Hardcore automotive simulators are few and far between as in recent years, racing games that featured simulation physics are more geared towards eSports. Once upon a time, single player career experiences were all the craze as players could purchase vehicles and upgrade parts to improve their performance. There was once a game that focused on motorcycle racing that went about this route known as Tourist Trophy. While motorcycle games have began to gain popularity once again, one developer saw the opportunity to jump into the genre of pure motorcycle simulation racing. This small studio, RaceWard Studio, has created a deep and legendary simulation handling engine with the most minute details. RiMS Racing is quite possibly the deepest single player racing simulation ever created across all available genres of racing.
The team at RaceWard Studio went about the design of RiMS Racing a different way. The game offers eight of the world’s fastest superbikes with the choices being Kawasaki Ninja ZX10 RR, Aprilia RSV4, BMW M1000RR, Ducati Panigale V4R, Honda CB1000 RR, MV Agusta F4 RC, Suzuki GSXR-1000 and the Yamaha YZF R1. While there are only bikes in the game, RiMS Racing is dependent on its Career Mode for testing, upgrading and modifying the bike of your choice. Rather than offering a variety of bikes to throw on a circuit, you will make this bike your baby.
Players will focus on testing setups, upgrading and providing maintenance to the bike after races. Each of the eight bikes have been recreated to properly represent the difference and nuances of each model. Everything on the bike is upgradeable ranging from the tires, brakes and exhaust to chains and even brake fluid. This has to be kept up with to maintain performance, and you’ll quickly realize how difficult it is to maintain a racing team. Parts tend to wear quickly depending on the amount of abuse the bike takes. So this means that tires and brakes will be the quickest to go. A plethora of manufacturers are available as over 500 bike parts are officially licensed.
The detail and love that went into crafting the handling of the bikes in RiMS Racing is unprecedented. Testing the limits of grip while maintaining speed constantly changes based not only on the wear and tear of the individual parts, but on the specific manufacturer part your selected. Old parts can be sold for money, but the more wear they have, the less you net. As parts such as the suspension or tires wear, the bike will behave differently and become more difficult to manage. You can either push the bike to the max through a race and nurse it at the end, or conserve the pushes and limit the wear on the parts. Racing in different conditions such as a wet track or in the rain will also affect the racing and your approach. You can view live wear and tear for every part on the bike during a race using the Motorbike Status Check. This is a bonus as the in-game menus and UI aren’t user friendly.
Having some sort of part upgrade path or some deeper guidance on what type of performances upgrades or changes selecting a specific part would provide would be helpful. It seems the team believes you know what parts are best and that you’re already a gearhead. The design of the game, as a whole, is for hardcore bike enthusiasts but, surprisingly, can be used as a tool. It’s a mixed bag. When replacing parts, you’ll actually conduct quicktime events to disassemble, replace and reassemble the bike. Sometimes this can leave you hanging in the menu and the entire body will be off the bike and you’ll need to sift through the menu to each individual piece and re-mount it. Replacing parts on these types of bikes are a pain and they seem to be properly replicating that in the menus. This is a cool way to implement the upgrades and will also give you an idea, if you own a bike, of what needs to be done to replace these parts in real life. Upgrading an air filter? Take the entire bike apart.
The AI can be a mixed bag when racing. Typically there are ten racers on the track at a time, with the leaders tending to pull away and the pack separated in groups of three. Some are much slower, but you’ll see them bump each other or bump you. The AI mostly pays attention as I had one break to avoid hitting me from behind. Racing with the AI, however, feels like you’re running a separate race for the most part. There’s no set class for each event in the Career Mode, so you may have more upgrades or something completely different. It feels like their pacing as a whole is different.
I tested the beta on PC and the AI is much better, but the one aspect that propels the PlayStation 5 version to the top is the implementation of DualSense controls with Adaptive Triggers. The trigger design is the best for any racing game yet on the platform. Braking with the left trigger apply the resistance up front and it trails off in the end, which is the way it should be designed. Accelerating is fluid, but the biggest aspect is when the rear wheel breaks loose. You can feel a burnout and ride it out with the right trigger, but properly feeding the gas can save you if the bike starts to come out from under you. This is a game changer and should be the platform of choice because of this. The bikes will backfire while shifting and not only will the pop come out through the speaker, the controller rumbles with it. This makes the experience unheralded on the PlayStation 5.
The audio captured from the bikes is some of the best audio ever heard in a racing game. The team at RaceWard Studio went through an elaborate and detailed route to properly replicate not only how the bikes sound stock, but also changes with different exhaust setups from different manufacturers. These bikes roar just like they do on the streets and the full experience needs to be captured with a headset. Even collisions and crashes sound solid, but the bike audio shines. It’s also worth noting that the EDM band Bloody Beetroots has written the entire soundtrack for the game, which feels fititng
The visuals are a portion that doesn’t measure up to the audio in the game. Reflections are the bright spot for the visuals as reflections from the bikes, player models and the race track do a good job. The lighting, overall, seems soft and colors don’t pop that well on PS5. The game also suffers from frame rate issues when a lot is happening in a spot, but this is mainly through sharp turns. On top of this, screen tearing pops up during this and this is hopefully something that can be patched. The motion blur gets sluggish at times on straightaways and the overall visual experience is inconsistent. Also, there’s no option to change graphical performance. The engine isn’t demanding and this is on various consoles, so this the performance is strange considering the hardware.
As for the Career Mode itself, players will progress across seventy event weeks of content. Some weeks will have you doing tutorials, others will have you racing with one of the other bikes in the game with the opportunity to unlock it. There are championships thrown in there, as well, as you will race on ten faithfully re-created real world circuits such as Laguna Seca, Silverstone, Paul Ricard, Suzuka, Fuji and more. There are also five road routes that take place in the likes of Norway, Spain and Australia.
There’s no doubt that RaceWard Studio nailed the most important aspect of the game, which is the racing experience. While the Career Mode is the focus, the rest of the game leaves much to be desired in terms of modes. There’s an Academy Mode that will teach you basics and advanced maneuvers, but these will be encountered during the Career. Players can do a single race or private test, but nothing else is available. As for multiplayer, the game does offer online challenges and local splitscreen. Unfortunately, there seems be no community for online racing as no one is racing even on launch day. you’re able to also only race as the eight stock bikes and not any of your projects, which is a giant miss.
Closing Comments:
RiMS Racing is the most immersive motorcycle gaming experience to date, with the DualSense pushing this even further. With a solid and lengthy Career Mode, you’ll have plenty of chances to maximize your bike’s performance and play around with different setups. While there are only eight bikes, with the amount of depth for upgrading and testing, it’ll make you forget about variety. The bike audio is ridiculously immersive and every race feels different just based on wear and tear from the bike and new part installation. The game can also be a tool on what would be needed to replace parts on these actual bikes. What’s lacking is multiplayer due to a lack of a community and anything outside of the Career Mode. This is a pure single player experience, which is perfectly fine, and any gamer who loves motorcycles will enjoy RiMS Racing. It also only retails for $39.99 and is worth the price of admission just to experience how well DualSense is implemented into the game.
