Over the weekend, Ubisoft, a France-based publisher that’s been the subject of well-documented reports of endemic workplace abuses, held an open beta for the Riders Republic.
Players had four days to test out the game’s playable disciplines: biking, skiing, snowboarding, wing suiting, and rocket-wing suiting.
Riders Republic, the spiritual successor to Steep from the team at Ubisoft Annecy, builds upon the Steep formula with multiple new sports taking center stage across beautiful virtual representations of America’s greatest national parks.
Yosemite, Zion, Grand Teton, and Bryce Canyon are just a few of the sections of the massive map, and the landscape is dotted with landmarks you can explore to learn a bit more about the setting.
You can choose to play Riders Republic as a solo experience, but it’s worth checking out the multiplayer offerings. Mass Races, available once every hour, are an absolute blast.
You’re dropped in a huge multi-leg race against dozens of other players, and each leg of the race is split into multiple disciplines, meaning you’ll be transitioning from a bike to a snowboard to a rocket wing mid-race.
It’s absolute chaos, but provided some of the most fun (and challenging) content in the beta.
From the starting gun, Riders Republic is a relentless barrage. You’re constantly whisked from one race to the next. You unlock new equipment with every completed event—stuff that dictates how fast you are or how good you are at performing tricks as if the equipment is truly determinative of skill.
The game could indeed buck my revised expectations when it comes out in full for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC on October 28.
