Ah, the great outdoors. How long has the pandemic prevented us from enjoying the extreme sports that we used to do way, way back? Thankfully, we can now experience the country's National Parks without having to step foot outside. With Ubisoft's latest Original, Riders Republic, we can explore some of the most famous US National Parks, compete in extreme sports events, and socialize with fellow riders. But is Riders Republic any good? Find out in our Riders Republic review.
Note: A review copy has been provided by the publisher for this review. The publisher has not seen this article's content before publication. This review is based on a PS5 copy of the game.
What is Riders Republic?
Riders Republic is an open-world massively multiplayer online extreme sports game developed by Ubisoft Annecy and Ubisoft Milan, and published by Ubisoft. After multiple trial runs, beta tests, and open house events, the game came out on October 28, 2021, on PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Google Stadia, and Amazon Luna.
Gameplay
Riders Republic at its core is an extreme sports game. It features six different sports: bike racing, bike tricks, skiing, snowboarding, snowboarding tricks, and wingsuit flying. The game's career mode revolves around these six different sports. The main point of Riders Republic is competing in different events, where up to 64 players can compete together at the same time. Once you win in these events, you'll start unlocking bigger events, including the game's ultimate event: the Riders Ridge Invitational. Along the way, you'll unlock new gear and rides, cosmetics, and sponsors.
At this point, it's worth noting that the game is more arcade than simulation. However, this doesn't mean that realism is absolutely thrown out of the window. All of the extreme sports featured in the game have similar controls, which makes it easy to seamlessly shift from one gear to another. The controls are simple: you have a button to ride, a button to break, a button for sprinting, and a couple of buttons for tricks. They are very easy to learn, and not so deep to get you drowning in a plethora of control techniques. There are also computer-assisted controls such as auto landings which makes the game more accessible. These computer-assisted controls can be turned off anytime you like, which can give you more control over your movement for satisfying tricks and higher points in trick competitions. The controls are tight but forgiving, with a rewind feature built-in for every time you crash or get off-track. This reduces the punishment for failed tricks, but what's important for Riders Republic is for you to keep your momentum and ride fast all the time. All of these culminate to the Riders Ridge Invitational, which involves a series of races all rolled into one event, where you'll change gears – say from biking to wingsuit action – at different points of the race. All of these events are fun to play, very accessible and forgiving, with a lot of challenges and times to beat for those who are looking for an extra challenge.
The game's career mode will first introduce you to biking events, and each of the other sports will be unlocked as you progress through the game. It will take you about an hour or two, depending on how well you perform in different events, before you unlock all of the different sports the game offers. That means you'll be stuck with biking around the Sequioa before you can start wingsuiting around the map. But you can also go straight to the game's Zen Mode, a sort of free-roam gameplay mode, where all of the game's vehicles – including some vehicles that aren't available in any of the sports events like the rocket ski and the snowmobile – are unlocked right off the bat. These additional vehicles give you more variety on how to traverse, which even includes a jetpack that really eases your exploration of the world late into the game.
Which brings us to the game's open-world. The game uses topographical information from GPS data to render a map that seamlessly weaves seven different US National Parks into one huge map. Let me tell you – this map is massive. However, never in our entire gameplay did we ever feel lazy going from one end to another point. For one, there's fast travel. But the aforementioned vehicles available to you to explore the landscape makes traversing really fun. Even if, say, you won't love the game itself, it'll make you wish that all open-world games was this fun to explore. The vehicles really do make exploring a lot easier, and we sort of wish that all of Ubisoft's open-world games in the future would have these. This is how you make exploring an open-world fun.
The open-world is also filled with different collectibles for you to find and complete. There are hundreds, in fact. Apart from these, the open-world is also littered with different events.
As for the game's social aspect, there's a social hub called the Rider's Ridge located at the center of the Sequioa, where the player can find the game's cosmetics shop, along with other fun activities you can partake of. But outside Rider's Ridge, you'll find other live players (or for most instances, their pre-recorded ghosts) riding all throughout the landscape. Even though most of them are ghosts – recorded paths of other players uploaded to the cloud and downloaded to your game – they still make the world feel populated. Even while you're racing downhill over at the Yosemite, you can also sometimes see other riders who are not part of the race riding up and down the area.
The overall experience comes together as an exhilarating ride that never hits the brakes. The game's initial tutorial may feel sluggish, but it's a necessary step to onboard you on the game's different offerings. But once you get over the initial hump, the game will rarely slow down on you. It's all fun and games from here on out.
Story
For a game all about having tons of fun, Riders Republic rightfully takes itself easy. Being an arcade game, it doesn't take itself too seriously. You are a new rider arriving at the Riders Ridge, and it's your objective to become the best rider in the world. To do that, you'll have to master all of the six extreme sports in the game, proving yourself through different events and trials.
The story, of course, is not the game's main focus. Still, the game has a fun cast of characters that are somewhat endearing if not too cheesy. It's like being part of a large outdoor frat house – everyone's set to party and everyone's supportive of your goal, helping you at every step of the way.
The game's story progresses as you complete major milestone events, all leading to the Riders Ridge Invitational, where you will eventually claim the crown. But even after finishing the story, the game doesn't end there. You're free to explore the open world all you want, find collectibles, join new events, and even compete with other riders.
Graphics
The game is gorgeous on the PS5. Taken as a whole, Riders Republic is a sight to behold. However, there are several locations that look too bare, and some assets have rough texture details. These are easy to miss, thanks to the game's speed, but anyone stopping for a moment to take in the scenery might end up frowning in the end when they start noticing these jagged-looking objects. The biggest offenders are the shrubberies that look completely ragged, along with some trees that have noticeably pixelated foliage.
The game's art direction, however, really carries the fun on the visuals. It's a colorful world, especially in the events, and is also apparent in the game's cosmetics and skins for your vehicles. Character design is so and so, but that's barely important for a game like this.
Music and Sound Design
Music is appropriately upbeat. The game's sound design help keep the momentum up and make you feel like you're really riding downhill a steep cliff. What can be said about the game's sound design is it appropriately matches the game's high energy. A game like this can easily fail if the sound design doesn't match. Thankfully, it's superbly implemented in Rider's Republic.
Accessibility
The game's controls are very accessible for pick up and play, with a lot of different options to cater to beginners, casual players, and tryhards. In terms of accessibility options, the game also has a lot to offer – colorblind modes, text-to-speech, language options, subtitles, and menu-to-speech options are all available. The game even starts by bringing you to the accessibility options menu, with menu-to-speech enabled by default. The only accessibility issue the game has is its always-online connectivity, so your access to some game modes will be limited when you're offline.
Verdict – Is Riders Republic worth your time and money?
All of these different aspects of the game make Riders Republic feel very unique and exciting. There are a lot of things to do in the game and different ways to do them. Collectibles are littered about for completionists, and challenges abound for skillful players. But at its core is an exhilarating experience that never slows down. It's a fun experience unlike any other. And, dare we say, Riders Republic nails all of the requirements for a good open-world game, a good MMO, and a good live-service game. With the promise of future content updates, it feels like Riders Republic is going to be a favorite pastime for many of us – extreme sports fan or not. Now, we only need to see if a community will actually form around this game to enable even more content to arrive eventually.
Score: 9/10
If you found our Riders Republic review helpful and feel that the game is for you, you can purchase Riders Republic for the PS5 and Xbox Series X using our affiliate links. Clicking the links and purchasing from the website may result in ClutchPoints receiving monetary compensation.
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