Ridge Racer : Unbounded

Sometimes, comparisons are simply inevitable.  Ridge Racer Unbounded (RRU) initially reminded me so much of Black Rock Software's earlier release Split/Second Velocity that I actually picked up the game's case to verify that it was produced by a different development team.  

Set in the fictional locale of Shatter Bay, RRU puts the player in the role of a new member of the Unbounded - a collective of people who apparently exist purely to wax philosophically about piloting a car at mach 3 all over town.  

Light on story, RRU only really gives the bare minimum necessary to frame events for the player, and as such manages to keep the focus on the racing.  Central to RRU is the "power" gameplay mechanic - by performing certain actions such as drifting, tailing an opponent or getting airborne, the player can store power which can then be used to either take out other drivers, give a temporary boost, or simply drive straight through certain structures for a shortcut.

Big on visual style, these uses of stored power are often accompanied by slow motion cinematic cutaways which seem to be aimed at making the player go "PHWOARR!"- although they can be skipped or turned off, the game also does seem to do a good job at keeping the player on the track even while the camera is off elsewhere trying its hardest to emulate the collected works of Michael Bay.

RRU's main single player mode consists of engaging in races, as well as drift and frag attack events where either earning enough drift points, or running enough opponents off the road in the allotted time is the goal.  Progression through the different areas of Shatter Bay is acheived by earning a certain level of points within each particular neighbourhood.  

A simple RPG style levelling system is also in place, which serves as a gate to unlocking content such as new cars as well as new content for the level editor.  

Specific actions and achievements within a race will trigger specific awards (for example, maintain a certain speed for a certain amount of time) which can be tracked from the main menu, albeit there doesn't seem to be much of a point to their implementation - especially when many award conditions begin to become commonplace.

Standard multiplayer racing fare is helped by another addition in the form of an included creation mode.  RRU's level editor strikes a nice balance between ease of use and creative possibility, especially once the player has unlocked some more content for it.  Building simple tracks can be done within minutes, and even more ambitious courses can be completed pretty quickly, thanks in no small part to the way the track components are designed and fit together.

Players can then take their levels and set up the specific conditions of the race or game mode to be played upon it - nothing that hasn't been done before, but what is available for players to mess around with works well.

My biggest issue with RRU is that I found the game much more playable when actively not using one of its core mechanics - perhaps I was just unable to get a feel for it, but after many hours spent with the game I still found attempting to take corners via drifting to be a completely hit and miss affair.  The number of races that had to be restarted owing to my car suddenly facing the wrong way after a corner was insane, and only continued the more i tried to get a grip on this central concept.