Riders Republic is the next game from the makers of Steep, coming out February 2021

Steep developer Ubisoft Annecy have taken the wraps off a new extreme sports extravaganza: Rides Republic. The game will be out for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X | S, Xbox One, PC and Stadia on 25th February 2021.

The game is all about creating a huge free roam world for you to play around in, mashing together iconic American national parks including Bryce Canyon, Yosemite Valley, Sequoia Park, Zion, Canyonlands, Mammoth Mountain and Grand Teton.

You’ll be able to take on a number of different modes of transport, from wingsuit-gliding, to snowboarding on the peaks, dirt biking through the canyons, and more. That will all be wrapped up in downhill races, team competitions online, or simply massive 50-player PvP races.

The game will be built around a number of online modes, though co-op and solo play are there in addition to the large-scale head to head mode. These include:

  • Competitive races and trick challenges: playable in PvP / Co-op / Solo
  • Mass Starts: frantic 50+ player races where nothing is off limits(1)
  • Community Jams: Wild 50+ player events which randomly pop up on the map(1)
  • Multiplayer arenas: 6×6 team PvP matchups
  • Online Cups: for the very best only, make your way up the leaderboard

On next-gen platforms, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X | S, the game will run at 60FPS while simultaneously displaying 50 players on screen. It’s not clear if that benefit will also be shared with the Google Stadia version of the game, but you’d have to hope so!

Looking back at Ubisoft Annecy’s 2016 game Steep, Jim gave the game a respectable 7/10 before Ubisoft Annecy threw more and more content into the game over the following years. Our Steep review said:

“The game works best in how it empowers you to toggle between idle exploration and obsessive score chasing whenever it suits you. However, as time drags on, if that drive to make headway begins to wane, there’s little else to keep players hooked. Then, of course, there’s the ridiculous online-only policy that is bound to frustrate, adding a completely expendable layer to the year’s best winter sports game.”

Winter sports, no more, but Riders Republic looks like it will build on a lot of lot they learnt from that game.

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I'm probably wearing toe shoes, and there's nothing you can do to stop me!

1 Comment

  1. Facepalm

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