Ride 6 Review (PS5, Xbox Series X/S, & PC)

You want to know how many times I’ve thought about buying myself a sweet, sportsbike? More times than I can count, and still haven’t had the confidence to go and get myself a motorcycle license. 

“You look hot on a bike,” I know, but I’d rather keep swagging it out in gaming: Ride 6 as of recent. This is the fine line option I’ve gone for between hyper-realism and carefree fun. When I just want a quick spur with friends (or AI), and bear no repercussions for wrecking my bike… and myself? 

Before I chicken out all over again, what’s the Ride series all about? And is it better than all the iterations that have come before it? Let’s find out in our Ride 6 review below.

Make Your Mark

Let’s start with the biggest feature, and that’s Career mode. As with other sports games, you get the chance to work your way up the ladder. Starting from rookie, you’ll compete in relatively quick races. Every win nets you in-game currency, which helps you upgrade your bike. 

Ride 6 has really outdone itself with its bike selection. A staggering 340+ options you can unlock and upgrade. I reckon bike enthusiasts will have the most fun here. But also anyone interested in browsing different brands and manufacturers. 

An impressive 21 manufacturers deliver beyond words on bike models that look as authentic as real ones. They have intricate detail and stunning design, just wanting you to hop on and give it a spin. 

If you’re overwhelmed by the choices, you can use the disciplines as a guide. Seven categories total, including sportbikes, scooters, motards, endurance sportsbikes, and more. Think of these as classes that offer varying stats and capabilities. Some are heavier, others faster. 

The tracks will determine the bikes you pick, especially with the newly added off-road tracks. You might want dirt bikes for muddy tracks, offering more grip on the road. Or you might want to experiment, crafting your unique playstyle. Either way, the 45 real-world and fictional tracks will offer more than enough engaging variety to keep things moving. 

You also do get to pick your biker, although the customization options for their faces aren’t as extensive as you might expect. You can’t build a character who looks like you, for example, at least in the uncanny ways RPGs offer.

Once they put on their helmets, though, I doubt character customization will matter too much. Well, maybe the gear and liveries, especially when you win races and unlock rarer options. 

Career Driven

Speaking of winning races, it is an uphill climb to the top. Fortunately, you have two difficulty options: arcade and pro. Absolute beginners will want to choose arcade, just to learn the basics of weight balancing, braking, etc. With the assists toggled on, it’s a lot easier to control your bike. 

Perhaps too easy for veterans, who’ll then want to switch to Pro. It’s unfortunate that Ride 6’s arcade mode doesn’t offer options for tweaking assists. So it feels like it’s a pick “one or the other” deal, without any in between. 

Career mode also has a Bridgestone Riding School, where you unlock tutorials. And it’s good that this mini-mode is included because Ride 6 can get pretty technical. Without understanding your bike and the track, you can easily get frustrated when you continuously lose races.

Switching to Pro, especially, can come with its own difficulty spike. As you tweak settings and anticipate when to break and accelerate, it can be pretty easy to get knocked out of the competition. Crashes are pretty normal, as are opponents ramming into you.

Though the latter is more the AI’s deficiency, keeping too close to you, and ending up ramming into your bike. But they still put up a worthy challenge, and can fill up the space for friends or online players, when you’re looking into quick solo runs. 

Riding Solo

On the solo runs, you can jump into quick races. Or you can try out Time Trials. It’s a great adrenaline release when you haven’t got much else to do. But it can get boring after sometime, leading you back to career mode.

Well, ten experts in their corresponding disciplines challenge you to reach their rank and beat them. That’s the career path you follow, winning one race at a time, in a certain discipline, unlocking more challenges, winning more races, upgrading your bike and stats, and eventually challenging the experts.

It’s a pretty impressive roster Ride 6 has here, of experts you’ll be climbing up the ladder to beat. Some names you’ll recognize –Casey Stoner, Troy Bayliss, Guy Martin, etc. Others perhaps not. I suspect also that bike enthusiasts will appreciate beating these guys more than newbies. I imagine the feeling when you finally beat your favorite racer, and inherit their helmet for yourself; it must feel glorious. 

And therein might lie the motivation to keep trudging forward through Career mode. Because otherwise, the races remain largely the same. It’s still the same races on the same tracks, with new bikes unlocked. Granted, some tracks are far more impressive than others (Australia’s Red Bull Ring, Turkey’s Kapadokya Rally, etc), and might hold your attention for longer. Perhaps their sharp corners, perhaps their stunning detail. 

Off-beat

Having a day/night cycle and dynamic weather does help keep the tracks and races interesting. Particularly when Ride 6 genuinely looks jaw-dropping, when rain hits the ground, and leaves it wet. When the sun illuminates the skies below. And it just makes you want more. 

More opportunities to pull off stunts; jump high enough to smash through low-reaching objects. Even the off-road tracks, while presenting opportunities for chaos, still feel stiff. Your character still remains firmly planted on the saddle, even when racing through uneven ground. 

It’s the one thing Ride 6 misses out on. That sense of excitement and immersion that the tiniest of details can add to a game. Even in the Career mode, which is presented as a festival. “Ride Fest,” it’s called, much like Forza Horizon’s, where you set up camp at an exotic location, and spectate or participate in events and races across days. 

You have DJ booths and celebrations for when you win races. And music blasting through the camps. But you choose your races from a menu. And there aren’t that many exciting things to do or visit in the festival itself.  

Forza Horizon really outdid itself with the emphasis on car culture and amount of things you could do in its open, ever-evolving, shared world. But in Ride 6’s case, it feels empty, and only a mere set dressing for races that are ultimately the same as the time trials or the quick rounds in the solo runs. 

But perhaps this is wishful thinking of Ride 6 to be any different than it is. Were it to adopt Forza’s open-world quests and side quests. Will it still feel the same?

Buddy or Two

It’s still early stages, but the multiplayer side of Ride 6 is another mode you’ll probably spend the most time on. Nothing beats challenging friends to a quick race, whether they’re coming over on local split-screen or are far away. Ride 6 has got you sorted with different modes, including private and public lobbies, regular challenges, and competitive leaderboards.

Plus, it’s the place to show off your cool helmets and bikes. When you’ve spent time customizing your liveries and suits, it only makes sense to show them off. Unless you’re content with seeing your bike in the garage, spinning it around, and zooming in on its specific features.

Verdict

When considering the best motorcycle racing games, Ride 6 won’t be far from thought. It comes from Milestone, a giant in developing arcade and simulation racing games, including MotoGP and Monster Energy Supercross. Being a sixth iteration, though, brings with it concerns over true innovation. And well, there really isn’t much different compared to Ride 5, or any of the entries that came before. And that isn’t too surprising, with annual franchises these days.

At the very least, Ride 6 does offer its largest roster yet. It adds new bikes and tracks that are sure to leave bike enthusiasts all jolly. And it makes sure to maintain impeccable detail on the designs and authenticity to real-life counterparts. Racing itself still feels damn good, fine-tuned to be even smoother than before. And the addition of Arcade means newcomers can get the opportunity to be acclimated to the deceptively technical handling.

I’m unsure, though, how much longer Ride 6 can keep its Career mode engaging, or its multiplayer content satisfying. There simply isn’t much different between the races across the modes, with a dangerous possibility of it getting repetitive. This is a perfect game for quick rounds of fun, but longer than a few minutes or hours and the repetitiveness will start to take its toll.