Riders Republic hands-on trial week preview: A freestyle sports masterpiece

Ubisoft is going to take freestyle sports and thrill on a whole different level with Riders Republic. It is an upcoming massively multiplayer outdoor sports playground involving five main activities. The game is being made by the same team behind 2016's Steep.

Riders Republic is going to feature multiple modes involving more than 50 players in a particular mode. They have also confirmed that this game will not be a simulation video game and will mimic real-life behavior involving different bikes and gear.

Currently, Riders Republic is having a worldwide time-limited trial week from October 21 to October 27. Players are allotted a 4-hour limit to test the game and its mechanics before officially launching it on October 28.

After spending a couple of hours in Riders Republic prior to its launch, how is the game looking? Let's discuss that in the hands-on preview.

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Riders Republic welcomes players to a world of madness

Riders Republic features a massive open-world environment allowing full exploration via bikes, snowboards, skis, rocket wingsuits, paragliders, and whatnot. The game manages to perform an excellent job in providing that feel and adrenaline rush during races.

The game has a trial week from October 21 to October 27, and players would be able to carry the progress over when post-launch. This time-limited trial week will feature all five career progressions and multiplayer modes.

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Gameplay

At the start of the game, players are given a choice of selecting control presets, namely Racer or Trickster. Players can switch between these two presets anytime they want.

Racer preset gives the player more comfort in keeping control of the camera and landing tricks, optimal for the race events. On the other hand, the Trickster preset provides a way more natural feel allowing the player to nail those tricks with maximum control and is optimal for trick events.

Preset Configuration (Screenshot via Riders Republic)

The controls also seem very fluid, allowing players to control their bikes or skis and perform the stunts/tricks with ease. The game has a rewind feature, similar to Forza Horizon 4, which allows players to resume from the point before getting crashed or in case a checkpoint is missed. This feature can be convenient if appropriately utilized.

It seems that the game has nailed the controls part and the overall gameplay features. Players will get used to these pretty easily as they are provided with adequately explained tutorials.

However, it felt a bit janky when the player crashed or collided with the environment.

Rewind Feature (Screenshot via Riders Republic)

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Career progression

Career mode in Riders Republic will feature six different activities, namely - Bike Freestyle, Ski Freestyle, Ski Racing, Wingsuit, and Rocket Wingsuit. Each activity will have its progression path.

As the players progress, important milestones would be reached, including invites from competitions like UCI Mountain Bike World Cup, Red Bull Rampage, and the X Games. Real-world sports sponsors will also be incorporated into the game, giving it a more realistic feel.

The final objective of the game would be to participate in the "Riders Ridge Invitational". It’s a multi-sport competition featuring all sports in one single event. This multi-sport feature can be compared to that of The Crew 2, also published by Ubisoft. This event will allow players to switch between sports activities at will.

The different types of career progressions will add variety to the game and will not make it boring. The six activities mentioned above will keep the player engaged throughout the game. The Rocket Wingsuit is a unique attraction as the player would compare itself to Iron Man during the Wingsuit races.

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Multiplayer modes

The timed trial week will feature four main multiplayer modes, namely - Mass Race, Tricks Battle, Free For All, and Versus Mode.

Mass Race

As the name suggests, it will feature races with 64 players participating to reach the finish line the fastest. The trial week has capped the limit to 32 players for better equity between the new and current generations of consoles and PCs as crossplay support exists.

Mass Race Mode (Screenshot via Riders Republic)

Adding this mode means Ubisoft is targeting fun yet competitive races and will require a lot of coordination in the team game modes. This mode might prove to be a selling point for Riders Republic as it is similar to the battle-royale genre.

Tricks Battle

The mode will feature 6v6 matchups in arenas where players will be competing to land as many tricks as possible, earning them points. The team with the highest score will win and help them capture the district, making them more points.

This mode also aims at competitive gameplay since it will depend on achieving higher scores to win and players have to use all the available skills in their arsenal to get to a good score.

Free For All

This mode allows players to challenge up to 11 opponents where a playlist of exciting events is played with rewards at the end. This mode is similar to GTA V online race playlists.

Versus Mode

This mode allows players to join five more friends in career events and form a mini-battle between them. The aim is to see who is the best in the group.

Multiplayer modes will bring variation to the game. However, it’s still unclear how players will react to the Mass Race mode as it will require some serious grind to reach the top of the leaderboard.

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Performance of Riders Republic trial week preview

The trial week copy of Riders Republic was played on the system with the following specifications:

• CPU: Ryzen 5 3600
• GPU: Gigabyte GTX 1060 6GB
• RAM: 16 GB DDR4
• Resolution: 1920 x 1080
• Preset: Medium
• Framerates per second: 60-75 FPS

Riders Republic releasing on October 28, will be available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, as well as Windows PC through the Ubisoft Connect and the Epic Games Store.