I loathed the Ridge Racer series from the very beginning. To me they all represented the most basic "go forward and turn corners" nature of racing games, they were all so linear and plain. Recently I was so bored and desperate for a decent racing game that I took a chance on Ridge Racer Unbounded and was pleasantly surprised that it is a deviation from the formula and comes across as more of a cross between Burnout Paradise and Motorstorm Apocalypse.
Set in a fictional town called Shatter Bay it is your goal to dominate a series of challenges in different areas of the city. There is enough variety in scenery to keep the stages diverse although they are far from the happy blue skies of Burnout: Paradise or OutRun. There's a lot of downbeat coloring here but it's a minor complaint.
Within each race there are chances to cause mass destruction by boosting through buildings and watching the city around you collapse and disintegrate while shockwaves take out surrounding opponents. These moments are a lot of fun and reminded me a lot of Motorstorm: Apocalypse. The custom soundtrack makes the action even more exciting if you have the right tunes on your PS3.
I did find the actual game to be very, very hard and I could not even complete the first series of events. There are 51 trophies in total and I managed to earn 58% of them, but virtually ALL of them were from the user-generated content, which I found to be far more enjoyable and engaging than anything in the actual story mode. Online mode is a wasteland so you've no chance of getting the Platinum now (online trophies should NEVER count towards a Platinum).
You've seen all of this before, but it is still a fun game that will prove to be a decent distraction for a week or so.
Graphics B+
Sound B
Gameplay B
Lasting Appeal C
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