As the engines fire up for many motorcycling fans today, we look at RIDE – the new motorcycling title from Milestone. Out today, RIDE offers new potential for the relatively small genre of motorcycling games that sees Milestone move away from their licensed series for the World Superbike and Moto GP championships.

RIDE centres more on a motorcycling experience rather than focussing on a major championship, so it is definitely a different approach from Milestone. The game sees you create a rider and participate in a number of events throughout the world. Through competing you can earn credits and purchase new bikes and gear to kit out your rider. In the hub of gameplay, dubbed ‘World Tour’, you earn reputation as well which unlocks more events to compete in.

The deeper you delve into RIDE the bigger the experience gets. I query the demographic for the game; the game’s opening tutorial pop-up asks if you’re new to motorcycling games and I highly doubt anyone picking up RIDE isn’t interested in motorcycling games. Deciding I was above any need for a tutorial, I threw my metaphorical leathers on and, with my starter bike, completed some quick races at tracks I’ve become familiar with thanks to Milestone’s other titles – mainly Donington Park and Magny-Cours.

Although it’d been a while since my last motorcycling game, Milestone’s own MotoGP 14, I figured I could play at medium difficulty. I was wrong. Even at Donington Park, a track I have played many times on many games and even visited in real life, I struggled to compete. This raised alarm bells but the difficulty is a hurdle you can overcome. The other alarm I was struck with in these opening races was the level of mediocrity I was faced with. Playing on the PS4 I had expected the game to be visually appealing, but graphically the game does not stand out. Long loading times had me excited but left me disappointed.

The gameplay in its entirety feels like “just another racing game”. RIDE, unfortunately, offers very little to shout about. It is by no means bad, and if you are a racing fan there are many hours to be lost to the game’s World Tour mode. This progression based mode sees you start from the bottom as you are tasked with working your way through 8 World Tour Events, each of which contain a number of sub-classes. There is a lot of motorcycling to enjoy. Results earn reputation, and this is key to progression. A good finish means you move up the world rankings, and a higher reputation allows you to unlock Elite Trophy competitions.

Unlocking more competitions and moving up the world rankings is half the story of World Tour, but the other half is built around credits. Credits are more easily earned as they can be won through Quick Races, but they must be wisely spent. You can unlock all the events in the world, although you won’t, but being competitive in them means buying and upgrading bikes for said competitions. With the 14 manufacturers in game you have a selection of bikes to take you to victory, but the upgrading process is key to winning. Each bike has four performance based area to be improved – Engine, Transmission, Brakes and Suspension, and Wheels. As well as these, the bikes appearance can be customized for that personal touch. Managing credits wisely can be a big factor in how successful you are in RIDE, at least at first.

The bike’s appearance is not the only customizable area of the game. Your rider can also become the subject of many spent credits. Not every player is going to care how their rider looks, but for those that do there are a number of personalization options focussing on a number of big brands in motorcycling gear. This is an additional extra for any player wanting their RIDE experience to be personal.

As well as this time consuming single player mode, the option to race split screen is a welcome distraction but the main multiplayer mode is in the form of online gameplay, pitting you against a number of riders from around the world. You can play with friends, quickly join a race or set up a custom race. Once again in RIDE, there is nothing revolutionary with the online mode but it works well and that is more than can be said for some racing games.

I started out by saying RIDE offers new potential for the genre of motorcycling games, but unfortunately it doesn’t live up to it. It is certainly different, but different is not always better. Having play a lot of Codemaster’s GRID I found myself feeling that same loop of racing for the sake of progression rather than enjoyment.

I will applaud any player that completes all the World Tour and Elite Trophy events on offer, but I fear there won’t be many people up to putting that many hours into RIDE.