Bike Unchained – Reviewed
Red Bull have released a new mountain bike game starring your favourite riders and bikes. Is it up to scratch?
We downloaded the app, and immediately realised that none of us regular writers were in the target market, so we handed over the reviewing to a tame school-boy to see what the yoof think of this latest toilet pass-time….
“In theory, Bike Unchained is a superb concept for a game. You build a team of riders, compete in various events around the world and hone your mountain biking skills. You can customize and upgrade your bike, ride with big names such as the Athertons, and even have Claudio Caluori as you personal mentor. What’s not to like?
In reality, this ideal concept is marred by slow loading and processing, awkward controls and cartoon-like, gimmicky graphics.The menu interface, whilst easy to navigate, is not exactly eyecatching or visually stunning.
The actual biking events are also troubling. In the races, pedalling makes you slower, due to some peculiar science unknown to man. You are limited to two camera angles, of which you have no control over, and despite the graphics being simple, the game is nevertheless jerky and slow.
The audio of the game is also somewhat lacking. When (finally) entering the game, you are greeted by strange, alien and rather annoying sounds that are apparently ‘music’. The sound effects during the race are good, for example the sound of the bike crashing down on the ground. However, they would be helped by added music, to help the whole ride flow better,filling the gaps.
As with any freetoplay game nowadays, you have to pay money to make any sort of progression into the latter stages of the game, which is endlessly frustrating, as the ingame purchases are also incredibly expensive for what you get.
All things considered, Bike Unchained is a fantastic idea for a game that would operate well on mobile devices. Unfortunately, it has been poorly executed. However, it is still a new game, and has plenty of potential to develop in the not too distant future.”
if you want to download the game and give it a whirl hit the link
Words by Harry Tong, cheers Harry!