Ride 2 wants to be the game that makes you feel the motorcycle. Milestone built it around the rider and the machine, and it puts more than 170 bikes in your garage to prove the point. That is a lot of metal. It is not always enough.
Trailer, via Square Enix.
Milestone Opens the Garage
Ride 2 is the second game in Milestone’s two-wheel racing series, published by Square Enix and Milestone in 2016 for PlayStation 4, PC and Xbox One. It is a racing game, a simulator and a sport, played in first person or third person, alone or against other riders.
The pitch is the relationship between rider and motorcycle. Milestone calls it the connection between man and machine, and it wants that connection to feel closer than it did the first time. Career mode carries most of that weight, with customization for both rider and bike sitting on top.
The source material opens with a promise: welcome to the temple of motorcycles, the only digital garage that will allow you to discover, transform and test the world’s fastest, most iconic and original vehicles. That is the promise. The game spends a lot of its time trying to keep it.
More Than 170 Bikes
The headline number is 170. Ride 2 ships with over 170 bikes, and the source calls them the undisputed protagonists of the new chapter. The top of the range from the most famous brands is here, waiting for you to compete against them and show the world their full potential.
Customization is the other headline. Players can race the motorcycle of their dreams, with unprecedented options for both rider and bike, and create the ultimate ride down to the finest detail. That is the core loop: pick the machine, shape the machine, ride the machine.
It is a strong idea for a racing game. Most of the genre hands you a car and asks you to drive it. Ride 2 hands you a garage and asks you to care about what is inside it.
Country, City, GP, Road, Motard, Drag
The tracks split into six types: Country, City, GP, Road, Motard and Drag race. Each one is meant to change how the bike behaves and how you ride it. The source promises the wildest and most exciting races of all time, and asks you to challenge the toughest types of roads and leave a slipstream at every squeal of tires.
That variety is the best thing Ride 2 has going for it. A drag strip and a country road do not ask the same questions of a rider, and Milestone knows it. The gap between a GP circuit and a motard course is the gap between two different games sharing one disc.
The Running Order
| Mode | What it is | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Career | Rider and bike progression | Single player |
| Single player | Solo racing | PlayStation 4, PC, Xbox One |
| Multiplayer | Racing against others | PlayStation 4, PC, Xbox One |
| Customization | Rider and bike detail work | All modes |
| Country | Track type | All modes |
| City | Track type | All modes |
| GP | Track type | All modes |
| Road | Track type | All modes |
| Motard | Track type | All modes |
| Drag race | Track type | All modes |
The Numbers Behind Ride 2
- Title: Ride 2
- Year: 2016
- Developer: Milestone
- Publisher: Square Enix, Milestone
- Platforms: PlayStation 4, PC (Microsoft Windows), Xbox One
- Genres: Racing, Simulator, Sport
- Modes: Single player, Multiplayer
- Bikes: Over 170
- Track types: Country, City, GP, Road, Motard, Drag race
- Critic aggregate: 6.2/10 from seven outlets, collected by IGDB
The Adrenaline Problem
Here is where Ride 2 loses its grip. The source tells you to feel the adrenaline rush through your veins and face the most dreadful bends with the passion and the boldness of a professional rider. That is the feeling the game is selling. It is not the feeling the game reliably delivers.
A 6.2 out of 10 across seven outlets is not a disaster. It is a shrug. The bikes are there, the tracks are there, the customization is there, and the career mode is there. What is missing is the thing that would make any of it matter more than the sum of its parts.
The relationship between rider and motorcycle is the whole thesis, and it is the hardest thing to build. You cannot ship it as a feature. You have to make the player feel the weight shift, the tire bite, the difference between one machine and the next. Ride 2 has the catalogue. It does not always have the feel.
What the Customization Buys You
The customization is the part worth defending. Unprecedented options for rider and bike, down to the finest detail, is a real commitment, and it is the reason to pick Ride 2 over a leaner racer. If you want to build a specific machine and live with it, this game lets you.
The track variety earns its place too. Six types is not a marketing line when each one changes the riding. Country, City, GP, Road, Motard and Drag race give the game a range that most racers in 2016 did not bother with.
The career mode is the connective tissue. It is where the rider-and-machine idea is supposed to pay off, and it is where the game most needs the handling to hold up its end. When it does, Ride 2 is exactly the game it says it is. When it does not, you are just moving a bike around a track.
Where Ride 2 Lands
Ride 2 is a good garage and an uneven ride. The 170 bikes are real, the customization is real, and the six track types give it more range than most of its competition. Milestone’s ambition is not the problem. The problem is that the connection between rider and machine is the one thing you cannot fake with a feature list.
Ride 2 sits where it deserves to sit. It is worth your time if the garage is what you came for, and it is a harder sell if you came for the adrenaline. The bikes are the stars, as the source insists. The riding is what has to carry them, and it does not always manage it.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.
