Ubisoft’s Riders Republic stands out among open-world games. If you played Steep, the snowboarding game developed by Ubisoft Annecy, you’ll likely be familiar with its foundational design. After a brief onboarding, you’re let loose in a visually vibrant social playground that showcases three extreme sports scenes: skiing, snowboarding, and mountain biking. It’s the lack of linear progression that elevates Riders Republic over all the other decisions Ubisoft Annecy made to make it work so well. The game has no mandatory challenges or win requirements, like Steep.
Whenever you find yourself gravitating toward a specific style of play, Riders Republic will respond in kind by constantly delivering new content. Once you complete an event, more events will be available across the map, along with gear you need to keep succeeding. My favorite events are ‘Snow Tricks’, which bring back memories of SSX Tricky as a kid, and ‘Bike Races’, which feel absolutely phenomenal. Particularly when the perspective shifts from third to first as you hurtle down perilous pathways; you feel a sense of momentum.
Participating in multiplayer sessions and completing activities earns you stars, which you can use to unlock new career tracks, advance sponsorship deals, and access more prestigious (and ridiculous) invitational races. There are also side objectives in each event – finish under a certain time threshold, perform a number of tricks – which give you additional stars and XP, advancing your career. When you reach the Riders Invitational and unlock the coolest clothing without microtransactions, you may need to stretch to get the stars you need. However, you can also invest that time in finding map collectibles and completing stunt challenge courses instead to earn rewards.
Of all the sports experiences packed into Riders Republic, I found Wingsuits a little unwieldy, particularly in races that require precision checkpointing, so I swerved away from them wherever possible. You may have to switch from your bike, to your board, to your flight at intervals during the same race, and these are generally fun. However, I found myself rewinding my racing line more often when I used Wingsuits. Although checkpoints in desert areas can also be difficult to read, especially at high speeds, I found drifting and riding bikes enjoyable enough to alleviate that frustration.
It’s always particularly awesome to be rocketing around in free-roam, only to spot hundreds of player icons swarming one area and whipping down to check it out. Social interaction reveals hot spots, discovers new racing lines, and elevates the game to something beyond what you’d expect from a typical open world from Ubisoft. It is impressive how fast the world streams around you, whether you’re racing or exploring on your own. However, I didn’t experience framerate stuttering. The fun 6v6 trick battles or the chaotic 50+ player Mass Races were not without technical problems. However, I experienced multiple hard crashes on Xbox Series X, forcing a full reset of the console and a re-play of some content.
The Riders Republic game may not be perfect, but it’s a hell of a good time no matter what. After working on Steep for so long, Ubisoft Annecy seems to have learned the right lessons and applied them to a broader and more free-form experience, that is based on the best extreme sports and racing games that have come before it – like Amped, Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX, Forza Horizon, SSX and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. Don’t let Riders Republic pass you by.
