Review

When you think of Ridge Racer you think of the precision built circuits of Ridge City; streets populated by cars decorated with artwork from Namco arcade classics; the athletic figure of Reiko Nagasse; and, of course, the glorious power-sliding. Unbounded, however, takes all of this, and throws it out of the window. It’s almost like it’s not Ridge Racer at all!

But then there’s a lot of things that Ridge Racer: Unbounded is not - it’s not boring; it’s not a bad looking game; it’s not difficult to learn; but it’s definitely not perfect either.

Developed by Bugbear Entertainment, the talented Finnish developers behind the excellent FlatOut series, Unbounded fits comfortably into the Burnout and Split/Second mould. The object is not just to be quick, but also to survive.

Each district of the career mode is split into five different race types – the best and most common of these is Domination where you build power by driving aggressively. This can then be used to boost your speed and take out your opponents. Or, more impressively, you can save your power and use it to drive straight through buildings to create shortcuts. Do this and you’ll be treated to a slow-motion view of your car smashing through the target.

Shindo Racing is similar to Domination but your power can only be used for brief turbo boost. There is no destruction here, just pure racing so knowledge of the tracks is imperative. Frag Attack challenges you to destroy as many opponents as you can within a strict time limit – sometimes putting you at the wheel of a truck to do so! Lastly there’s the Timed Run and Drift events, which are exactly as their titles suggest.

Away from the career mode is a simple and reasonable effective track editor. Building your own circuits is achieved simply by slotting together various straights and corners, not unlike a virtual Scalextric, and then adding features such as jumps and loops. Your efforts can then be uploaded for anyone to race and, looking at some of the homemade tracks on there already, you can create some unique experiences with a little extra effort.

This brings me onto the online multiplayer, which is, quite frankly, a broken mess. Unsurprisingly the servers are a barren wasteland where you’ll be lucky to find anyone to race against. This is because, even when you find enough people to play, there’s no guarantee that things will work. I spent more time resetting the game and my Xbox trying to get a server to work properly than I did racing. By the time Namco get around to fixing the problems it will be too late.

As a long time fan of the Ridge Racer series – I’d probably be able to provide a convincing argument that Rage Racer is the greatest racing game ever – I’m a little confused by the decision to attach the name to Unbounded. The fans will bemoan the loss of Ridge City and the arcade handling, whereas the haters will more than likely avert their gaze and wait for the inevitable Ridge Racer 8.

So (Not) Ridge Racer: Unbounded is an entertaining ride that’s fun while it lasts, it’s a great shame that the multiplayer is so broken.

About the Review

Platform

Microsoft Xbox 360

Developer

Bugbear Entertainment

Publisher

Namco

Released

30th March 2012