Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Riptide GP2 is a water based racing game available for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS4. Vector Unit was founded in December 2007 by Ralf Knoesel and Matt Small with a team comprising of just four members including themselves. Vector Unit’s focus is clearly on racing games as their first game released in July 2010 in the form of Hydro Thunder Hurricane which was followed by Riptide GP in 2011, Shine Runner and Beach Buggy Blitz in 2012, Riptide GP2 releasing initially in 2013 on iOS and Android platforms and Beach Buggy Racing in 2014 with Beach Buggy Racing and Riptide GP2 making their home console debuts on PS4 in June 2015.

Career mode consists of 9 series of events with an ever increasing amount of events contained within each series. The first series contains 4 events which increases for every series, with the second series containing 5 events and the third series containing 7 events and upwards thereafter, although only the first series of events are initially available as players have to earn enough gold stars for finishing on the podium with 1 gold star for a third place finish, 2 gold stars for second and 3 gold stars for winning the event to unlock the later runs in a career series. There is initially 1 star required to unlock the third event and 2 stars required to unlock the fourth event of the first series with 6 stars required to unlock the second series all the way through to 150 stars required to unlock the ninth series of events.

There are 4 event types including race, hot lap, elimination and freestyle with race events consisting of 1 or 2 lap races as the player competes against 7 competitors for the race win, while hot lap events consist of the player attempting to set their fastest lap time around a single lap of the track in order to beat pre-set lap times for a position on the podium. Elimination events are the same as the race events with an added stipulation as the competitor in last place will be eliminated after every 15 seconds until only a single rider remains and freestyle events allow the player to earn points for every stunt performed in an attempt to beat the set amount of points to reach the podium with fresh stunts earning more than repetitions of the same stunts which certainly adds to the skill level required for putting a great freestyle run together.

VR Challenge offers the ability to set the pace over a two lap duration as players race against a ghost time recorded by friends on PlayStation Network throughout an open selection of 14 race tracks, although if others are yet to record a time on a track, then players can compete against a set time limit for the first time set followed by racing against the ghost time from the second attempt of the track onwards.

Players can earn cash by finishing races as high as possible which is vital as the money is used to purchase upgrades for hydro jets to improve a certain element of the performance such as increased acceleration, top speed, handling and boost with the upgrades being more expensive as progression is made through the quality of hydro jet upgrades. Upgrades will be required to win particular races as progression is made further through each type of event; for instance players may earn a podium position with a third place finish, therefore resulting in having to upgrade the hydro jet to an entirely higher level of quality in order to improve performance to gain the race win.

Earning enough XP to level up provides a skill point and cash award which steadily increases as each level is attained with level 1 skills being unlocked from the start, while levels 2, 5, 10 and 15 have to be unlocked by reaching those specific levels, then having enough skill points to purchase such skills. Skill points are utilised to purchase an improvement to a hydro jet ability such as having a momentarily longer boost, improved agility for the rider to be able to land stunts earlier by a certain margin in order to reduce the potential of crashing or even learning new stunts, therefore making it easier to earn boost in every event type or points during freestyle events.

The track design is amazing as there are 14 tracks from a variety of environments including a multitude of arenas, parks and icy landscapes with some tracks having jumps that are capable of taking the player onto a higher area of the track which provides an additional jump as an opportunity to gain further boost from performing another stunt as an alternative to the lower track surface.

The hydro jet design is pretty good as there are 11 hydro jets available to select which come in all shapes and sizes of design and even customisable paint schemes to represent the rider and team with every hydro jet having its own limitations of minimum and maximum performance, while the player starts out riding the Stingray which is earned simply by completing the tutorial before powering to the podium and victories to earn enough cash to purchase higher level performance hydro jets.

Performing stunts is important as it earns boost to temporarily increase the speed of the hydro jet with repetition of a stunt earning less boost for every occasion it is performed during every event type and earning less points during freestyle events. The stunts are clearly influenced by such extreme sports as Motocross and BMX with aerial manoeuvres including bar hop, superman, can can, front flip, back flip and tabletop across a total of 25 stunts which certainly adds authenticity to the racing as well as the stunts during every event type to earn boost and throughout the freestyle events to earn points.

There is a real sense of speed to each hydro jet which only increases as they are upgraded further and ascend through the maximum rate of acceleration, top speed and boosting as well as the quality of handling as players attempt to keep their hydro jet from receiving a heavy landing from a wave by not carrying enough speed to ride the waves properly or scraping the barriers from carrying too much speed through a corner which are potential scenarios which could arise and significantly reduce the chances of winning the race, although the handling feels appropriate for the pace of the hydro jet for as long as the handling is equally upgraded.

There is only a single camera angle which is placed behind the hydro jet from a third-person perspective, although it is well positioned it cannot be adjusted for any players who wish to move it further forwards or backwards, while it cannot be panned around or look behind the hydro jet to check if an opposing rider is catching up with greater momentum through a straight to overtake on the inside or outside which somewhat detracts from the usual variety of camera angles and camera functionality available throughout the racing genre.

The performance during remote play is excellent as the graphics, audio and general performance are all of the same quality as the PS4 version, while the control scheme has been optimised which results in the accelerator being moved from R2 to the top right of the touch screen, although it would have perhaps been better suited to the R button instead as players may have to lift their thumb off the top right of the touch screen to press X when activating a boost which of course depends upon the size of the player’s hands, although if the thumbs can simultaneously tap the top right of the touch screen and press X then it will quickly begin to feel like a natural control scheme, but players will still have to lift their thumb off the touch screen to be able to change the direction of the right analogue stick in order to perform a stunt which may result in a slight loss of momentum.

The controls are well mapped to the DualShock 4 controller with the control scheme consisting of pressing R2 to accelerate; pressing L2 to brake; pressing X to boost or recover a hydro jet after having crashed; changing the direction of the left analogue stick to steer the hydro jet; simultaneously changing the direction of the left and right analogue sticks when jumping off a ramp performs a stunt; pressing the share button takes you to the share feature menu; and pressing the options button to display the pause menu. The DualShock 4 controller vibrates when the hydro jet has a heavy landing from a wave, after a large jump, scraping the trackside barrier or colliding with another hydro jet. There is no gyroscopic, touch pad or light bar implementation which is surprising as the gyroscopic motion sensing functionality could have provided an alternative to the left analogue stick in regards to steering your hydro jet, while touch pad could have been used as an alternative to activate a boost or swiping in specific directions to perform stunts, although if the ability to look behind the hydro jet or change the camera angle was included in the game then they would have been just as ideal to be mapped to the touch pad, alongside the light bar could have displayed a tone of colour to represent the colour of the team.

The graphics are excellent with amazing water effects with waves which ripple across the track and water droplets that splash upwards onto and then flow down camera after a heavy landing from a large jump or performing a stunt, while the hydro jet models and trackside environments look just as great in 1080p resolution, alongside an incredible level of performance at 60FPS with smooth hydro jet animations for not only handling, but also the jumps and aerial manoeuvres required for performing stunts as well as the ability for hydro jets to truly provide a sense of speed which only progresses as players earn faster hydro jets and upgrade them to perform at their maximum potential.

The presentation of the game is solid with a great user interface across various menus such as the main, career, VR Challenge, split-screen and a help and settings menu with support for navigation via the left analogue stick, directional pad and face buttons, although it does not include support for navigation via the right analogue stick or touch pad. The background of the menu screens looks rather vibrant as the main menu includes a rider on a hydro jet amongst the calm rippling of the water with machinery in the background to calibrate the hydro jet.

The audio revolves around sound effects including hydro jet engines accelerating and boosting, hydro jets colliding with one another or a scrape with the track barriers, water splashing after a heavy landing from a hydro jet and ambient sound effects such as powerful turbines, fireworks and waterfalls, while the music mostly consists of sci-fi infused pop and dance. There is surprisingly no DualShock 4 speaker implementation, although it could have produced any layer of audio such as hydro jet engines, boosting, collisions, water splashing, ambient sounds or even music.

The trophy list includes 24 trophies with 6 bronze, 11 silver, 6 gold and 1 platinum trophy. There are some easy trophies which players will earn rather quickly such as the I Did It bronze trophy for winning their first race; the Mechanic bronze trophy for purchasing a single upgrade for a hydro jet; and the Call Me Picasso bronze trophy for painting a hydro jet, while there are some trophies which will be earned naturally by progressing through the game such as the Stunt Novice bronze trophy for earning 1,000 points in a Freestyle event and the Freeky Stylie silver trophy for unlocking a level 10 stunt. The harder trophies include the Champion gold trophy for earning all 3 stars in all career events; the Speed Racer silver trophy for earning all 3 stars in every Hot Lap event; the Tricky Racer silver trophy for earning all the stars in every Freestyle event; the Aggressive Racer silver trophy for earning the stars in every Elimination event; the Pro Racer silver trophy for earning stars in every race event; and the Still Counts gold trophy for crashing over the finish line in first position. It is estimated that depending upon skill and a good trophy guide to provide some helpful tips that it would take between 6 to 10 hours to platinum the trophy list.

There are no difficulty levels, although the difficulty curve is noticeable as the career series produces a steady increase in how hard it is to win an event as players progress throughout the career from the beginning of the first series onwards with the opposing riders appearing to be generally faster, more aggressive in their overtaking and utilising their available boost at the appropriate time in order to prevent you from overtaking their hydro jet or building a large lead at the front of the race; therefore requiring players to hone their racing skill and makes purchasing better hydro jets as well as upgrades for your hydro jets an absolute necessity.

The split-screen multiplayer possesses an excellent level of performance for 2 to 4 players with customisable screen positioning for each of the 2, 3 or 4 players featuring 1 or 2 lap races on the 14 tracks from the career mode with a points tally which reflects the standings of participating players in championship order which certainly adds to the competitiveness and fun of the multiplayer experience, although there are no A.I. opponents to fill the empty grid slots, while PlayStation Plus subscribers can utilise the Share Play feature for split-screen online multiplayer racing.

The online leaderboards focuses on the best times for each of the 14 tracks from the VR Challenge mode with each track reflecting the player’s position based upon how high their track time ranks in comparison to their PSN friends with the positioning of each player based upon how quick they have completed that particular track, although it would have been great to see the inclusion of worldwide online leaderboards as well as online leaderboards for the Freestyle event type.

The replayability stems from many areas such as an extensive career mode across 14 tracks and 4 event types as well as a VR Challenge mode which provides competitive online leaderboards through racing against the lap times of PSN friends across all 14 tracks, earning gold stars to unlock new career events, earning in-game currency to purchase and upgrade hydro jets, earning enough XP to level up in order to earn skill points to learn new abilities and stunts, alongside entertaining split-screen multiplayer for up to 4 players as well as online multiplayer via Share Play which will collectively have players returning to the game for a long time to come.

Overall, if you are a fan of arcade or water based racing games such as Hydro Thunder and most certainly if you appreciate split-screen multiplayer racing, then Riptide GP2 is absolutely a highly recommended game, especially given the amazing variety of content throughout every feature of the game and the realistic price point of just £5.79* is certainly exceptional value for money.

Jason Bonnar

Analysis

• Title: Riptide GP2
• Developer: Vector Unit
• Publisher: Vector Unit
• System: PS4
• Format: PSN Download
• Cross-Buy: No
• Cross-Play: No
• Players: 1-4 (Local Multiplayer/Online Multiplayer via Share Play)/Online Leaderboards
• Hard Drive Space Required: 117.4MB
• *correct at time of publishing