While I am a huge gear head and racing fan, there has been one form of riding/transportation that I’ve never really cared about….motorcycle racing. I’ve had several friends who have had a love for bikes and riding, saying how thrilling it is to be open with just you and your bike. That mode of transportation has just never been appealing to me in real life. So why not virtually? RIDE 4 is the latest installment in the motorcycle racing franchise. Being the local resident for racing and automotive culture maybe this is to be the game that really pulls me into a motorcycle racing?
RIDE 4 knocks the kickstand down and puts you in the driver’s seat right off the bat and puts you right into a test session. Now I’ve never driven a motorcycle in my life, but I really don’t think it could handle that poorly at times. The controls are straightforward and make sense, but the bike handles pushing a brick across a rubber mat at times. Turn and cornering felt super slow and lazy at times. Like as if you can’t really ‘flick’ the bike around in certain scenarios. Returning to upright is a crawl back to straight up. Even just riding on a straightaway feels visually like a creep to top speed and when you hit your peak it still feels melancholy. Again, I’ve never driven a motorcycle, but I know you’d have to get a better sense of speed and movement. Once I finally managed to understand the bike and the movement I hustled it through the overall tutorial and begin my climb to the top.
Career mode works you through the leagues to make it to the big stage of the Final Leagues. You big your upward plan in regional leagues between the European, Asian, and American leagues. Once in your regional, you’ve then got to earn your licenses building your skill and working your way up to completion, then so on, and so forth. Hopping from one tutorial to your licenses was a bit of a deflator. It felt like tutorial part two and that felt disappointing to me. I wanted to hop in and start digging deep into the career. Having to go right back into ‘busy work’ was a letdown. Competing against the AI was a completely different experience. Personally, I found myself focusing way harder on being careful and not absolutely blow a corner and just plow someone off their bike and obliterate them into non-existence. They (the AI) are also pretty competitive and are going to push you to be as fast as you can be for your first few events. That’s a nice feature, but can be infuriating to face for a newcomer.
The graphics are solid overall, the color palette feels slightly muted and darker at times. Like nothing really pops visually. In motorsports, the colors are a huge factor for anyone. Seeing how the colors here are so dull, and with the menus/customization of your gear limited, it feels mute visually and isn’t the most appealing to look at. This is a similar feeling to the HUD. Everything is small on-screen and hard to see. In any racing game, you want to be able to glance as fast as possible to get the information you need. I kept finding myself having to search for any of the information I needed (lap time, running order, track map, etc). Having to dig for info while going over 120mph into a corner isn’t the best thing for a driver/rider.
Overall, RIDE 4 was my first attempt at getting my toes wet for motorcycles both in general and racing wise. While excited going into this new world, I found myself uninterested and not entertained. Most racing games really bring me in and keep me there technically. As someone who works with their hands a lot and wants to know how things work/make them go faster, racing games really get me going. Herewith RIDE 4, I didn’t really fill that. It felt lackluster and just kind of plain.
