Bright sun, frosty air, hot mulled wine, happy people and their colorful equipment – for the sake of this atmosphere, lovers of skiing are ready to overcome more than one hundred and even a thousand kilometers. December 2 Ubisoft prepares to offer lovers of snow extreme mountains who will be at hand all year round.
Steep – Simulator of extreme sports with the open world, combining four disciplines: skiing, snowboarding, paraglider and vingsut. The author of this article abandoned PS4 into his camping backpack, packed the equipment and went to the beta Steep to understand whether the Ubisoft is preparing a niche game, or, conversely, capable of attracting players who have not previously been interested in such entertainment.
► A deep breath before jumping is one of the best sensations in Steep.
You like to ride ..
In Bete Steep, one could see Arabis, Tyrol and Egui – three of the seven mountainous regions “sewn” into a single open world. The study, however, has not gone anywhere: in order to open new sightseeing sites, tests and attractions, you need to ride around the district and use binoculars intensely. However, there is something to see here: mountain landscapes in Steep are excellent.
The physical size of each mountain region is initially impressive. Several multi -kilometer slopes with villages, forests and glaciers – it would seem that sufficient scope for long races and careful research. But after passing the main trials, you feel a slight bewilderment: you just started to study the surroundings, and there is like there is nothing to do in the region. We hope that this is true only for beta.
► The Steep World map, albeit impressive at first, quickly disappointed with inconvenience and overload.
► Entrance to the server can take as many as two minutes. Painting landscapes slightly brighten up a protracted expectation.
THIS IS INTERESTING: After a short training, the player is left to himself: know yourself, click on the card of the card and choose a test to your liking. But this pretty map is inconvenient: the territory is huge, the tests are few and represented by small icons. So, to visit them from the gamepad only curses. In addition, there is no intelligible indication on the map: what tasks are performed and which are not, where the gold medal is earned, and where – only bronze. It would be much more convenient to see a simple tabular list of events, races and records with the possibility of sorting. So the developers would make life easier for lovers of one hundred percent passages.
► If you look at the Steep achievement screen, the game is created that the game offers a huge set of tests. But this variety lacks structured.
Available sport
In total, we counted nine mountain stories – as in the game they call a series of single tasks imitating a single campaign. During each of these tasks, the player must go through a series of tests. This is clothed in the form of shooting a film about extreme sports, during which you should perform a series of tricks, meet the allotted time and listen to a sunbeam, mysteriously broadcasting something about the ancient keeper of the local mountains.
One of the unconditional success of Steep was the orientation tasks. The only goal here is to get to the point indicated on the map. The route determines the player, the timer counts a minute, the relaxing track sounds – and the first few attempts you slowly roll among trees and snowdrifts, determining the shortest way. Of course, in order to get into the offset, it should be carried out that there is urine, but the study of the surroundings to calm music and in the rays of the setting sun so relaxes that it almost introduces into the trance. It was for such sensations that ordinary tourists go to the mountains, and the authors of Steep were well able to convey them.
Friend on the sled
If you have been to ski resorts at least once, then Winomania Casino you probably know that in the season in the mountains you do not push through the ascenders and other extimals. So in Steep in a multiplayer, in addition to you, there are enough people who want to boast of their dare. Once next to such a well done, you are free to invite him to the group with one click of the button. Group members can compete in races, share with each other found reviews and individual tests.
True, in a few hours of the game, I barely managed to attract a couple of strangers into the group: they were in no hurry to interact, quickly lost interest in joint trips and soon disappeared into the distance. With friends who share your hobby, Steep will almost certainly be interesting. But on the "public" it is boring: there is no common goal and good functioning mechanisms of joint game.
THIS IS INTERESTING: Upon closer examination, Steep turns out to be a “grindle” of medals and achievements. In the absence of an obvious sequence of development of the player, the most effective method of pumping is to knock gold in all kinds of tests. It is the highest result that gives the maximum glasses that develop at the next level of the character, and he, in turn, allows you to open new review platforms and tests. In addition, receiving a gold medal adds the best objects to the extensive catalog of the athlete accessories.
► With an increase in level, new unique starting points open: for example, this balloon for a jump with a wingsyut.
Simulator "YouTuber"?
As the creators say, the green light development of Steep was given due to the growing popularity of videos about extreme sports. Result: Steep at the moment – the most successful simulator of the GoPro camera. The viewing angle, clicks of the case and the “clamped” sound make you believe that you are watching the athlete's speech, and not a game repeat.
Fortunately, this time the case will not be limited to simple viewing: “on the ski” Steep is felt very well – although not without reservations. On the one hand, the excellent animation of athletes, a sense of mass and a completely living world allow you to immediately believe in what is happening. Sound is another strong side. The crunch of snow, the tinkling of equipment, the howl of wind in the ears, the clapping of the parachute canvas, the rustling of the board on the rolled ski – brave team of sound engineers. Their work helps literally feel the frosty air around.
► Flight on paraglider – the most measured lesson in Steep.
THIS IS INTERESTING: skis, borders, glasses, hats, helmets, jackets, backpacks, survival items, wingsyuts, action cameras, headphones, masks and costumes of animals-in Steep hundreds of objects to configure appearance. Some are available immediately, the latter are purchased for glasses, others can only be obtained with a successful completion of a certain arrival. Thanks to many styles and flowers, it is easy to assemble a suit for every taste. After all, it is known that the appearance of the skier is an indispensable component of its success, and the developers were not too lazy in this regard.
But physics in Steep is controversial. It is enough to understand it at first, but after some time it begins to raise questions. Imagine that you are rushing along a ski slope at decent speed. Suddenly a small gentle hill appears in front of you, which, it would seem, is easy to overcome. But no-running into an insignificant obstacle, the athlete athlete in a second unexpectedly loses speed.
Another ambiguous feature of local physics is overload. It is assumed that the athlete is able to endure a certain meaning before losing balance and falls or even perishes. However, the overload calculation system is not obvious and requires addiction. For example, a light touch of the surface of the stone at high speed can lead to a critical overload, which instantly sewn the skier from the feet. On the other hand, hard landing after a protracted jump is too loyally assessed by the game and does not interfere with continuing the arrival.
► Physics in Steep presents surprises, and often unpleasant. It happens that at high speed this fence can be passed through and through. Sometimes – on the contrary: the athlete in it is hopelessly stuck.
A game journalist knows better than developers ..
In fact, of course, there is no! But I nevertheless ventured to dream about how to make Steep outstanding:
– Dynamic weather: A sunny day interrupted by a harsh drill can greatly diversify the gameplay.
– Interaction with other players: to consider each other, boast, communicate or gather in groups, rushing along the slopes, is difficult. Sometimes the only thing you manage to do when seeing the stranger’s screen is to send him an invitation to the group. We will figure it out later! But this is inconvenient. Steep would not interfere with a kind of hub: a large cafe or square where players could meet and get acquainted in a calm atmosphere.
– Night: The position of the Sun in Steep can be set manually. But, hiding behind the horizon, the sun immediately shows from the back. A dull night reigns only in some single tasks. High -speed descent in almost complete darkness – that's where it would be adrenaline!
– Graphic performance: a game glorifying movement and speed misses the opportunity to show them. On PlayStation 4 Steep gives out 30 frames per second, and the pace of withdrawal of these frames does not always seem uniform. Such imperfection is striking, especially at high speeds. 60 FPS, as for me, is required for such a game.
– VR support: I have repeatedly caught himself thinking about what a chic attraction can become Steep in VR. Probably, in the light of the PlayStation VR release, the developers understand this very well, but they did not make any related statements. I would like to hope that optimization for VR is planned for long -term support for Steep.
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Developers promise to expand Steep after release. In particular, Ubisoft has already announced plans to recreate the mountain slopes of Alaska, as well as constantly add new competitions to Steep – both “copying” those that are in reality and players created for the community.
Meet me on the slopes!
