Replayed this classic after a long time and it still kicks ass. Eric Sparrow still sucks dick and I'm still stocked about the small details like the menu changing its appearance after you get sponsored.

Love it. Story could use a few more cutscenes though so it's more cohreiesive.

9/10

This game is like the plank from Ed Ed n' Eddy. Veeery stiff in basically everything from gameplay to the character movements and interactions. But like plank, the game has a nice charm to it and ultimately you end up having a lot of fun with it. The story is pretty good and it has some charming likeable characters.

It's worth to play through it at least once.

6/10

It's Gothic, a must play game if you grew up in eastern europe in the early 2000s.

Very bare-bones RPG experience. No hand holding, no markers or help. Brutal world, where everyone wants to screw you over basically. Solid first chapters, gets dull in the middle part but picks up at the end. Still as good of an experience as many years ago, but doesn't hold up to modern standards, especially the combat system.

If you never played it give it a try if you like the vibe and hardcore RPGs with no hand holding.

For me 5/5 but very based and nostalgia plays a huge part in the rating.

All in all a very good game and a nice step forward to keep the franchise fresh and exciting. Story is a typical Yakuza story with twists and turns that hit you like a ton of bricks.

I really enjoyed the combat, although I would say the job system wasn't really thought all the way through. Starting from level 1 on a job means grinding for a few hours to be at a reasonable level, especially mid game where the story takes an incredible spike in difficulty all of a sudden. So I basically ended up sticking with my starting jobs from start to finish because changing jobs didn't feel like a profitable option. I feel if they refined the leveling system and came up with a creative solution for job hopping the combat could have been deeper on strategy.

I love Ichiban as the new protagonist, really great character and a lot different than Kiryu which was a pleasant surprise.

Awesome ending.

8/10 game

HUGE EDIT ON MY LAST REVIEW WHICH WAS 2 STARS

After spending over 25 hours with this game and purchasing the BMX DLC I kind of changed my mind on it.

Essentially I thought the core gameplay was good and this hasn't changed. Doing crazy air tricks on a bike or snowboard feels amazing! Although I think they could go more arcade and make it even more awesome, this becomes apparent when you play the BMX career which allows you to link tricks with manuals. This gives you the opportunity to make HUGE 100k+ combos.

The second big YES for Riders Republic is it's locations. As a fan of extreme sports you're constantly bombarded with awesome looking snow parks, slopes and other cool stuff. I was blown away seeing the BMX Skatepark or the VANS park. CAN'T WAIT what locations they will introduce with the new Skateboard DLC.

Another nice addition are the multiplayer features, I enjoyed most of the mass races and other trick based activities. Makes the game playability even longer.

Let's look at the cons. One BIG BIG con for me are the air events. Maybe because I sucked at them but I can't remember Air events being this annoying in Steep. I didn't even finish the air career, that's how infuriating it was. Being forced to "backtrack" after bailing, sometimes making me get stuck on the ground that way because I couldn't correct my course even after backtracking was a HUGE pain in the ass. Just drop me off mid flight near next checkpoint and let me play! The only time I used jetpack was to fly to events that were further away.

Other con for me is very little customization options. I felt like Steep was waaay ahead on this feature. A lot of micro transaction stuff but very little unlockable content. Also with the addition of bikes I feel like they should let you modify your gear a LOT MORE. I mean one major component of extreme / gear based sports IS your gear and how you make it your own. It would be cool if you could modify your bike with different parts and colors for example. In this game the gear doesn't matter this much you just use the one with the best stats.

All in all Riders Republic is a fun game and I see myself playing it from time to time with addition of the new seasons. I mean skateboard DLC is coming in september!! Hyped for that!

This is such a shitty, boring piece of crap. First race I was blown away by the effects, it felt like a scripted CoD mission but as a racing game. But that's the only thing the game has to offer. After a few races you realize that it's mostly a tech demo and the developers forgot to include an actual video game behind the amazing graphics and dynamic weather.

The game has absolutely NO sense of progress. All events feel pointless and after an hour or two of playing you seen it all. It's an endless checklist of races on the same tracks with the same 3-4 cars, because once you bought the best car you don't have to change to another one since all cars feel and drive the same.

Also all tracks are basically the same, no matter if snow, ice, mud or sand. The surfaces all drive the same, it's like you float above the track. All that changes is the background.

What doesn't make sense for me at all are the challenges, why in the hell do you expect me to crash into other drivers multiple times during the race? What's the point? When crashing into other drivers doesn't do ANYTHING. You crash into them full speed and they keep on driving in their lane like nothing happened. Other drivers feel like tanks, and on the topic of the AI drivers. The rubberbanding is borderline criminal. Getting to first place is no problem, but loosing the cars chasing you? Impossible, no matter what you do, driving the most perfect lines, the AI is always behind you only 1 second away waiting for you to make the smallest mistake to overtake. This is why the speed doesn't matter, all that matters that you drive defensive and block your opponents from overtaking. That makes the races feel boring af, because it really doesn't matter how you drive. It doesn't even matter if you win because there is no rewards. All the good stuff is hidden behind a paywall anyway.

Also 50% of the game is events with pickup trucks which are slow af. Why do you want me to drive these slow vehicles this makes the races even more boring. I would love to drive the trucks if the game had nice crashing mechanics, this is what makes trucks fun, crashing into others with full force, but without that it's just a boring experience.

It's like the devs made a challenge for themselves to strip away all game mechanics that make a racing game feel fun.

I miss DiRT 2 :(

Genre racing is misleading. It should be stealth, because all you do is basically playing hide and seek with cops, but they spawn out of nowhere 10 feet from you. And just for the fuckery we will send a helicopter every 10 seconds so you have to hide in the bushes and stand still with your engine off until it passes. Oh, you made it to your destination and finally can start a race? Sike, 3 cop cars exactly at the spot you need to start your race at. Now shake the cops for the next 10 minutes just so you end up 5km drive from your destination again.

1 Star for the Art Direction because the game is pretty af.

I didn't think it was as bad as everyone seems to think. The candy system feels a little annoying when you're going for the trophies in this game, it's a loooong grind.

PROS:
- Cutscenes animation style was awesome, really liked the hand drawn animation. Would watch an animated series about the guy if they ever made one.
- I enjoyed the stretching Katamari mechanic, especially because they allowed the devs to get creative with hiding presents and other collectibles, made you look in every little corner.
- quite challenging to get a high score, made me replay a lot of levels which I thought was a good thing.

CONS:
- 3D king is mad ugly, very terrifying and odd to look at. Missed the badass king playing this.
- You need way to much candy to purchase stuff, sometimes it felt like a was playing a F2P mobile game.