Cyprus Rally

Ridge Racer Unbounded – a decent game

Ridge Racer unbounded wants to be a real revitalization of the Ridge Racer franchise and a very different game from the regular formula that Namco Bandai has recycled over the last nearly 20 years.

Produced by Bugbear, Ridge Racer unbounded includes all the successful elements used by all good racing titles that appeared in the recent years: destructible town like in Split/Second, spectacular crashes as in Burnout, the ability to create your own trails, and, of course, the classic game drifting system of the game Ridge Racer.

This time the action takes place in the fictional city of Shatter Bay, where players can take part in five categories of races: domination races, Shindo races, drift attack, time attack, and frag attack.

Shatter Bay is divided into several districts in which take place several trails. If you come out victorious in enough of these races, you will unlock new areas of the city, new evidence, and, obviously, new top cars. The cars in Ridge Races Unbounded have a great visual aspect, some of them returning from older titles of the series. They are also divided into several classes according to the type of competition you will have to participate in (all the races I have already mentioned above).

The power reserve can be filled up by driving violence, destroying pieces of the route, eliminating opponents, or making spectacular drifting. This, once completed, can be used for various purposes: a temporary speed boost, accessing shortcuts, or the easiest ways to destroy the other participants in the race. This question will pop up in your head not just once during the races: is it to use this power reserve here to eliminate two contestants, or I’d better keep it to unlock the next shortcut? This is pretty tricky, but you will figure it out according to your needs at the moment.

Unfortunately, aside from the bonus points, these shortcuts can bring you, their approach during races is not always indicated. Their routes are sometimes longer than the defaults while bringing significant losses compared to the opponents that have chosen the original route. Even the visual performance does not live up to expectations, the destruction of buildings and walls of Ridge Racer Unbounded not being able to compare with the effects that you can experience in the impressive Split/Second.

Another blackball for the Ridge Racer Unbounded goes to the multiplayer mode. It simply does not work the way it should. I had many attempts to confront other online players, attempts that have successfully failed. Whether I was greeted by the message “sessions not available” or I have entered naked lobbies, without any opponent. It is really a big shame that this aspect of the game has not been granted the attention it deserves.

In conclusion, Ridge Racer Unbounded can really be considered a new beginning for the Namco Bandai series with all these elements borrowed from other games. However, the repetitive routes and the inoperative multiplayer prevent the title from Bugbear from reaching its true potential.