If you think you usually find yourself in front of the Ridge Racer you wrong! With all the pros and cons that it entails. Ridge Racer Unbounded, racing game developed by Bugbear Entertainment Namco Bandai under the label, it disrupts the classic series, reinterprets them and adapts them to a formula that pays homage to clearly Burnout game, specifically the chapters Revenge and Dominator, re-proposing even same color gradations with regard to the graphic impact.
But is not the only Burnout to be elected to the reference model, because Ridge Racer Unbounded alluded to also obvious influences of the innovative Split / Second, especially as regards the level of destruction allowed on the track. The choice of the development team has undoubtedly influenced (see why later) the definition of the driving model, far removed from clean and linear approach tendering normally required to emerge victorious from a contest in any of the past Ridge Racer.
The plot is about a gigantic metropolis, Shatter Bay, ready to be dominated by a new generation of road warriors, the Unbounded. The heavy metal of this elite group of pilots put on their knees and conquer the police, neighborhood after neighborhood, the entire city. The single-player campaign, called precisely "Shatter Bay Domina", provides a series of events broken down by each metropolitan area. The sessions vary in objectives, ranging from racing to drifting sessions pseudo-acrobatic, through the essential challenges of speed, up to actual bloodshed, during which you must carry the greatest number of deletions. Difficult to quell the uncontrollable urge to call them "takedown".
The difficulty level is very challenging and also displaces the more experienced pilots, with an initial impact on the track even traumatic, suggesting immediately agguerritissimi opponents and a driving model complex and demanding, unforgiving rough paths and, at the same time, punishes with ruinous spin any misguided attempt to get into drifting. The most experienced players may feel a strange sense of deja vu playing Ridge Racer Unbounded, and the reason is simple: the model of leadership was borrowed, with reasonable adjustments necessary, directly from FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage (PC and Xbox 360 , 2007), solid stunt racing game made just by Bugbear Entertainment.
Each track provides shortcuts and preferential passages, but this will be fed only by breaking walls and structures with a healthy dose of nitro, load remaining in the wake of their opponents, drifting, or destroying everything you happen under fire during the races: walls, trees , parked cars or intent to move and even gas stations. In the case of a smooth approach to the shortcuts you are constantly crashing catastrophically, so you should learn early to properly evaluate when to give free rein to load nitro just earned. Obviously, these shortcuts will be accessible to all riders, once they have pioneered. Then present specific objectives explosives that, when hit at full speed, deflagreranno involving vehicles opponents neighbors ... and here the mind is racing faster to thunderous explosions of Split / Second.
As with the special combat missions in the aforementioned Disney racing, although the concept has been reversed, Ridge Racer Unbounded presents for each district races that will see you driving a tractor-trailer truck mammoth, intent to destroy as many as possible police cars! For each type of race you will receive an assessment given with a maximum of three stars, flanked by a numerical score that will also take account of the conduct on the track, considering the level of destruction caused to the opponents and the collateral damage to city structures. To access the last event and definitely dominate the neighborhood, you will receive a score high enough. Even in the latter race is impossible not to feel suspicious similarities with Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, given that the goal will be to cut the line as quickly as possible while a plethora of police patrols will try to block you.
Overall, the experience of driving in a single offer from Ridge Racer Unbounded is satisfying and well-structured, but it is inevitable to think that Ridge Racer is little left, if not the concept of drift in the curve (in practice completely different than the dynamics original) and the light trails left by the rear lights of vehicles during the use of nitro. Moreover, Unbounded can not even find its size, it is lost to follow gameplay patterns borrowed from other automakers glorious arcade series. Its biggest failing, then, is the lack of personality.
Speaking of personality: Reiko Nagase, digital race queen that has always accompanied with its white beauty almost every title in the series, has given way to a mysterious female figure, still East, named Kara Shindo. One thing is certain: the class of the beautiful Reiko can not be replaced by a Tamarra street. The comparison is apt with the changing style of the entire production, which contrasts with the original gameplay of the series (which occur for an honest review of age limits), made of clean and drift trajectories studied at millimeter Tamarra driving experience, in where the destruction is a cornerstone. Fortunately, it remains a very solid driving model, that will retain the loyalty of fans of arcade-style racing game, but it is undeniable that Namco could easily point to a new IP, rather than calling into question Ridge Racer.
Besides the single player game modes, Ridge Racer Unbounded also offers a variety of challenges online under the menu item "Dominates The World". The fans of multiplayer challenges will therefore get their teeth, relying on classic race options on the slopes of Shatter Bay, but also on the chance to race on tracks created by the community. Includes a very complete indeed unbounded modular editor of the tracks, based on the ability to reassemble sections of the standard tracks, adding at will, once finalized a location, all applicable obstacles (ramps, explosive barrels, etc..). You can of course bring your creations and evaluate other players, even pointing out the tracks that were to be unplayable due to some blunder of the author editing.
Technically speaking, Bugbear Entertainment has drawn on its experience to create one of the most massive racing games of this generation, with a lot of details on screen and destructible objects really impressive. If you think that the track can race up to eleven cars, more traffic and a myriad of objects to which it applied a realistic physics (most of which, once destroyed, does not disappear from the road), you realize how impressive is the technical goal achieved by the development team with its proprietary graphics engine. Substantially identical visual rendering of the game on both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Too bad for an accompanying sound fairly nondescript, that despite the presence of several hits taken from previous Ridge Racer, suggests that pounding tracks as required, but can not communicate the right mood. Even the roar of the engines could have been much more aggressive, considering the type of setting, because the production.
In short, if you profess longtime fans of the series Ridge Racer Unbounded might find a little 'too far away from the idea of driving experience you are looking for a title normally racing. Conversely, if you grew up on bread and Burnout, finding entusiasmate FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage and adoring the latest Split / Second, the work done by Bugbear will give you a healthy dose of fun, but does not dazzle you with original gameplay. Approach to Unbounded keeping in mind the concept of cinematic reimagining or a reinterpretation of the original concept, and will derive the proper enjoyment. The geeks are realistic simulations adequately take away!
Ridge Racer Unbounded for PLAYSTATION 3
Ridge Racer Unbounded for Xbox 360