As you can see, it’s a chaotic multiplayer campaign where players can choose from bikes, skis, snowboards and wingsuits, then enter races, trick competitions and other events all the way. The equipment (such as the bike itself) obviously has their own stats, so you may need to work up to the best ones on the way to career mode, or choose the right one for whatever event type you enter. Player cosmetics will also be available – we’ve seen a few wacky Fortnite-esque costumes in trailers – but this won’t have any effect on gameplay, so you can see as much drift as you want.
The game’s open maps are based on all seven actual American national parks: Bryce Canyon, Canyonland, Grand Tetan, Mammoth Mountain, Sequoia Park, Yosemite and Zion. “The world is built on a 1: 1 scale from an assembly of actual altitude maps of U.S. territories, but it is not an exact reproduction of every U.S. national park,” reads a small print on the official site. “We took some creative liberties to maximize gameplay opportunities and made some changes to these mountains to make the activities in the game more exciting.” Here’s an elaborate look at some of the gameplay, showing some of those juicy areas while some dudes talk a lot.
The multiplayer aspect of the game is really interesting – it looks somewhere between a multiplayer free ride in other extreme sports games and a bossy twist on the brand of pure chaos Fall Guys. Ubisoft has announced that you will connect up to 20+ players at a time on the Xbox One, but more than 50 on the Xbox Series X for more mayhem. In those large-scale, anything-running races, there are more streamlined options that need something more structured, including individual trick competitions and team-based multiplayer modes (one of which looked suspiciously like Tony Hawk’s graffiti). There will also be the Cup Online Cup, which will serve as a numbered part of the online online game as you straighten your content to improve your global rankings.
Riders Republic is coming to Xbox Series X and Xbox One on February 25, 2021.
