Ubisoft Annecy just wrapped up hosting its short, but sweet alpha test for the upcoming skate add-on in Riders Republic. Set to go live this September, the new add-on will bring in a sport that arguably has been the most anticipated offering out of the already healthy line-up that Riders Republic has to offer.
I got to play during the closed test and I’ve walked away feeling quite pleased with what the team has cooking up.
Hittin’ the decks
The meat of the action takes place in all-new locale, simply known as The Deck. Located in the southwestern portion of the map in Bryce Canyon, this new area is a decently-sized skatepark that’s comprised of six distinctive sectors: The Main Plaza, The Deck Bowl, VANS Skate Park, Aerial Hangar, Containers City, and the X Games Skate Park.
Each piece of the overall park is quite visually distinct from each other, such as the Aerial Hangar which is a series of bowls, ramps, and rails that are all housed within an old aircraft hangar. The variety in design adds some great visual depth and the overall look and feel of the entire new area is quite clean, urban and modern. This is in stark contrast to the grungy, rustic feel of the BMX area nearby, Area 52.
All of the mechanics that you’d expect from a skatepark are present here. There’s a ton of rails to grind, staircases to hop over, bowls to flip and spin in, and so on.
While there’s no crazy scenery elements like in the classic Tony Hawk Pro Skater titles, such as grinding on a helicopter’s blades to cause it to start up and fly through a hangar ceiling, there’s enough new ground to cover, so I didn’t find myself getting bored.
On the other hand, much like the rest of the game, skating throughout The Deck was quite cathartic. That’s where the strength of this new sport lies.
Tricks mix
One of the best features of Riders Republic is its intuitive trick system. Its fluid, easy to learn, and rather forgiving (especially if you use assists, which I do). This makes up the core of its experience and so many events are based around racking up strong combos. For the new Skate add-on, this is no different.
There were five new events located throughout The Deck that were all trick-based, also showing you the ropes of how to pull off some new moves in the process. That said, just like the other sports, I found the controls to be pretty easy to get used to. Before long, I was carving up The Deck with little effort.
And, really, this easily became one of my new favourite things to do within the Republic—just vibing while pulling off some manoeuvres on my board.
The fluid animations and realistic physics all blend very well together here. To elaborate on that second point, there’s a certain weight to your character while skateboarding which makes the whole experience feel more grounded in reality, compared to a lot of the other sports. For instance, there’s a great deal of overlap between skateboarding and BMX, but here in the game, they feel notably different.
Perhaps in my case, it might be due to me having some high-level BMX bikes, but it’s possible to chain together some outrageous trick combos.
Meanwhile, with the skateboards, I initially found myself fumbling more often as my avatar was now actually abiding by the laws of physics.
I’m eager to see what sort of manoeuvrability that high-level boards will offer later on, but the starters give you a realistically limited amount of air control.
This certainly isn’t a bad thing at all, as this brings the experience very close to what you were expecting—the likes of Tony Hawk Pro Skater and EA’s Skate.
Dipping into the déjà vu
There’s no getting around the comparisons that will inevitably be made between the two aforementioned juggernauts. While they’re not the only other skateboarding games out there, they certainly do hold the titles of being the most well-known. I personally only have experience with some of the earlier entries in the Pro Skater line-up, so I can only really compare Riders Republic’s new offering to that.
THPS pretty much always straddled the line between being extremely arcadey and semi-realistic. Also, that’s whereabout I’d place the skateboard mechanics here in Riders Republic. If anything, it’s somehow even a little more tame than that of THPS.
For instance, you can start grinding on the lip of a bowl by pushing the analog stick forward and your avatar will then stick the edge of the board to the lip. But, I found that loss of speed was quite more pronounced than in some of the other sports, as it usually feels like the rails almost pull you along most of the time.
With the skateboards, I actually came to a dead stop. However, rather than my character just dismounting, I was actually able to have them hang onto the edge for a few more seconds and flip the board around, resulting in a bigger trick combo score.
Even while the grind is underway, you can flip the board around a bit to the point of a full rotation. This is possible with some of the other sports too, like snowboarding/skiing, but the amount of control offered for the skateboards is still good to see.
Overall, I’d say the two experiences are pretty close. More diehard Pro Skater players (the ones who can pull off those perfect combo runs) may disagree, but from my casual experience with the series, I’d say this feels like a strong alternative.
Detail work
Going back to the points on realism, one area I noticed is how the board responds to the terrain. For instance, stairs are a no-go, as you might expect. So, you need to dismount, grab the board, run up, and then mount the board again.
On its own, this is a very minor detail, but what actually made it impressive is that your avatar’s momentum is maintained after sprinting with the skateboard and throwing it back on the ground to mount it again.
Even the animation is pretty smooth and realistic looking, connecting visuals with feeling. Unmounting/unequipping most other gear in the game just has them ‘snap’ out of existence. So, the fact that boards are realistically scooped up and then rolled out ahead of the avatar is a clean touch.
One more minor, yet cool detail I noticed is that while grinding, the bottom art of the board will gradually get more scuffed. This detail is tiny enough to get completely overlooked, but the fact that the devs went through the trouble of putting it in anyway is commendable.
That said, seeing such a tiny feature like that added in while more expected mechanics are omitted is a bit odd. What I’m getting at here goes back to the trick system. While most of the flips, grabs, spins and grinds, and manuals that you’d expect are all present here, one key manoeuvre that’s nowhere to be found are ledge grabs.
You might be able to hang onto a bowl’s lip with the board, there’s no way to perform any sort of handstands like you can do in the Pro Skater titles.
Admittedly, it’s not that hard to overlook this omission; this could even be a limitation of Riders Republic’s engine, but I still thought I’d mention it. Wall riding and wall jumping are also MIA here, both of which were also key features of the Pro Skater formula.
Of course, Riders Republic is Riders Republic and Tony Hawk Pro Skater is Tony Hawk Pro Skater, therefore, only so many comparisons can be drawn. I can’t imagine the Annecy team was particularly keen on trying to emulate the formula of any other series, so credit is given where it’s due. It’s certainly due here, all things considered.
Ready for the rest
This short alpha test definitely has me keen to hit The Deck again come this September. Hopefully there’s a wealth of activities that will make up the repertoire of the skate campaign. Even if they do wrap up fairly quickly, the zen that comes from just pulling off tricks in free roam is an activity within itself.
On that note, one real area of concern I have is much like that of BMX, skateboards might be regulated to very specific parts of the map.
The Deck will join Area 52 as the largest dedicated skate-friendly area. There aren’t many other places to really get a lot of use out of either, aside from some small skate parks in other sections of the map. That said, both of these major areas are large within of themselves, but it is something to keep in mind.
I’m also now left wondering/hoping that the devs will humour the Riders Republic community with more skate-oriented sports past this. Rollerblades and scooters certainly do come to mind and it would be cool to have these nestled in the same space as BMX and skateboards.
After all, Riders Republic‘s biggest claim to fame is the fact that it offers a smorgasbord of extreme sports, so what’s a few more?
Either way, there’s certainly reasons to be excited for the new skate add-on for Riders Republic, just in case you were concerned. As long as its priced reasonably, this will definitely inject some new excitement into the game this September.
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