Ride 2
- October 7, 2016
- Milestone
- 33h median play time
Despite the similarities, Ride 2 is not as user friendly as Microsoft’s annual racing games. This means players are going to have to really work to ride with the best, and that’s an uphill battle they may not want to fight on your recreational time.
Get on Steam"Ride 2" is a motorcycle racing game featuring over 170 iconic bikes from various brands. Players can collect, customize, and race these bikes on various tracks, including country, city, and GP races. The game offers a realistic and immersive experience for motorcycle enthusiasts.
PC
Playstation 4
Playstation 5
Windows
Xbox One
Xbox Series X|S
PlayStation
Xbox
Reviews
- Ride 2 features a vast selection of bikes and tracks, providing a rich experience for motorcycle enthusiasts.
- The game offers a good balance between arcade and simulation gameplay, making it accessible yet challenging.
- Graphics and bike models are well-detailed, enhancing the overall immersion of the racing experience.
- The AI can be frustratingly aggressive and unrealistic, often causing crashes and making races feel unfair.
- There are significant performance issues, including stuttering and crashes, even on high-end systems.
- Customization options for bikes and controls are limited, and the sound design does not accurately represent the real-life counterparts of the bikes.
- graphics264 mentions
- 47 % positive mentions
- 47 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The graphics in the game are generally considered decent, especially for its age, with detailed bike models and visually appealing environments. However, many users report performance issues, requiring high-end hardware for optimal settings, and some find the overall visual quality to be outdated compared to newer racing titles. While the bike details are praised, the track graphics and optimization leave room for improvement, leading to mixed feelings about the game's visual presentation.
“Your graphics are a testament to the beauty of motorcycling, from the gleaming chrome of the bikes to the breathtaking vistas of the tracks.”
“The graphics and detail on the bikes is absolutely stunning and extremely detailed.”
“Graphically, this game is stunning, almost flawless.”
“My graphics card is above the minimum requirements, and even on the lowest settings, I get subpar framerate from a game released in 2016.”
“The graphics are a disgrace.”
“Maybe if you really like bikes you could look past the poor optimisation, 2002 era menus, 2002 era graphics and 2002 era controls.”
- gameplay117 mentions
- 46 % positive mentions
- 51 % neutral mentions
- 3 % negative mentions
The gameplay is characterized by a thrilling mix of speed and skill, offering a realistic and challenging motorcycle racing experience that emphasizes physics and mechanics. Players appreciate the extensive bike selection, customization options, and a variety of tracks, making it enjoyable for both casual and hardcore racing fans. While the gameplay is generally smooth and engaging, some users noted issues with sound accuracy and a desire for more diverse bike types and tracks.
“The gameplay in Ride 2 is realistic and challenging, with a focus on simulating the physics and mechanics of motorcycle racing.”
“With its impressive bike selection, customization options, and realistic gameplay, it's a must-play for motorcycle racing enthusiasts and fans of simulation games.”
“Physics and gameplay are top notch; customization and variety of motorcycles with numerous tracks make it fun to play.”
“The actual gameplay consists of finding out which bike has the best top speed for the respective event.”
“Boring race gameplay.”
“I understand that it is difficult to make slower vehicles exciting in games, but with everything Milestone constantly does wrong, it just ends up with below acceptable gameplay.”
- optimization102 mentions
- 25 % positive mentions
- 61 % neutral mentions
- 14 % negative mentions
The game's optimization has received mixed reviews, with some players experiencing significant stuttering and frame drops, particularly on certain tracks, while others report smooth performance even at high settings. Issues with the performance index system and interface have been highlighted, as players find it difficult to gauge bike performance before upgrades. Overall, while some users enjoy a stable experience, others express disappointment with the game's optimization and technical choices.
“Graphics are great, optimization is great, I only have very few moments of stuttering at high speeds, but that's all, nothing worse.”
“Performance wise - on my RTX 2080 I am getting 273 fps at 1440p on average, but even on my old GTX 1080 I was getting 183 fps, so it runs blindingly fast with no issues.”
“As far as performance goes, the game runs super smooth on my rig maxed out in 4K (i7-5930k, 2x GTX 1080 (SLI), 32GB DDR4 RAM, Win 10/64 Home).”
“Other interface issues abound, since the game does not scale performance indexes to the player. Not being able to see the other bikes' performance index prior to upgrading your bike is a major issue.”
“Even at 120 fps, it is a stuttering mess. Why does the rider flash in and out of existence when you have a crash? Is it because it runs like it's only getting 5 fps? I don't think the devs are even looking into fixing this as it's never been updated, and as far as I know, Ride 1 still has the same problem.”
“Well, there is an issue with framerate stuttering, which has been around for some time. Running with vsync enabled does help a lot, but it is something the developers need to address.”
- story26 mentions
- 12 % positive mentions
- 77 % neutral mentions
- 12 % negative mentions
The game's story is widely criticized, with many users noting it is either non-existent or very short, likening the experience to playing a game like Temple Run without a narrative. Some reviews express frustration with the lack of depth and suggest that the introductory mission could be replaced with a video due to its inadequacy. Overall, the consensus is that the story is a significant weakness, receiving low ratings.
“🔲 epic story”
“🔲 like playing temple runners for the story”
“main story is kinda short”
“This game has no story.”
“The main story is kinda short.”
“Story = 0/10.”
- music22 mentions
- 14 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 36 % negative mentions
The music in the game is generally considered average and forgettable, with some tracks being catchy but not memorable. While the engine sounds are criticized as poor, players can opt to listen to their own music instead. Overall, the music does not significantly enhance the gaming experience, leading some to recommend playing with it turned off.
“The music tracks in the menu and during the race are decent, though; a little catchy and pulse-driving, but not so obtrusive as to get on your nerves.”
“Music is good but not big hits.”
“Sadly the engine sounds are horrid, but bearable if you listen to music in the background.”
“The bikes sound okay, but get a bit whinny on long races; the music is forgettable.”
“The menus can be a little unintuitive, the music sucks, and the AI is naff.”
“Bad music (I recommend playing with music off).”
- stability12 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The game's stability has received mixed reviews, with users reporting significant bugs and issues with controller connectivity and key assignments, leading to frustrating experiences. While the graphics are praised and the game performs well at maximum settings after adjustments, many players encounter stuttering and other stability problems that detract from the overall experience.
“The game runs great at max graphics all around.”
“Great graphics and runs great.”
“Looks awesome! I was getting stuttering at first, but after turning off motion blur, the game runs great now.”
“Whoever designed this never really opened the game, never had to connect controllers, never had to assign keys, and never had to spend 30 minutes between laggy, buggy windows and buttons. Of course, they never had to end the whole session just to assign a different key because you can't access controls while actually playing.”
“This game is very buggy.”
“Game is buggy; not even 2 hours of play in and you start finding issues (as you ride a short straight on Road America before the bridge... what the heck? Please fix it).”
- grinding10 mentions
- 20 % positive mentions
- 20 % neutral mentions
- 60 % negative mentions
Overall, players have mixed feelings about grinding in the game. While some appreciate the focus on enjoying racing and improving through practice rather than tedious grinding, others find the experience can become monotonous and grindy before fully exploring the content. However, many agree that the progression system is less burdensome compared to other racing games.
“It's about racing on what you like, not tediously climbing some ladder just to stretch gameplay time.”
“You'll need a second life for grinding.”
“Gets boring and grindy before you've even experienced a fraction of the content.”
“The game runs well, even on my laptop (Nvidia 950M, i7, 8GB RAM), and the progression feels way less grindy and ridiculous than a lot of racing games.”
- replayability8 mentions
- 38 % positive mentions
- 63 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game boasts high replayability due to its extensive selection of over 200 bikes and a diverse range of events and races, allowing players to continually explore new experiences and combinations.
“With over 200 bikes to choose from and a variety of events and races to compete in, the game offers a lot of replayability and variety.”
“🔲 infinitely replayable”
“A lot of my dream bikes are playable here.”
- atmosphere4 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is enhanced by highly detailed and realistic bike designs, complemented by impressive lighting and reflections that create an immersive experience. However, some players feel that Ride 2 lacks the engaging atmosphere of a GP season, missing elements like circuit intro videos, which detracts from the overall experience.
“The bikes are highly detailed and realistic, with impressive lighting and reflections that add to the game's immersive atmosphere.”
“Ride 2 is a reskin of MotoGP without the atmosphere (i.e. circuit intro videos, etc.) of a GP season, but instead features lots of road bikes to grind to unlock.”
- monetization2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The monetization of the game is widely criticized, with multiple users labeling it as a cash grab, indicating a focus on profit over player experience.
“This game is a cash grab.”
Critic Reviews
RIDE 2 Review
RIDE 2 is a game for motorcycle enthusiasts without question. However, it's a game that is lacking in excitement for the material it covers. There's a great amount of content and production values, but not a whole lot of hook to the gameplay to keep you drawn in. While die-hard motorcycle racing enthusiasts may find some enjoyment, few else will be enticed.
60%Ride 2 Review
Particularly as the original released so recently, and bearing in mind the very high standards of driving games currently, it just seems that Ride 2 could have hung back for a spell. Granted, updates are coming thick and fast, which adds even more content and also amends some of the early grievances cited with the driving experience. In addition, Milestone should once again be commended for setting its ambition high, but overall, this is another driving experience from the developer that spreads itself out too thinly. Perhaps switching gears and specifically focusing on one discipline within a field of racing might produce a more eclectic driving experience for the next project, since Ride 2 represents one in a string of decent racers that could have been great ones. One thing is certain: Milestone is capable of and has produced drastically better and more authentic racers in the past. As previously indicated, those gems also tend to be the games that received the most breathing space.
60%Ride 2 Review
Despite the similarities, Ride 2 is not as user friendly as Microsoft’s annual racing games. This means players are going to have to really work to ride with the best, and that’s an uphill battle they may not want to fight on your recreational time.
80%
