Riders Republic Reviews
At its best Riders Republic successfully captures the sense of adventure and risk-taking that make extreme sports so appealing.
A chaotically structured open world racer, Riders Republic feels like the free roaming SSX sequel we never had.
The story is lackluster, the microtransactions are everywhere, but everything else is amazing; it's like being on a rollercoaster ride every single second you play. Ubisoft put its heart and soul into developing every location just so that each race and each moment feels immensely different from the next. It's an absolutely thrilling, immersive experience that does well to keep you entertained for hours and hours on end. If only you could spend more time racing people instead of bots, then it'd really feel like you're working to become the amazing triathlete Riders Republic wants you to be.
It's not the prettiest game, with distant scenery lacking detail, low-res cinematics, and screen tearing in busy areas. But the dizzying scale of the world, and the complete lack of loading times, is technically impressive. It's also worth noting that you need to be online to experience the career mode and progression—otherwise you're stuck with the freeform, rather empty Zen Mode. Most people play games online these days, but if you can't for whatever reason, your options will be limited. It's frustrating, because the actual riding in Riders Republic is heaps of fun. It's just been packaged in a completely off-putting way. You'll have to decide if the cringe is worth putting up with.
Riders Republic chooses to offer a community experience in a universe carefully modeled to highlight the disciplines you can practice. Fun is the key word and it's not the few imperfections in terms of gameplay and graphics that should undermine the pleasure of discovery. If you're looking for a refreshing experience, Riders Republic is a title for you.
Review in French | Read full review
Riders Republic is a game with a glued-on attitude, alarmingly many sports and an overplottered world map. Even so, the game surprises great with great control, varied challenges and a world bursting with fun activities. The fact that we are also not spoilt for purpose with well-made ski, snowboarding and cycling games does not exactly make it worse that we get everything in one here.
Review in Swedish | Read full review
What a ride! Riders Republic gives you an amount of freedom that you can hardly find anywhere else, and lets you choose your own path within a happy community that's keen to celebrate your successes.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Riders Republic is at its core a fun game that only wants you to have fun, more than most games. Its UI isn't the best, and there still seem to be some bugs that need to be ironed out, but there are no issues that really breaks your fun all the way. On top of the gorgeous presentation, Riders Republic is easy to recommend for anyone with a liking towards a game where they can flip around three times on a pair of rocket ski's mid-air while dressed as a giraffe.
You'll find many enjoyable hours exploring, racing, and styling your way around Riders Republic. The world is gorgeous, the sound design and music choices are on point. There are only a few events that will frustrate you. Thankfully, you can mostly avoid these.
Riders Republic can be a ton of colorful fun, with go-anywhere do-anything extreme sports gameplay that is instantly accessible and appealing, all wrapped up in a tortilla of weird goofiness. Engage with the stuff you like, ignore the stuff you don't, and get penalized for absolutely nothing. Riders Republic is most concerned with letting the good times roll-and for the most part, it succeeds admirably.
Riders Republic tries so hard to be cool that it deserves a roundhouse kick to the mouth, but Ubisoft's technical chops come out to play here, with an enormous online sandbox stacked to the metaphorical ceiling with high-octane events to complete. This is a game that the French publisher has clearly designed to be built upon, but even day one, with its mix of disciplines and multifaceted Mass Races, it's an entertaining ride. There are minor niggles for the French publisher to iron out, and we'd recommend muting the dialogue, but don't bail on this if you have even a passing interest in extreme sports.
If you can ignore the game’s obnoxious attitude and in your face corporate sponsorship, you’re richly rewarded with accessible, consistently engaging representations of biking, snow sports, and wing suiting, coupled with a massive and literally awesome environment in which to compete or explore. Those that are into riding the leaderboards–or just playing with their friends–will have plenty of opportunities to fuel their addiction, but I’m guessing that just about everyone can find joy here in just goofing around in this expansive playground, at least for a while. Whether or not Riders Republic sticks the landing and stays in the playlist of many gamers beyond launch probably depends on a steady stream of new sports to try, and if an actual, thriving community pledges allegiance to the Republic’s competitive modes.
Riders Republic’s posturing is more than a little phony and the game may be a bit mechanically simple for some, but its playground is an impressive one. With travel still difficult, Ubisoft’s sometimes-breathtaking recreation of America’s greatest national parks feels like something to be grateful for, and this game’s wide range of activities and challenges means almost everyone will be able to find some way to amuse themselves amongst its peaks and valleys. Riders Republic is a surprising breath of virtual fresh air.
For lack of a better way of phrasing this, “Riders Republic” is extremely breadlike. You can enjoy bread on its own merits. But more often than not, just eating bread is a very sad experience. Good eating means toppings: olive oil with some pepper, butter, cold cuts, a bagel with a thick schmear — you get the idea. Likewise, “Riders Republic” is a game that cries out for some kind of second thing — music, a podcast, a phone conversation, whatever — while also completely avoiding the now-common language of tasks and chores that usually comes with “maintenance” or “podcast games.”
Riders Republic is the de facto ruler of extreme sports MMOs. There is no denying that Riders is one of the best extreme sports games to hit the market in a long time, but the massively multiplayer portion of the game could use some work. There is very little cohesion that brings all of the various riders together as part of a republic. Even the main story is solely focused on your specific accomplishments in each of the sports. Luckily, the game is still in its infancy, and the year 1 pass plans to add new multiplayer arenas, and a new sport, BMX Biking, which shows that Riders isn’t done expanding by a long shot. There is more than enough variety to keep players coming back and having fun for months, just with the solo and collectible game alone. If you’re an extreme sports fan, Riders Republic is a no-brainer. For MMO fans looking for more than a madcap mass race challenge, I would let the game mature for a few months longer before picking this one up.
Riders Republic is an extremely fun game that will definitely please the fans of this sports. And even as a casual gamer, this title offers plenty of accesibility options that make it a very welcoming experience for newcomers.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Riders Republic is the dream come true for the extreme sports fans and a delightful experience for those who are looking for a fast paced sports game with tons of things to do.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
A sports bike has two wheels, and wisely, instead of trying to reinvent those, Riders Republic provides players with iconic courses on which to ride its perfectly tuned bikes—and skis and jetpacks to boot. If anything, the developers at Ubisoft Annecy have gone to admirable lengths to make sure that nothing mechanically gets in the way of that fun. How odd, then, that so much of Riders Republic’s gameplay ends up bogged down under onerous checklists and thankless grinds that are the very antithesis of the game’s YOLO mentality.
Overall, Riders Republic is an incredibly fun game that's held back by its controls and the Ubisoft fanfare of microtransactions and content bloating. These issues can be fixed though and with players already being turned off by these issues, Ubisoft will likely take steps to address them - even if it's just tightening up the controls. Though Riders Republic is a thoroughly good time, some players will rightfully feel that its current issues may not justify the price tag.
Riders Republic is on balance a Steep on steroids. The latest effort of Ubisoft Annecy is a huge playground available to the player and in which you can have fun both in a carefree way and in a more serious way thanks to the total freedom of approach and the countless customizations of the control system.
Review in Italian | Read full review