• Summary: Ridge Racer Unbounded takes the Ridge Racer series in whole new direction by adding a dose of destruction to the familiar arcade gameplay.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 9
  2. Negative: 0 out of 9
  1. May 10, 2012
    85
    Unbounded is a part of a franchise strongly associated with consoles but somehow turns out to be average on X360 and one of the best arcade racing games in years on PC. On PC it just plays better (even with a keyboard!) and is extremely rewarding. [June 2012, p.66]
  2. 70
    A significant shift from previous installments towards a greater show and extreme drifting. If you prefer Split/Second type of racing the new Ridge Racer won't disappoint you. [May 2012]
  3. May 16, 2012
    68
    If you love demanding arcade racing games, heavy on OCD, give it a chance, as soon as its price is lowered. Otherwise, you can find much better games of the genre out there. [May 2012]

See all 9 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 16
  2. Negative: 5 out of 16
  1. It takes elements from NFS, Split Second and Bournout. And that is a good thing! Oh this game is so cool with the oldskool Ridge Racer drifting in it! I really like it. Unfortunatly it is a bit simple and linear. And also does not feel very polished. But its fun in a box, just be sure not to pay more than 20€ for it. Because right now it is more than that I "only" gave it a 7. Expand
    • 2 of 2 users said yes
  2. 5
    I didn't like Ridge Racer Unbounded. First I'd like to say that I wasn't big fan of Ridge Racer brand so partially that was my fault because I expected to be more like Flatout serial (because of Bugbear). It runs smoothly, it has lots of content, but it feels somehow outdated at least for the PC. I hated that console menus and obvious lack of config options. Lighting effects can be annoying sometimes but generally they look cool. What about driving? It is ok - arcade like, when you get grip you can easily maneuver your vehicle. However I didn't like drifting, it's kind of unrealistic but as I have found out later it's main feature/characteristic of RR games in the past. What I expected to be better are car physics and car destruction, FO UC is much better in both and I thought that creators of that game can do only better, but I was wrong. So if you like to play Flatout stick to it, don't waste your time on RR, it's quite different game (as it should be). Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. Imagine the silly explosions of Michael Bay movies mixed with the terrible lens flare and bloom visual effects of J.J. Abrams movies slapped on top of a really bad Burnout ripoff. This is what Ridge Racer Unbounded feels like. On the plus side it seems to be well optimized, and keyboard controls seem to work just "fine". At least I assume it wouldn't get any better with a game pad. And that's where the downsides begin. The cars all control like bricks, when you try to go around corners without drifting you go straight into a wall, when you try to go around corners drifting you go sidewalls into a wall, the "smash through things, big explosions" features do almost nothing about the actual race progression, and the races are either super frustrating (when you get stuck on a wall you thought you could smash though because there's no visual distinction between destructible objects and indestructible ones) or easy as cake (when you manage to take the corners in some way and you run kilometres in front of the competition) to the point where the last races in the game feel exactly like the first ones (including the difficulty level), only in a different district. The relative shortness doesn't help either, and the track editor is so unimaginative that you start assuming that the actual game race tracks were built in it. The icing on this bitter cake is a soundtrack that consists mostly of repetitive techno. If you want to see a game that does pretty much every single thing much better go and get Burnout Paradise. P.S.: As I long time Destruction Derby and FlatOut fan I can assure that it's absolutely NOTHING like these games (pretending that FlatOut Ultimate Carnage doesn't exist because it was almost as awful as this game). Expand
    • 2 of 4 users said yes

See all 16 User Reviews