Riders Republic is a lot, much like many other Ubisoft titles. This massive open world compilation of extreme sports, which may be as uneven as the terrain you ride over and is jam-packed with so much content you can see it straining at the seams, is the result of the collaboration of around seven teams under the direction of Ubisoft Annecy. Perhaps more importantly, it’s an extreme sports game that will topple over itself to provide entertainment value and guarantees that, despite its extravagance, you’re never more than a few seconds away from experiencing the raw pleasure of plunging from a mountainside. On the whole, Riders Republic is a fantastic initiative.
A portion of that genius may be recognizable from Steep, the similarly flexible extreme sports adventure from 2016 that served as the foundation for a large portion of Riders Republic. This is not as strange, with no spoken word interjections from the mountains themselves (at least not that I’ve come across in over a dozen hours of play – this is a vast, vast game after all), nor is it as focused, with a broadening out of disciplines to include bikes as well as terrain types that go beyond mere snow here. But it’s also wonderfully, delightfully silly—a playground with a contagious energy as you cycle down treacherous courses while dressed like giraffes.
It’s also aggravating, particularly in the beginning when the lengthy tutorial gets a hold of you and won’t let go for over an hour. This extreme sports game has annoying voice overs over the action, and the script is more likely to make you cry than any of the highest elevations you’ll be allowed to climb. It wouldn’t surprise me if the majority of players found the narration to be an endurance test too much, considering how prevalent it can be in the first hour of gameplay. But if you persevere, you’ll often see how ready Riders Republic is to move aside.
That’s partially because to the ability to quickly go to any location on the map and get there very instantly (on Series X, at least, where I played Riders Republic most of the time), and partially due to the ability to quickly switch between disciplines. In a glitchy second, you may transform from flying down a hillside on two wheels while wearing a wingsuit. Alternatively, you might launch your mountain bike over a cliff and into the blue beyond, then activate your rocket wingsuit and soar into the horizon. The act of sportswitching via the radial menu is as much a part of the experience as doing acrobatics for the more daring player; it’s stupid and ridiculously entertaining.
As with the heart of Riders Republic, it’s also a little fiddly. Three different control setups are available: a trickster that maps stunt moves to the right stick, a racer that gives you camera control, and a third that subtly imitates Steep’s own scheme. Unfortunately, none of these configurations is perfect, and the lack of weight subtly undermines all of the available sports. Though you rapidly get used to it, it’s important to remember that this is an intense sports game with a lighthearted mood. It’s by no means terrible.
The things that Riders Republic excels at and its pure maximalist enthusiasm more than make up for it all. The really crunchy snow that tangibly deforms while on a snowboard or skis, the wind’s whistle when wearing a wingsuit, or the lovely, smooth hum of a well-oiled chainset that goes along with a bike ride are just a few examples of the minute details that help sell each discipline. The recently added bikes of Riders Republic hold a special appeal to me as one of those horrible people who stuffs themselves into lycra and clogs up rural roads on weekend mornings. They don’t let me down either; there’s a surprising amount of road and mountain bikes available, many of them officially licensed from brands like Specialized and Kona.
More importantly, Riders Republic offers the peaceful exhilaration of a self-powered, two-wheeled excursion. If you take your eyes off the events, you may forget yourself hiking Yosemite’s summits, haring through Sequoia’s dense forests, or charting a route through Bryce Canyon’s jagged peaks while taking in all those breathtaking views. The best way to describe Riders Republic was as the Justice League of parks, with outdoor superheroes united into an enticing whole, as Donlan usually does. It’s an unparalleled playground.
Both calm and turmoil coexist peacefully in Riders Republic, and the way other players are scattered over the area gives the game a bustling feel. When you pause to enjoy the view, you’ll witness spectral images of other players face-planting into the snow after a botched trick run or swooping through the air in their wingsuits. This aspect of the game comes to a hilarious conclusion during the regularly scheduled mass races, which send 64 players hurtling down a mountainside in one big, beautiful mess. This is a truly connected game (sadly, you can only play it online; without internet access, you’re limited to the zen mode, which lets you explore the parks but can’t advance). More coordinated adventures are possible by teaming up with other players and traveling from event to event together.
Its offering is comparable to Forza Horizon in that regard—that is, as you pursue and advance in each specific profession, events appear all over the area. In addition to one-of-a-kind items like ice cream bikes, rocket skis, and other curiosities, “Funkies” also offers a Half Dome-sized mountain of relics hidden away in the park’s cracks and crevices. It’s sometimes overwhelming, as are many of the finest open-world games. However, it’s made worse by a certain level of scruffiness that prevents it from ever seeming entirely cohesive and by a certain amount of crap that seems to keep making an appearance. You can buy clothes for your character, but the way they’re delivered is confusing and almost offensive. You can only buy a few items each day, and the best gear is hidden behind real money that you have to earn separately from in-game purchases, which is just gross.
It’s possible that this is simply a given with Ubisoft open-world games, but it doesn’t exactly make it any more acceptable. A significant blemish on an otherwise excellent game, it’s an open world arcade extreme sports game with an amazing breadth and size appropriate for the enormous parks that function as your playground. The game is entertaining, approachable, and amusingly quirky. Although there are some setbacks along the route, Riders Republic is an experience worth doing because of the joy and vigor it offers.