The game features real bikes from real brands.
Earning XP increases your level which unlocks more events for your current career, and new gear as well. The harder the difficulty level you choose for a given race, the more XP you’ll get. By earning two more stars, I was able to unlock the bike tricks career.įinishing races also gives you XP for your given career (you gain XP for each career track separately). Collect enough stars and you’ll unlock new sports and career tracks, and new sponsors (real-life brands that give your character access to a bunch of new gear). You’ll collect stars as you complete races, participate in multiplayer sessions, practice tricks at the Tricks Academy, and even just while free-roaming. Your progress through the game is marked by two main metrics: XP (experience points) and “stars”. Or, if you’re up for an adventure (and have some time to kill), you can always get there yourself, whether by bike, skis, wingsuit, or on foot. Simply bring up the map of the Republic, find a race of your choosing, and you can warp right there to get racing. You start with a bunch of races available to you in different locations around the game world. Given this is CyclingTips, I threw myself into the bike racing career first … which was easy enough given it’s the first career available.
From there you’re free to find your own way, dedicating yourself to the career – or careers – of your choosing. If you give me the chance to play as a green-skinned woman with pink hair and goatee, you know I’m going to take it.Īs you play through the tutorial, a couple of characters welcome you to Riders Republic and show you around. After being thrown head-first into a bunch of races that introduce you to the various sports disciplines featured in the game – bike racing, bike tricks, snow race, snow tricks, and air sports – you’re invited to customise your character, being as serious or as silly as you like. You start Riders Republic as a promising athlete at the beginning of your action sports career. But at the heart of Riders Republic is career mode and the races you’ll do as part of your career(s). In the game’s Zen Mode you can ride (or ski, wing-suit, or even run) your way around the world at your own pace, exploring, and taking in the incredible sights. That’s the iconic Half Dome in the distance.
Riding through Yosemite Valley in Riders Republic. There’s Yosemite Valley, Zion, Sequoia, Bryce Canyon, to name just a few. Riders Republic is set in a massive, open environment comprising seven unique regions, each heavily inspired by a US national park, with geology and biomes to match. Available on most major gaming platforms (see highlight box, left), it’s the follow-up to Ubisoft’s popular winter sports videogame Steep, which came out in 2016. Riders Republic is an open-world adventure racing game that features a handful of action sports disciplines, including bike racing.
Sure, there’s been the odd game here and there – the Pro Cycling Manager series, for example, or Descenders, or a cameo appearance in the Grand Theft Auto games – but rarely is cycling put front and centre in a game from one of the top developers.īut now, that’s exactly what we’ve got, with Riders Republic from developer Ubisoft Annecy.