Ride 5 Review - A Somewhat Disappointing Sequel

The PS5 version of Ride 4 is absolutely phenomenal, with visuals so good that it’s managed to make people question whether footage is actually real. With Ride 5 being the first entry in the biking series that’s exclusive to what is now the current generation of consoles and PC, then, our expectations were high. The bad news is that we’re not too hot on this follow-up. Besides it not really being a step up in terms of visuals, it has some worrisome issues that will make it particularly off-putting to newcomers.

As ever, the best way to describe Ride 5 is Gran Turismo with bikes. Jump into career mode, and after a stylish opening you’re free to build a garage of bikes, tweak them to your liking and then use them to complete a huge range of events. Your career is split into four distinct acts, each one marking a milestone. But to reach the next act you’ll have to complete single races, time attack events, championships, head-to-heads and more.

As you move from one event to the next, though, numerous issues rear their heads that can diminish your time with Ride 5. Newcomers, for example, will soon come to realise that the racing line aid is useless when it comes to indicating when you should start to brake for a corner. Wait until the indicator goes orange and you’ll overshoot the corner pretty much every time. Until you’ve learned each track in Ride 5, then, you’ll be making ample use of the rewind feature. Also, while there are more aids than ever in Ride 5, most of them have the habit of simply taking control away from you, which doesn’t lead to an enjoyable experience.

Ride 5 also has the same quirk that so many Milestone racing games have: while you can adjust the difficulty of the AI, making any event where you’re up against opponents a piece of cake, when it comes to Time Attack events you often need to be an absolute pro to get gold. One particular time attack event on the Daytona track has us well and truly done for; we’re close to getting gold with all assists disabled, and if we turn the assists on it’s clear it makes us a hell of a lot slower. It wouldn’t be too bad if it wasn’t for the fact that free bikes are up for grabs if you get all the points available from each event.

If you have experience with bike racing games you’ll undoubtedly have a better time with Ride 5 than a newcomer, but it still leaves a lot of room for improvement. The AI of your competitors is pretty dumb, for example, having no qualms with bumping into you around corners. And entering the pit during endurance events can feel awkward at times, with your bike moving and behaving strangely as it’s taken out of your control. Speaking of endurance events, we also had a strange bug where upon the time running out and us finishing our last lap, the race simply carried on. Restarting from the last pit session didn’t fix the issue, forcing us to fully restart the race and lose valuable time.

Beyond the issues, there’s a lot to like about Ride 5. It finally has dynamic weather, making races that bit more realistic and unpredictable. And for those who love racing online, crossplay has been added, making it quicker and easier to fill the grid. You don’t have to be online to enjoy some multiplayer action either, thanks to split-screen being an option. Throw in a wealth of customisation options, allowing you to make your bike and rider your own, and you have a game that really does have its merits.

Ride 5 is the biggest and most feature-rich Ride game to date, but it’s a shame that many rough edges and issues hold it back from greatness, especially for newcomers. Perhaps with a patch or two, Ride 5 will turn into something really special, but until then, it’s hard to recommend it over Ride 4.