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If ever there was an an advocate for the inclusion of thorough tutorials in videogames, they’ll likely illustrate their point with Ridge Racer Unbounded for years to come. As much as we bemoan too much hand-holding in modern gaming, Unbounded takes the opposite route, leaving you to figure out its arcade racing mechanics entirely for yourself. It’s a game of incredibly contrasting experiences as a result, with enjoyment levels mapping almost directly to whether or not the controversial drift mechanic manages to ‘click’.Backing it up a little, Unbounded is a departure for the Ridge Racer series as a whole, with development duties transferred to Flatout creators Bugbear. It’s far more concerned with grime and ‘underground’ racing this time around, with the traditional rail-drifts and all-out acceleration ditched in favour of a more weighty, damage-laden physics model that crunches and grinds where the series used to gracefully slide. It’s a little bit Burnout, it’s a little bit Split/Second, and it’s quite the refresh for a series that had developed its own seemingly insurmountable stylistic trench.An orange glow signifies boostThe traditional singleplayer career mode is set in ‘Shatter Bay’, which is an amalgamation of locations that represent the industrial and commercial side of various US cities. Each of the themed zones is broken up into individual races, with high scores the primary focus for progression. As you accrue those scores your overall racer level increases, unlocking tile sets, vehicles and various other trinkets to play with in the track editor (more on that later).
About Genre Racing Rating Rated 'T ' for Mild Language, Mild ViolenceSummary The popular racing franchise takes a hard swerve in a unique direction with Ridge Racer Unbounded, adding a punishing. Ridge Racer Unbounded is a dramatic departure for the series, but one that's filled with some gloriously destructive, fast-paced racing.
Dominating races (which involves placing in the top three) unlocks new tiers and new locations, and the unrelenting difficulty means there’s plenty of longevity to be found in Shatter Bay.The events themselves are mostly broken up into four categories. Domination races are the most prevalent (straight-up races against up to 11 other CPU drivers), whilst drift events and time attacks round out the traditional pedal-to-the metal modes. Frag Attacks offer a bit of variety and the chance to smash your way through enemy cars to score a victory, but they tend to act as pallet cleansers, and are few and far between.The reason for their scarcity is probably down to the level of destruction offered up in Unbounded’s core racing modes, which do a good job of blowing things up during regular play. A large portion of the scenery in Unbounded can simply be driven through, from stone walls to metal pylons and fences - which creates visual chaos on practically every straight and turn. On top of that, performing drifts, catching air or tailgating the opposition gradually fills a power meter, allowing you to activate a quick boost that can be used to trigger environmental set pieces or simply smash (“frag”, in Unbounded terms) your enemies into next week.A fairly tame collision for UnboundedOnce you’ve figured out the power meter it becomes key to success, and knowing when to conserve or unleash becomes second nature.
Races become trails of high-speed drifting and destruction, with one set piece and smoothly navigated corner leading directly into the next wave of explosions and takedowns as you fight your way (literally) to the front of the pack. When it all comes together at the mid-level performance tiers and above, Unbounded is an absolute adrenalin-soaked joy to play, so it’s even more of a shame that a lot of players will give up long before they even break out of that first zone.The problems stem from two areas, both of which can hopefully be patched in the coming weeks. The first concerns the ubiquitous ‘drift’ button, which is never explained aside from a couple of tooltips on loading screens. It is, in short, the key to success at every tier, and it works in a manner that’s totally counter-intuitive to almost every other racer out there. If you tap it to enter a drift as if you were using a handbrake, you’ll end up sliding into the nearest wall at 100mph before you know it (at lower performance tiers anyway). Whereas if you hold the button through the whole corner (like a traditional Ridge Racer game, after all), you’ll inevitably oversteer and perform a 180.Turn into the corner, hold the button and control your acceleration before releasing the drift after the apex, and suddenly the game transforms. You’re now able to fill your boost meter and maintain a decent speed, and those environmental destruction triggers are within reach.
It’s not easy though, and each new set of cars bring its own specific timing and exaggerated handling characteristics to complicate matters. When coupled with the second major problem of absolutely brutal AI and an almost complete lack of rubber-banding (another simulation trait that’s weirdly included), you’ll find yourself at the back of the pack more often that not, with a slim chance of maybe making it into the middle.Fortunately, the rather wonderful track editor and online functionality mitigates some of those problems, allowing you to sidestep the singleplayer setups and dabble in races that are simultaneously more extravagant in design and easier to get to grips with. The track editor allows you to create ‘cities’ full of events, which are then uploaded with an author’s best time for other racers to pit themselves against. The editor itself is tile-based and easy to navigate (tile sets are unlocked as your driver levels up), but there’s a lot of depth there too, and it’s easy to get lost in the intricacies for a couple of hours at a time.Visually, it’s decent enoughOnline play is also superbly exciting, with the laser-like precision and unflappable AI drivers replaced with human opponents just as prone to drifting into a wall as you are. It turns the chaos into a much more exciting proposition with a lot less frustration, and getting nailed on the first lap doesn’t necessarily mean that the race is done. It’s basically what singleplayer should have been like in an arcade racing game, and hopefully what it can eventually be if enough people vocalise the same concerns.
It’s not that the singleplayer challenge is entirely unwelcome, but when you realise the fun that can be had when Unbounded is unshackled from that strict AI, it makes you want more.All of which makes it extremely difficult to put a score on the end of this review. There were times when Unbounded crept into frustration territory that almost saw it as a complete write-off, but perseverance eventually unlocked something special indeed. If they can throw in a decent tutorial and unhinge the AI somewhat, then this would be one of the better racers of the last few years. As it stands though, there is brilliance to be found beneath the weird obfuscation, but you’ll need to work for it. I thoroughly recommend that you do, however.Platform Played: Xbox 360. RIDGE RACER UNBOUNDED VERDICTAll of which makes it extremely difficult to put a score on the end of this review. There were times when Unbounded crept into frustration territory that almost saw it as a complete write-off, but perseverance eventually unlocked something special indeed.
If they can throw in a decent tutorial and unhinge the AI somewhat, then this would be one of the better racers of the last few years. As it stands though, there is brilliance to be found beneath the weird obfuscation, but you’ll need to work for it. I thoroughly recommend that you do, however.
The year was 1993. Bill Clinton had yet to define “sex,” Jurassic Park sat atop the box office charts, and Whitney Houston’s Bodyguard infused soundtrack was the top selling album of the year, back when people bought music on these things called “CDs” and “cassettes.” It was a simpler time.But along with hypercolor shirts and extremely bright and colorful sweaters, the malls of America featured a new game at the local arcade, Ridge Racer.
Since its debut nearly two decades ago, the series has been on almost every system of note, from consoles to handhelds to mobile devices. It may not carry quite the name recognition as other, similar racers like the Burnout or Need for Speed games, but the franchise is anything if not resilient.For the most recent offering, Ridge Racer: Unbounded, Namco Bandai handed over the development to Bugbear Entertainment, a developer that already has a fair amount of experience with racing games of this ilk, including a few rally games, as well as the FlatOut racing series. The result is a new feel for the Ridge Racer series, for better and worse.
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Welcome to Shatter BayThe setting of Unbounded is Shatter Bay, a fictional city with plenty of variety. You are a part of a group called the Unbounded that races around the city and—you know what, to hell with it, it’s a racing game. You choose your missions and go for it. The story is little more than an afterthought.The city though, is a character in itself. You race through several unique districts, each featuring a handful of race types that you unlock by earning points from previous races. Along with unlocking races, you also open up a huge assortment of selectable cars, many of which are unique to a certain type of race.
There isn’t a whole lot of customization, but there is a lot of variety, and the more cars you earn the more reason you have to replay earlier races. It is nothing you haven’t seen before in a racing game.As for the races, longtime fans of the Ridge Racer series are going to wonder where their racing games went. There is a very different feel to this game than previous Ridge Racer titles, even the very Ridge Racer for the Vita.It is a weird and bizarre choice by Bugbear here to not include a tutorial.
You might think that most racing games are the same—go straight, go fast, rubbin’ is racing’, etc., etc.—and there is a lot of truth to that. But until you understand how the game works, you are missing out on what makes this game fun. Drift-splosionThe drifting mechanic feels totally different than in other Ridge Racer games, and it will take some skill to master it. Your first races will acquaint you with numerous walls, as you use them to stop your skid. Shockingly, slamming into a wall sideways at high speed is typically not a good way to win a race. Who would have thought? And yet slam you will as you try to learn the finesse-based drift system.
It will take time.Once you do though, the game opens up and you see what it is all about. The game revolves around the use of a power bar, which you fill up through drifting and destroying smaller objects, which is pretty much anything other than walls. Once you fill your power bar, you can hit it and frag opponents by hitting them, cause certain things to explode, and create shortcuts through specific buildings. The trick though, is linking it altogether to create one lo combo that will keep your power bar at, or near full.The problem is, Bugbear offers you nothing in the way of explaining this, and picking it up as you go will certainly scare away many.Domination races, where you can smack opponents around, make up the majority of your time in the campaign.
There are plenty of other modes, but domination is where you will spend the majority of your time, both because they are not easy and you will find yourself going old school to restart the race after a few bad corners, and because they are the deepest and most engrossing type of race. The other races are typical arcade racer fare: time trials, non-combat races, and drift attacks to name a few.
Create your cityThere is, of course, an online multiplayer (there may actually be a legal ruling that there has to be a multiplayer component to every AAA game created these days—or at least it feels like it). The thing that sets this multiplayer apart from most other, similar racers is the level creator.As you play the campaign you will unlock more and more elements that can be used online to create your own track.
They are a bit limited, and the interface can be a pain, but there is more than enough to design a unique track.Once you have your courses set and verified, you can then chuck them online and wait for your friends to descend upon them like hungry piranha that have tasted blood in the water, as they—and anyone else for that matter—attempt to dominate you scores. The new look and feel of Ridge RacerFrom the first moment you fire up Unbounded, it is apparent that this game is heading in a different direction from the rest of the franchise. Unbounded is set in a dark and grimy looking dystopian city, which stands in contrast to the typical Ridge Racer levels. The actual graphics are solid, but with the new look comes a new thought process on the tracks.The tracks in Unbounded are designed very specifically for the style of racing Bugbear is hoping to create. The courses are tight, even claustrophobic at times, and harsh right angles are a common occurrence.
When you understand the way the drifting works with the power button, shortcuts, environmental destruction and such, it makes sense. But it is still a right angle in a racing game.The level design may be deliberate, but it is also unforgiving and forces you to play the game its way. This can make it feel a bit stifling at times.
That feeling is further increased by the enemy AI, who are out for blood and aided by a magnetic attraction to your car that will continually negate any real lead you have. Add in the power meter that your opponents also use, and you can be caught totally unaware as someone slams into you from behind and frags you.It can be frustrating. So, so frustrating.Otherwise the racing feels good and handles smoothly. The drift has a logic that operates outside of physics, but it is consistent and a deliberate gameplay mechanic.
ConclusionBugbear set out to relaunch the Ridge Racer series, and it did just that. It’s just a shame that they didn’t tell anyone exactly how they were doing it. Learning the physics of the game can be an incredibly aggravating, controller-smashing experience, but once you do, once it clicks, it will all make sense. It doesn’t all work, and the level design can prove to be a bit stiff and clunky—even when it is deliberately designed that way—and the AI is so evil that you may worry that opponents are plotting to leave the game and continue their pursuit of you in the real world, but there is a method to the madness.If you have the patience to learn how Ridge Racer: Unbounded thinks and moves, the new Ridge Racer has a logic and gameplay model that feels fresh and unique. Beyond that mechanic though—which is an admittedly major piece—the rest of the game feels very familiar.
The race modes are familiar incarnations of typical races, the progression system is standard, and even the level creator has been done before. But put it all together and you have a new and intriguing direction for the Ridge Racer franchise, which is older than many of the people that will play it.Score: 8 out of 10.
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