Ride - Maxi-Geek Review

Ever since excitebike on the Nintendo Entertainment System, motorbike games have always held a place in my gaming history, over the years there have been games that have released that always strived to move the experience of riding a bike forward, with Ride being the latest to try.

I say try because while the experience of riding any bike in Ride is really solid, everything else around it that is not so. From the outset, you are given the tools to build your rider as you see fit, the standard fare really, gender, appearance, outfit, but it’s within the confines of that system that some of the games problems show, which as this is within the first few moments of the game, that’s not a good thing. Whenever you select a new part of the outfit or style of face, the game reloads the elements again, which results in this pop effect, when things just appear again. It’s not bad, but it does set the stage for the rest of the experience.

The game does offer a pretty detailed tutorial that will help explain how bikes are different from cars, with elements covering a range of topics, but the voice over is really dry and so paying attention became harder to do. Once you have completed the tutorial, or skipped it, you will be dropped int to the main menu, where you can join the World Tour, have a quick race, race online or even customise your rider. World Tour mode is where you will do the bulk your progression in the game, with World Tour Events taking the centre stage. Here you are presented with 8 groups that will give you a subset of options to choose from, depending on the power of the bike, the style of bike, or even the heritage of the bike. The first group you will experience is the under 700cc class, which is simple enough to get your bearings while dealing with competition.

This is where the game suffers, the very first race I was in, I was beaten and I came in second last, with the only time I saw the leaders of the pack, being at the start line. After that thrashing, I went back and chose another race, with the result being the same. It was at this time, I thought I needed to practice more, so I went to the next event type which was time attack, after doing the same event many times, I realised what my issue was, I was treating the game as I would a car racing one, which does not help at all. So I went and bought another bike, a faster one and tried again on that first race and got gold. This was the pattern from there out, I would move to a new series of challenges, get a bike, race and lose, buy a better bike and dominate the event.

Which is where the biggest problem with the game lies, its balance. There were races where I would be in second the rider in front would end up finishing 20 seconds ahead of me, or where I would do it again, with a better bike and never see anyone in my mirrors. It was the same pattern each time I tried a new class, but once I understood that, I was able to get gold with almost constant frequency. Thankfully, racing alone was not all the game offered, there were variations of time trials, rival racers and seeing how many people you could overtake in a given time, the latter of which was quite fun. The rival racers varied depending on the bike I selected, sometimes, it would take me a minute to catch them, other times only seconds.

All the race types results in your earning reputation and credits, the latter of which allows you to purchase new gear for your rider, or new bikes, the former however is what gets you progress on the world rankings. As you move up the rankings, you will unlock elite challenges, which will reward you with a variety of bikes when you win. While you can get the first one pretty easily, unlocking the final elite challenge requires you to be number 1 on the world ranking, which means playing the game a lot. But as I said at the start, the actual riding the bike is really well done, the presentation not so much.

When you are making your way down a straight, watching the stands or tree whoosh by you, the sense of speed is amazing, but when you slow down to take the corner, you will see just how uneven things are in the looks department. The game was meant to be played at speed, going anything other than fast shows the murky textures or seems between them, heck even the bikes can get the rough end of the stick here, chrome elements can sometimes be beautiful and others are a mess. Worse still is the crowd, the faces of members of the crowd feel like they were taken from Goldeneye, they are blocky and rough and they have animation to match. I know what you are thinking, but in a game where riding the bike is key, what does it matter if the crowds are not the best, the problem is, that the crowds are in focus before races and when you end one.

The music is a real miss, there is no licenced songs to hear off throughout the game and even when you are cruising around, the music will sometimes play at a much faster pace, which does not match. The bikes themselves sound pretty nice, with the level changing depending on your camera view, sitting inside the helmet, you get a more muffled sound, then if you were right behind the bike. As noted before as well, the voice that describes each of the classes and tutorials is very boring, but for the amount you hear it, does not really impact the game that much. Even the track based noises are a little underwhelming, your meant to be gaining reputation, making your way up the ladder, but when you win, the sounds from the crowd are no different than if you came dead last.


Overall, Ride is a game of solid gameplay, pretty mediocre everything else, the handling of the bikes, even more so at the higher speeds, is a game of tension and elation, which balances out to be fun, but with the lack of polish on the presentation as a whole, it is held back.

Thanks to Milestone for supplying the game for review.