The RIDE series of games first raced onto the scene back in 2015 and had received five entries up to this point. Known for its extreme difficulty, the series has gradually gotten better with each and every entry. Now a few years after its last outing, RIDE 6 is here and is looking for its best race finish to date.
Hitting The Track
Right from your very first race, you can tell that RIDE 6 is a beautiful game from top to bottom. The visuals have always been a point of pride for the series and RIDE 6 is no different with a brand new graphics engine in Unreal Engine 5, elevating it even further beyond its predecessor that also released on current-gen consoles back in 2023. The updated weather and time of day lighting settings that are customizable add even more to this, letting players choose their favorite settings for races. I always love seeing a rainy race at night, as it really shows off the lighting in ways that isn’t available otherwise.
The upgraded physics engine is also very important in RIDE 6, as physics play arguably the largest part in any racer. This includes enhanced automatic AI adjustments with Adaptive Difficulty that will vary depending on the player’s performance and level. The dev team also worked a lot towards making the bike behavior feel even more realistic than ever before, including better bike directivity and braking management. In addition, I also appreciated how they actually utilized the controller’s vibration capabilities to help as a form of feedback to help know when you starting to go off-track or even about to crash.
RIDE 6 also brings back the rewind feature once again, which is always a good thing to have in a fast-paced racing simulator like this. There are always people that will complain that this makes things way too easy or something, but it’s something you can choose to completely avoid using if you so choose. The only issue I had with it was that I was not a fan of how delayed it felt upon pressing the right bumper button. In other games like Forza Horizon, the rewind feature felt instantaneous upon pressing, but here I often found myself pressing it multiple times because I was not actually sure if the input worked or not due to the delay.
RIDE has always had some trouble being as accessible to the typical gamer due to its high level of difficulty and dedication to being authentic with its gameplay system. Thankfully, the developers have finally heard the fans’ outcry by offering an alternate gameplay option. RIDE 6 offers players the option between Arcade Experience and Pro Experience, the latter of which is naturally the classic option. Arcade instead simplifies the controls and makes everything more intuitive to the casual gamer, which is much needed in a game like this. That said, do not expect RIDE 6 to instantly become something that is considered easy to control like Mario Kart or even Forza Horizon, as the bike controls are still quite difficult to figure out and you are only a motorcycle here that can easily crash. This new gameplay option offers a much better starting point though, which allows players to start with Arcade and perhaps switch to Pro eventually once they get really good at the game.
Also worth noting in the game is that beyond trying to just reach the casual gamer that may not be as attuned to the level of difficulty as the series offers, they also have strived to make the game truly as accessible as they could by adding a one-handed control option, a game speed reduction percentage option, and even a color-blind filter option. These are the types of things that would be great to see in as many games as possible to allow as many as possible to experience them.
New to RIDE 6 are off-road tracks for the very first time in the series, with the game including four off-road tracks from the start for you to enjoy. This could have feel very different and unnatural for what had been an asphalt-only racing series to date, but it works very well here and I quite enjoyed each of these tracks.
Take Part in the Festival
The main focus of RIDE 6 is RIDE Fest as part of career mode, which is a large festival celebrating the world of motorcycles. RIDE Fest is composed of multiple different sections on a board that you can select between, with you starting in one area with a limited number of races to choose from. Not only do you get to advance in the first section and beyond by completing goals such a winning races or at least finishing in certain ranks in races to where you can advance through what looks like a tournament bracket moving left to right, you are always working towards unlocking other areas around you too through what are known as Fame Points.
By completing in events in RIDE Fest, you’ll earn more Fame Points and be able to unlock new sectors of the mode, which have different themes to them. The first area you have to open only requires 60 Fame Points, but you’ll need up to 4,600 eventually to unlock all of them. These numbers do stack though, so it’s all encompassing rather than having to start from scratch to unlock each one. Each sector also has it’s own unlock requirements too that you must fulfill. You’ll notice a lock saying something like 0/2 under it, which means you need to complete at least two of the corresponding events prior to the lock to advance further in the path.
Ten of the areas specifically within RIDE Fest will be themed after legends of the sport. These include Troy Bayliss, Niccolo Canepa, Thomas Chareyre, Peter Hickman, Skyler Howes, Ian Hutchinson, Guy Martin, Tyler,O’Hara, Casey Stoner, and James Toseland. These are some of the more intense sections of RIDE Fest, as you have to take on these elite racers, which were a lot of fun.
Each event within RIDE Fest has two objectives available for you to complete. The first is the main objective, which is required to receive the minimum number of Fame Points and be considered as completing the event. There is then the bonus objective, which is a completely optional and much harder objective that will reward you with the maximum number of Fame Points available for that event. There are also some objectives that will give you exclusive rewards, so you must watch out for those. Getting to the end of each section will let you pick out a reward, so it is well worth finishing each and not just getting enough Fame Points to advance.
For those who are finding themselves struggling in races or just want to better themselves through various challenges, the Bridgestone Riding School section of RIDE 6 is just for you. In this section, you can pick from different lessons that feature a Learn phase where you watch the instructor do it. Then, you have the Test phase where you can try it out for yourself. Lastly, you have the Compete phase, where you try to beat the target times and get the gold medal. Beating the instructor time also unlocks the ability to challenge a ghost in each challenge as well. Some of these challenges can be really difficult, too, so this really does serve as a good option for veteran players as well, while the Learn and Test phases are more for newcomers.
It wouldn’t be a RIDE game without letting you bring you creativity to life in the games’ Editor. Here you can create your own designs for bike liveries, helmets, suits, rider stickers, and stickers in general. As always, you can also share your designs online for others to find and download or just find some others online yourself instead of designing any. These work well with the over 340 bikes that are in the game or as DLC, so make sure to outfit them as you desire.
Another new feature this year that should makes fan happy is full cross-play for the very first time. In RIDE 5, cross-play became available between PS5 and Xbox Series consoles, as well as between different PC storefronts, but you could not intermix consoles and PC. That has changed in RIDE 6 though, as full crossplay is available right from the start. Developer Milestone is really pushing this too with monthly challenges for players that you can go for that will notify you as soon as someone on another platform beats your record.
Verdict
RIDE 6 has done a great job of building on what prior entries have done and making the game more accessible than ever. The difficulty of the series has turned many gamers off in the past, but now the game has introduced not only a new gameplay option for newcomers, but also a few accessibility-friendly options to help those who could not play before. However, that doesn’t mean the game is no longer incredibly hard, even with these new options, so your enjoyment may depend on that. Combining the best gameplay to date with the fun RIDE Fest career mode and the addition of full cross-play, RIDE 6 is easily the best entry in the series so far.
Beautiful visuals and lighting
Two gameplay modes to choose
RIDE Fest Career Mode
Accessibility features
Verdict
8/10
Combining the best gameplay to date with the fun RIDE Fest career mode and addition of full cross-play, RIDE 6 is easily the best entry in the series so far.
Still incredibly difficult to jump into
Rewind feature delay
RIDE 6 was provided by the publisher. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.
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