“Rider’s Republic” is a new video game that was recently released on Oct. 28. “Rider’s Republic” is a giant world that consists of multiple national parks pushed together to make a playground for skiing, snowboarding, mountain biking, road biking, jetpacking, wingsuiting, snowmobiling and more. Doing well in events, like racing or a truck contest, can help unlock better gear or better events to take on.

This game is one of a kind. I have played nothing at the scale or style of this game. This style of video game is a racing type game but also an open-world or sandbox experience, meaning one can travel amongst the map and choose the experience they want to have. The map is awesome in the aspect of how much of an elevation difference there is from the highest point of the map to the lowest point on the other side. This makes plenty of areas available to do snow sports, something I may be enjoying the most right now personally. The map includes freestyle arenas throughout that players can go do tricks off of ramps and have fun. These arenas also include their own events.

There are an unreal amount of trails and lines one could take going down the mountains or through the canyons. Most of these trails are tied to an event in the game that if one beats, they unlock better gear.  These events can be racing, downhill speed trials, a trick contest and even more.  All of these events that one completes as part of the main game go toward the character and help them earn sponsorships that will, in turn, get you better equipment.  

I personally love this game because it provides so much to do for all that the game tries to take on. I love mountains and studying topography as well, so this game is special for me. It is also fun for me because the topography affects what I do and the things I see. Seeing the giant map at first can be a little bit daunting even. There is also something called a mass race that can take place. The mass race is up to 64 players racing together for larger rewards than usual. The competitive side of most riders will come out during this event, as only the best will win.

Coming back to the customization now, it is not something to overlook at all.  For some, this game’s customization may be the main draw to the game. Bikes, skis and snowboards all have different versions. For skiing and snowboarding, there are downhill skis as well as park skis for doing tricks. For biking, there are mountain bikes and street bikes. However, there have been rumors that BMX bikes will be coming in a later update. Each bike or ski has different statistics that would make it better for a certain situation, but that means some gear is not as good in others.

The game map is made of national parks, as I stated earlier. Each national park area has a landmark to check out to earn gear. The Half-Dome in the Yosemite section is awesome. Looking out when you are on the Half Dome, one can see the Little Yosemite Valley, something the developers did a great job in with their rendition of it. There is plenty more to discover in the national parks that I have not had time to see yet.

Overall, this game would receive an eight and a half out of 10 for me, equalling a four-star review.