Reviews// Ridge Racer Unbounded

The cars handle nicely, most of the time. But then just sometimes they handle so unpredictably, so unexpectedly that you end up jack-knifing into a shopfront, despite the fact that you have taken this corner EXACTLY like the last fifteen, all of which you aced. And since the rubber banding is non-existent, you go from contention to 20 seconds behind in the crash of an eye.

But none of this was enough to deter me. And the thing is, you don't NEED to win races to progress in RRU. Even if you don't get the required podium place to "complete" an event, you can still win a good number of points in failure. And those points will enable you to level up, thus unlocking new cars, tracks and city blocks - which are used for building your own tracks.

There are several game modes, from the basic Domination Race, which requires you to come first, but enables you to smash through targets, demolish scenery and take down (Frag) your opponents cars on the way. You destroy other items by hitting them while using "Power" - a kind of boost earned by drifting, drafting and smashing deformable "collateral" objects.

Shindo Racing Mode is a more pure form of racing, with all the drifting, drafting and overtaking, but without the "Power" boost.

Drift Attack is a solo challenge, that sees you earn points by drifting cleanly, against the clock. Frag attack is a rip of Burnout's Takedown Challenge, and requires you to ram as many cop cars off the road as possible in a set time.

The most interesting mode, Time Attack, requires you to use your car on a pinball table like track to collect time extension tokens and complete the track in a given time.

All the modes are fun, and all of them give you points that contribute to your level ups. But the Drift Attack, Frag Attack and Shindo Racing also provide excellent training that can be put to use in the Domination Races that form the meat of the game.

I found that I started to win Shindo races first, and then used the skills I learned there to begin to win Domination races. Then I used the faster cars I unlocked to go back and win more races, or improve my results in ones I had already completed, but not dominated.

It's slow progress, and it is frustrating. But it's also fun. It is fast and challenging and it is compelling. It's Easter weekend now, and I'll be taking the RRU disc home with me for a good session over the holidays.

Once you have mastered Shatter City, you can begin building your own levels, using a simple and intuitive grid based track editor. Share those levels with the on-line community, and play theirs. As a result, there is a potentially infinite game world out there for you to explore.

RRU is Ridge Racer like never before, for some that will be a good thing, for others it will be a tragedy. But the previous games had gone about as far as they could and were beginning to plough a rut.

RRU jumps out of that rut and marks a dynamic and creative (if not exactly innovative) new start for the series. Much of it is borrowed from Burnout, the difficulty curve is wrong and frustrating, and the lack of local two-player prevents the game getting the 9/10 it would have otherwise deserved. Despite its failings though, Ridge Racer Unbounded is bizarrely addictive.

Pros
+ Beautiful looking
+ Massive on-line potential
+ Strangely addictive

Cons
- Tricky and inconsistent handling
- Ridiculously difficult AI opponents
- No local multi-player modes

SPOnG Score 7/10