Mad Riders

With Mad Riders, Techland studios return to feel the long journeys invaded by tropical environments, perhaps as a reflection of the influences brought by Dead Island. Which are, again, after a disappointing Nail'd an opportunity to redo all terrain bike races. Mad Riders is essentially a game of speed and with a very frenetic environment. The fierce competition for the most part, turns out to be a confrontation with the nature of the track, the ability to apply "power ups" and the ability to overcome, racing at great speed. The confrontation with the opposition becomes merely secondary and limited to the final outcome. In between the sense of overtaking your adversaries. We realize this when we look at the classification and realize we're late. It is necessary to make fewer mistakes, find some more alternative routes, collect as many power ups available and provide some entertainment  stunt maneuvers that serve as a starting point for most any style.

Mad Riders impresses more by style than substance. The landscapes are colossal, authentic destinations that extend through ups and downs like a rollercoaster. However, without the "havoc" Split Second there is little to be explored, and when we all realize that we're just throwing more evidence to find variations of the same track. Moreover the texture resolution is not as favorable as which we have in a well-known franchise of the current generation: Motorstorm. On the ground Motorstorm is more physical, visceral, and sends the player to virtual tracks in mud, earth, and stone surfaces that reflect a reaction to the machine, without losing sight of essential notions of speed and grandeur of scenery. It’s from here that immediately distinguish what is a good game of an average game that we can play - as long as the player engages, but never surprises. 

Along the way we have a date with power ups and an invitation to acrobatics. Collecting and making spectacular maneuvers are crucial requirements to obtain the maximum score that gives you vital stars and points to unlock the next tournament. No need to say that the difficulty increases gradually as you unlock new tournaments. Your level also rises with accumulated points. You unlock additional content, make new stunts, unlock secret tracks and unlock new bikes. The game thus guarantees a pleasant progression, but predictable. Offers little new, though the offer is enough to keep you interested in moving forward until you enter a new and repetitive cycle.

The power-ups guarantee boosts and unlock secret passages and alternative routes. The stunts may involve spinning the bike sideways or doing consecutive stunts. Near the landing point we have a target and hitting the mark are available a few more boosts. The sense of speed is good and sometimes the speed is such that even lose control of the bike against walls and other floating objects. The slopes differ sufficiently from each other and the events are not all alike. There are time trials, races with three laps, top scores, arenas (checkpoints) and stunts.

The multiplayer is predictable. It flows without major latency problems, allows up to 12 players to enter the competition and can receive invites during our participation in individual events, simply pressing the left d-pad. The options are scarce and we can participate in a group or through a room set up to receive invites from friends. In Mad Riders stands out many of the problems of the previous game and proves to be a highly predictable game, with no great reason to stand out from others and with little or nothing attractive. You can take a chance on Mad Riders, but keeping interest for more than a few hours might be complicated. Never convincing, has no serious mistakes but never gets to stand out from the dozens of other options out there.

Marco Cecilio, NoobFeed