You can control the vehicles in each discipline well enough, but it never feels like it’s entirely fluid. In the least offensive category are the controls. And those choices stretch from, “fine, but could be better” to “why?” While the core of this is remarkably fun and solid, the decisions made around that core cause the game to stumble. That’s because Riders Republic pulls off a fantastic trick in the air but doesn’t quite land it. That’s the vibe I’m talking about.īut you might’ve noticed I called it a “near-culmination” earlier. It’s just damned fun to play moment-to-moment. And that world feels alive because it’s populated with the ghosts of other players, like in Playground Games’ Forza Horizon games. This is the right combination of vehicles and events of a blistering sense of speed and wild courses of ragdoll shenanigans and quiet contemplation of the world around you. There’s a sense of freedom in Riders Republic that Ubisoft’s various studios hadn’t really nailed in Steep or The Crew 2. This unique Rocketwing is a repurposed place engine. And after taking off the training wheels, Ubisoft starts to get really creative with the events themselves. You can just cruise around the world or commit yourself to one style of event for a few hours the number of bespoke events in each category feels almost endless. It’s a lot, but once you coast through the opening hours, it’s all open to you - and it’s a goddamn blast.

Each discipline also has a Funkies category, where you’ll get to play with the weirder vehicles like the rocketwing made from an old jet engine or a surfboard you can use as a snowboard. Within those categories, you’ll find different event types like bike races and bike tricks even within those events, there are branches like the downhill or road bike races.

Like The Crew 2, there are multiple disciplines you can switch between on the fly: bikes, snow (snowboards and skis), and air (rocketsuits and wingsuits). Games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Far Cry 6 trade on endless expanses, while Riders Republic feels like it’s just the right size it’ll take you like 10 minutes to cross from one end to the other. It’s a big map, but oddly restrained for Ubisoft. The environment tries to bring together all of the best places for the game’s many outdoor extreme sports. Riders Republic drops players in a compact mix of Wyoming, California, and Utah, stretching from snowy mountains to redwood forests, shining rivers, and rocky outcroppings in desert landscapes. Each two years apart, each another step forward in the chain. In another two years, The Crew 2 would add the ability to switch between cars, planes, and powerboats on the fly. Two years later, Steep leaned harder into extreme sports, allowing you to ski, snowboard, and wingsuit in the Alps. In 2014, The Crew asked players to race across a shrunken version of the United States in the fastest vehicles they could buy. It’s also the near-culmination of something Ubisoft has been chasing for years. The mix-and-match map combines California, Utah, and Wyoming to great effect.

All of that takes place in one world, one experience.

Along the way, you see other riders above and around you, effortlessly doing tricks or comically faceplanting into concrete. Taking to the air again in your powered paraglider, you coast over frozen rivers before changing to a downhill bike and grinding across a treacherous dirt switchback. You soar through the air, narrowly missing the treetops, and then land on an icy track where you race on downhill skis. Then, you take off down the steep mountain incline on your snowboard, carving a path through the snow before you leap into the air and unfurl your wingsuit. You stand at the top of a glacial summit, surveying the land below as the snow falls around you.

Snow stunts riders republic