Riders Republic Review (Uplay/PC)

by Jim Smale · February 7, 2022

For this Riders Republic Review, we Jump into the Riders Republic massive multiplayer playground! Grab your skis, snowboard, bike, or wingsuit and explore an open world sports paradise where the rules are yours to break. Immerse yourself in iconic American national parks including Bryce Canyon, Yosemite Valley, Mammoth Mountain… all mashed up for you to shred!

Riders Republic Review Pros:

Decent graphics.
19.20GB download size.
Uplay achievements.
Uplay Connect with rewards and challenges.
Full controller support.
Crossplay support is optional.
Accessibility options – menu narration, Colourblind, social presence, chat text to speech, and chat speech to text.
Graphics settings – benchmark, resolution, window mode, HDR support, contrast, brightness, v-sync, pixel scale, extended pov, refresh rate, fps cap, overall graphics quality, anti-aliasing, ambient occlusion, anisotropic filtering, and motion blur.
Controller settings – 3 presets, can rebind controls, dead zone sliders, mouse acceleration, swap mouse buttons, and keyboard mapping.
Steep controls and mechanics can be turned on.
Four game difficulties – standard, pro, expert, and elite.
Invert axis and sensitivity sliders.
Landing and grinding can be set to auto, manual or Steep.
Zen mode.
Two ways to play – racer and trickster modes that dictate how easy tricks and control are.
Character creator – male and female avatars, skin tone, face, eyes, hair, hair color, facial hair, facial hair color, and title.
Opens up with a tutorial string of the events and has you trying them all in auto and manual modes.
Social hub space with other real-world players.
The rewind system is in play.
Has a first-person view.
You can skip the cutscenes.
Events can be played solo or with others online.
Difficulties and modifiers affect how much exp you can earn in the event.
An open-world setting that you can freely explore by using skis or snowboarding or even a snowmobile! Get near question marks to uncover what they are.
Play how you want.
Very social with a lot of real-world players inhabiting the world.
Solo scoring system.
Set your own markers on the map.
Fast selection for switching sports attire.
Find landmarks and trigger a flyover of them and some background information.
Stars – collect these from events or by exploring the world, finding landmarks, relics, etc.
All events will have optional secondary objectives for bonus stars.
Feels like a sports version of The Crew.
Earn EXP and level up to get new gear rewards.
Every piece of gear has unique stats and an overall performance number. Gear comes in rarity levels.
Fast travel points can be found and used to help you make your way to events.
Arcade approach to the events and you do get away with a lot of hits and smash that in sim games would straight up kill you dead.
Rank up in each career (disciplines) to earn rewards and events for them.
Feels like a huge adventure playground.
Official sponsors and equipment.
Possible to mark/unmark objectives as you drive around.
Possible to change the time of day before an event.
The in-game shop sells a daily rotation of clothing for in-game cash and real-world cash.
50 player races along with a huge amount of players in the open world.
Battle pass-style reward system is in here with both a free and paid tier.
You can quit out of events at any time and go straight into free roam.
Full track and event creator, share and play everyone’s creations.

Riders Republic Review Cons:

The character creator is very basic and offers very few options.
The performance is a bit choppy.
Leans hard into the dude’s talk.
Forced cutscenes usually involve a video call.
It kinda just starts and keeps throwing map icons at you and chucking you in events.
A lot of pop up and pop in.
The handling for bikes especially is very twitchy and not fun.
Had the game straight up crash or lock up on screens.

Related Post: Model Builder Review (Steam)

Riders Republic:

Official website.

Developer: Ubisoft

Publisher: Ubisoft

Store Links –

Uplay

8/10
Graphics - 8/10
8/10
Sound - 8/10
7/10
Accessibility - 7/10
8/10
Length - 8/10
7/10
Fun Factor - 7/10

7.6/10

Summary

Riders Republic to me is very much a sports version of The Crew, you get to hotswap between the disciplines whether it be skiing, snowboarding, mountain biking, or flying on a jetpack?! You are in complete control of what you do and where you go in this massive open world. Initially, I thought the tutorial was long-winded and over the top but looking back it did do a good job of not only introducing the game but also showing the many ways you can interact with it. The game idea is solid, the progression is there but it is bogged down in a myriad of menus and map icons. I tried so many times to have fun but it never clicked even after hitting double-figure numbers. I would eventually get into a snowboarder event and love it as the controls of that, in particular, are great, very arcadey with fun courses and fantastic music but then I would go mountain biking and that was just painful with twitchy controls, bad course design, and noticeable performance hits. I appreciate what it is going for and for the most part it does it, create or don’t create a track and invite friends and go do stupid shit. If on the off chance you want to progress in the story or get the many unlock then the game falls apart with you having to scour the map for icons, a clear cut shortcut for them would have been awesome but instead, it’s a pain and one that drags it all out. Basically, it boils down to the game is not as fun solo, playable but it is really cumbersome and a menu heavy. Multiplayer or mindless entertainment is king here because you get a playground full of possibilities.