RIDE 2 Review

Review RIDE 2 | Just a while ago Milestone delivered a pretty decent Valentino Rossi tribute with Valentino Rossi: The Game. Now they bring another bike racing game with RIDE 2. One thing is for sure, this is a developer that loves bikes and it really shows in the games that they make. Take your helmet off and read this RIDE 2 review!

THE GOOD

• Bimota, BMW, Ducati, Honda and more, with 170+ bikes and many different classes I’m 95% sure that everyone’s favorite bike is in the game. It’s a real impressive number and all bikes are recreated with love.  As expected of course, if there is one developer that loves bike-racing it’s Milestone.
• The career mode is a fine and time-consuming task, you will be forced to replay many races to improve your bike but I didn’t mind that at all. Making your own driver, climbing the overall ranking and increasing your garage isn’t something new in the genre but it works excellently for RIDE 2.
• Good engine sounds, a shame for the repetitive music and boring menu sounds but nothing bad can be said about the bike sounds. Each different bike has believable sound, I’m not sure if the motor sounds are from the original bikes, I’m not a big expert on that, but they have me fooled if it’s not the case.
• Great selection of different tracks. RIDE 2 does a great job giving the player different racing environments. It’s cool to seek your thrills in the desert or in claustrophobic forests. It might not look all that great like Forza Horizon 3 but I really appreciated the effort and it helps with relaxing cruising with your favorite bike.

Mixed Feelings

• After playing Valentino Rossi: The Game, from the same developer by the way, I was surprised and a little disappointed to notice that the bike handling is lacking something. I’m still not sure what it is but it doesn’t feel right. It’s definitely much smoother than the first RIDE, but some unexpected slips still happen.  One thing I have to say though, each and every bike feels and controls different. I loved learning how to ride with a specific bike, and building my confidence with it for making sharp turns.
• To be honest, It’s pretty rare that graphics leave me with this much mixed feelings. The bikes look stunning from up close, with some shiny details but the tracks didn’t get the same love. Bikes seem to glide more over the road, especially if you see bikes from a few metres away. The road on the other hand is very detailed with realistic cracks, but if you look at the scenery it looks very blurred.  Not to mention the frequent pop-ups that you’ll notice in the not so far distance.

THE BAD

• You would think that developers learn from feedback that they got from previous installments, not the case for the loading times. You even have a loading screen for a … loading screen.  To make things worse, Milestone decided to give the loading screens the most repetitive music that I have heard in a long time. To be fair, RIDE had even longer loading times but I really feel that they could have reduced it more.
• The Artificial Intelligence is simply a stupid joke, frequently a bike less powered than you easily races past you in a straight line. With ant-like precision AI riders stay in line doing the exact same thing. I’m really hoping to see a big improvement in this aspect for RIDE 3, if it ever comes that far.

Score: 70% | For bike enthusiasts RIDE 2 is a real pleasure, for the regular gamers it’s a little bit harder to recommend with the harsh competition in the racing scene.