After a couple of dozen hours spent in the Riders Republic, many races and championships, countless awkward stunts and falls, thousands of miles of off-road and a few unsuccessful attempts to make friends with random oncoming people, it's safe to say: this is just the beginning. The friv game is at its starting point and looks like it has a great future ahead of it. Is it cloudless? We'll tell you in the review.

Friv2Online portfolio already has an extreme sports game - Steep, dedicated to snowboarding , skiing, sledding, wingsuits and other traumatic entertainment. It's a great award-winning multiplayer sim, but since its release in 2016 , it's gotten a bit dated and the genre needs some fresh blood.

The development of a new project was taken up by the French studio Ubisoft Annecy - the same one that Steep did at the time. Using their experience, ideas, and ambition, the team has released Riders Republic, a game that spans far more sports than just winter sports , and offers fun and squeaky hardcore challenges.

It all starts with the arrival of our main character in a place where all extreme lovers flock. It combines the features of the largest American natural parks, and is divided into several biomes, where the sandy desert smoothly turns into a dense forest with centuries-old sequoias, behind which a canyon dotted with gorges begins, and then snow-capped mountain peaks can be seen. Perhaps not very realistic, but extremely exciting and never boring.

The plot... but who needs it in such a game? The name, character, past of the protagonist - all this is not important. The main thing is what he strives for: to become a champion in all possible types of extreme sports, to participate in unforgettable mass races and win universal recognition.

However, at the beginning of the campaign, you still have to be a little patient: a series of introductory videos will introduce you to the main characters, including an indefatigable guide to the world of racing and stunts, local ringleaders who come up with the craziest challenges, and other adrenaline-hungry athletes. The characters are exaggeratedly "cool", and their speeches cause yawns - as well as training tasks, familiar to me from the last beta. It's a necessary evil - not all players are as advanced as I am - however, when you want to get into racing as quickly as possible, artificial braking is annoying.

It is worth finally going out into the open world , as all doubts disappear. Riders Republic offers a vast territory where there is always something going on. Dozens of players fool around in the hub: they are looking for partners for online races, practicing tricks, pushing around the merch store. At the start of a mass race, riders who want to arrange a dump instantly rush to the place of its holding. And it’s worth calling a paraglider and taking to the sky, as your eyes will charge from the figures scurrying below - these are bots mixed with living people; you can approach the latter, try to make friends or challenge them.

The world map is huge, and to cross it even on a paraglider that does not take into account natural obstacles, you will have to spend a lot of time. What can we say about a velobike or a snowboard, between which you will also have to constantly switch during the trip - skiing on asphalt is still a pleasure. However, exploration of locations can be reduced by fast travel, although this is not recommended - the map is full of secrets, points of interest and bizarre side quests.

The fast travel points are arranged so that from them you can quickly get to the venue of the next race, and when you appear on the summer biome in equipment designed for snow, you can instantly switch to the transport corresponding to the weather by holding down the button to call the equipment selection wheel. Yes, you can change from bike to ski in a second, and it's extremely useful on mixed terrain.

However, if you do not want to explore the world, Riders Republic will not force you. In general, the game is very loyal to the players, giving them the opportunity to have fun as they want. Like the games in the Forza Horizon series , you don't have to follow story missions or complete challenges in all categories. I didn't like wingsuit flying (although it's clearly been improved since the last beta test) - I just ignore it and the game doesn't punish me for it.

Yes, it makes sense to complete all kinds of careers, but your progress will not stop at one moment because you have not completed some kind of race. Similarly, the project does not require finishing in first place in any of the races. You will receive a guaranteed star (they are needed to advance in your career and unlock access to new activities) simply for reaching the finish line - even if it is tenth, twentieth or fiftieth.

If you want more stars, you will have to complete tests during the race. For example, do not use rewinds: they are implemented in the manner of Forza Horizon and other arcade races , but with the difference that only your character is “rewinded”, while the rest rush forward. Or perform a certain number of tricks. Or use vehicles from the “fun” category, like an ice cream bike. Or meet the allotted time. In general, there are many challenges, and most of them are quite hardcore.

In particular, I was often annoyed by the conditions with tricks: the game requires you to perform, for example, a "rodeo" with a "can-can", but does not explain how to do them. Or explains, but in such a way that the player does not understand anything. In general, everything is difficult with training in the Riders Republic. The game spends a lot of time on introductory tasks that teach basic concepts like “pedal to ride”, but to master more difficult tricks than spinning in the air, you will have to go to the “Stunt Academy” and learn the movements, or use the poke method, holding down the keys and deflecting the sticks in different directions, hoping to get a cool move.

It can be confusing at times, especially when you go on cycling and snow trick rides. At first, your own impotence is very demoralizing, and this must be endured: with each new match, with each experiment, you will discover new movements and score more and more points in the final standings. Riders Republic fits the definition of "easy to learn - hard to master" exactly: here you can just get your star for crossing the finish line, but you will definitely want more. And to achieve more, you will have to grit your teeth and spend a lot of time honing your skills.

If in stunt races the friv game is able to compete with the best releases of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series, then the races can be compared to... well, I don’t know - flight simulators ? I mean, Riders Republic gives you that unique feeling of speed and that thrilling tension where literally everything depends on a split second.

It's like throwing a plane into a tailspin and getting out of it close to the ground - something like this feeling when I rush on a bike down a mountain along a track cut with sharp turns and studded with jumps. To complete the experience, it is worth turning on the first-person view. The only thing missing is the VR mode, but, most likely, only astronauts and pilots with strong vestibular apparatus could play the game in virtual reality.

Each such race is like a holiday; hooking an opponent smashed into a tree out of the corner of my eye while I rush past at a speed of 90 km / h is priceless. On the other hand, you can easily become the poor fellow yourself: the tracks in the game have no limiters, so flying out of the track at a turn or getting stuck between three trees is a trifling matter. If in car racing in such situations it is usually possible to quickly return to duty, then in the case of a bicycle or skis, everything is much more difficult - at least because the rider has a habit of flying out of the saddle in a collision, and the bike turns around for a long time and reluctantly.

Although the players are "ghosts" to each other, and cannot knock opponents to the ground, there is still a slight push on contact. This moment is enough to throw off the balance, and this is a controversial decision: Ubisoft should either allow full contact of the characters, or completely ban it.

This is especially felt in the mass race for 50 players, the beginning of which always turns into a dump. It's always fun to compete in a big triathlon, despite the fact that for me the race always ends somewhere at the bottom of the standings: while getting excellent positions in bike and ski races, I invariably fail when it comes to jet flying. knapsack - the price of a mistake is too high.

The lion's share of a rider's success depends on his equipment. And Riders Republic gives you a huge selection of road and stunt bikes, snowboards, skis, wingsuits, jetpacks. A snowmobile and motorized paraglider will come in handy to move around the world, and if you want something funny, you can always ride a children's bike or skis assembled from sticks.

The game generously rewards with new models of transport, and they differ from each other not only in appearance, but also in characteristics. And you pay much more attention to the latter: if at first the new bike has a meager increase in power compared to the previous one (conditional 1% to speed), then over time, when “epic” gadgets appear, the choice becomes more difficult. You will have to decide whether to race, for example, a bike that has excellent stability, but is not capable of performing tricks, or whether to prefer a car with a high top speed but low handling.

You can’t buy equipment - you can only open it as you progress through your career and tests. But the store is full of costumes and emotes, and the coolest “cosmetics” are available only for donation credits, which is a bit disappointing, even if it does not affect the gameplay. However, there is also a suitable piece of equipment for "ordinary" dollars - and they can be earned without problems: participation in single and multiplayer races and the fulfillment of sponsorship contracts.

You can get to the final of the campaign in a couple of dozen hours. However, in Riders Republic this is just the start: there are seasons and challenges ahead, multiplayer races , massive races and already announced new content that will be added over the coming years.

Therefore, you are not in a hurry to delete the game from the drive: it gives you a reason to constantly improve, have fun and prove to unfamiliar opponents that you are cooler than them.

This is the best session MMO about extreme sports at the moment - it will remain so for a long time, given the almost complete absence of competitors in the genre.