited to a few modes. Despite the vast amount of bikes and courses to drive on, I felt like I had experienced pretty much everything in just a few hours.
Perhaps over time, the developers will add new content, but at launch, RideFest feels just a bit empty.
Story – RIDE 6 Review
RIDE 6's Career Mode is a campaign mode in which you complete objectives to unlock more levels. It takes place in the “RIDEFest”, which acts as the game's main hub world.
In Career Mode, there are several “micro-campaigns” as I call them, each consisting of at least a few levels. And within each levels are objectives (main, and bonus) that you must complete in order to earn Stars. What do Stars do? Well unlock more campaigns, of course. You need a total of 4600 Stars to unlock the last campaign.
Each campaign also focuses on a different theme. For example, the Howe's Campaign chapter focuses on off-road racing. Others are driver specific, like the Guy Martin and Ian Hutchinson campaigns. Furthermore, you also get to try out all sorts of bikes across of a variety of maps.
Not only do you ride on different bikes and courses, but you also have different kinds of events to play. It may be a timed trial, a single race, or even a contest consisting of three races. Overall, there are six different types of events all dispersed throughout the campaign.
As you go along the campaigns, they become increasingly longer and offer more stars per event. Completing campaigns are simple enough, but trying to unlock every star is where it becomes challenging.
In terms of Pros, I appreciate the longevity of Career Mode. It definitely takes a long time to complete, offers plenty of rewards, and focuses on both off-road and on-circuit racing. It celebrates everything the game has to offer.
Furthermore, the inclusion of real drivers also adds an extra bit of fun. It's pretty cool to race against real racers like Guy Martin, Ian Hutchinson, and Tyler O'Hara. So overall, it's definitely fun and packed with content.
A nice benefit to Career Mode is that you can spend your hard-earned credits on new vehicles to help you beat certain objectives. The game does offer
But while I do like the way career mode is structured, it could have been executed better. About halfway through the campaign, I felt like I was driving through the same maps with the same vehicles over and over again.
Career Mode was also buggy, and cost me a lot of credits at times. For example, during the Howe's Career Mode chapter, I bought a bike from the Dealership, and fitted it with the best possible upgrades I could. However, when I finished purchasing the bike, I could not find the option to select it. Although I lost my money, I figured I'd try it again just in case. I ended up losing over 50,000 credits because of this, which was kind of a shame.
It was around this point in the campaign where I just got really bored. Driving through the same courses but with different vehicles at times just didn't feel fun. And I know that's what to expect in a sports career game, but other sports games tend to offer more than just a leveled-structure campaign style.
I also felt like the six different event types didn't feel that different. For the most part, you are either:
- Participating in a race (single or three races)
- Time Attacks
- & Duels
At a certain point, it becomes harder to tell the differences between certain campaigns. Some career chapters even feature the same maps as previous ones, making it even harder to make the distinction. Sometimes the only real difference is length of the chapter, or it may include a new event type.
While I applaud the career mode's length, I think Milestone could come up with new ways to make it feel fun for the entire ride.
Graphics – RIDE 6 Review
Most modern racing games look good, and RIDE 6 is no exception. If you liked the visuals of RIDE 5 or MotoGP, you'll like what Milestone offers here. Of course, you can't expect RIDE 6 to look as good as a AAA title with a massive budget. But given the resources and the time they had, Milestone did a good job.
Bikes look great, and the customization can make each ride look different. Speaking of Customization, it's pretty solid in RIDE 6. The game's built in editors let you customize various aspects of both your character and their bike. And with the game's massive roster of bikes to choose from, there really does feel like an endless possibility of creations to make.
Furthermore, the game's photo mode, along with its extensive tools, allows you to capture your best-looking (or even funny) moments. So if you're a digital photographer who loves taking pictures in video games, you'll likely enjoy what's offered here.
In the end, RIDE 6 may not be the greatest looking game ever made. But like MotoGP, Milestone does great job of creating a great visual experience.
Audio – RIDE 6 Review
RIDE 6 performs well in the sound design department. Despite the massive number of bikes in the game, bikes in different classes not only feel but sound different.
I also like the game's soundtrack, which consists of a few head-bumping house songs that fit the game's theme. The OST isn't too long, so you'll hear a lot of the same songs over again if you play a lot. But considering how fast the loading screens are, this isn't really an issue.
All the bikes sound fine, as does everything else in terms of sound FX and more. But the game does seem kind of quiet. A lack of commentators and overall dialogue does make the festival seem a bit empty. But that's not a big deal for me, as my biggest concerns were gameplay and career mode.
Verdict: Is RIDE 6 Worth Your Time & Money?
Overall, RIDE 6 is a fun racing game that offers a solid gameplay experience, but it's not a groundbreaking entry in the franchise.
While the gameplay experience is fun, it gets repetitive pretty fast. About six hours into my 20 hour experience, I felt like I had seen most of what the game had to offer.
The addition of Off-Road racing definitely alleviates some of the boredom, but only for so long. And the modes outside of Career (like the quick modes) just don't feel different enough to make them worth playing.
Career Mode's leveled structure is fine for a one-time play through. But I can't imagine many people replaying all the levels, considering how repetitive the mode becomes after a bit. Sports game career modes often DO get boring after awhile, yet people are always down to create a new driver, or team, or whatever they want. RIDE 6 doesn't really offer that.
The game does also offer an online component. But if you're on Xbox or PlayStation, you'll need to have an online subscription just to lose against sweats who've mastered the game.
In the end, I think Milestone has the gameplay down, but they need to improve the other areas of the game to make it a truly memorable title. There needs to be more maps, more variety in career missions, and just more substance in general.
If you're a big fan of the series, I'm sure you'll like what's offered here. But you also may feel like there hasn't been much improved since the last installment. Therefore, I find it hard to recommend to even the biggest of RIDE fans.
It's a shame to say this, because I do think Milestone is a great developer. They're capable of creating a fun gameplay experience. But they just need to add more to the loop to keep things fresh for just a bit longer. If you're on the fence, I won't exactly encourage you to hop over, but I won't steer you away either.
Score: 7/10
Editor’s Note: ClutchPoints received a PS5 review copy to allow us to cover this game. These copies did not, in any way, affect this RIDE 6 Review’s final score and verdict.
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