Ridge Racer: Unbounded collides with free-to-play in Driftopia – what’s the damage?

http://media.edge-online.com/wp-cont.../Driftopia.jpgRidge Racer: Unbounded, Bugbear’s bold reinvention of Namco’s racing series, was about taking chances. The world was disposable and destructible; the vehicles blunt, unglamorous instruments to be used to smash, crash and crush your way to victory and unlock the next set of stages. It was rough, rugged and understandably divisive, abandoning the brand’s established core pillars of smooth racing lines, sunset vistas and a forgiving learning curve.It was also divisive due to a lack of user-friendliness. Menus were bare bones, tutorials practically non-existent and the rules of the road – destroy scenery to fill the boost bar required to obliterate shortcuts – encouraged aggression and rewarded recklessness.Remixing and retro-fitting Unbounded as a free-to-play game – whose business model is all about accessibility and monetised customisations – can’t have been an easy task for Bugbear, then, and the pervading sense during our time in the closed beta is that Driftopia currently compromises what went before to cater to its new monetisation methods.The aim is still the same – earn points through victory, this time against other players’ ghosts, to unlock new stages – but there are tweaks to the Unbounded formula that muzzle its old bite. For a start, shortcuts no longer need boost to blast through; you’re free to smash through them as a means to generate boost rather than using them only as an avenue to expend it. And there’s now a garage and repair system that requires you to purchase new vehicles and upgrade them with randomly awarded perks such as more powerful boosts, greater airtime and more points for drifting.

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