Review: Steep: Road to the Olympics

With the release of Steep: Road to the Olympics publisher Ubisoft has appeared in an unpleasant situation. Russian athletes were banned from performing at the 2018 Olympic Games under their flag, and we will not hear the Russian anthem there, but this is not shown in the game. The company has already issued a statement that it does not plan to remove Russian symbols from the project, and this is kind of how it should destroy the atmosphere and negatively affect the realism. In fact, the presence of athletes from Russia has hardly influenced anything.The fact is that in the story mode Road to the Olympics much more attention is paid to the preparation for the Olympics, as indicated by the name of the supplement. "Become a legend" tells about an unknown guy (or girl) who aims to win three medals in three freestyle disciplines: big-eyed, slopestyle and halfpipe. His path begins long before 2018, and he has to take part in a large number of competitions, before someone finds him a worthy challenger. 

If you want, you can immediately go for the implementation of the Olympic tests - they are available on the map and are not blocked. But those who have not run Steep for a long time alreadyor just now began acquaintance with her, it is advisable to go through the story and understand the basic mechanics. The protagonist does not come to the performances at once - first he must carefully prepare for each of them, and the previous training sessions become a kind of training for the player. Here, the subtleties of management will be explained, and a couple of valuable advice will be given.

Unfortunately, the plot mode is ridiculously simple and does not cause at least some difficulties. To pass the championships you need to break the records of all opponents, and their results are so deplorable that even in multi-stage trials you become a leader without any problems and take first place with a wide margin. In a sense, such a decision is logical - since this is a game about the Olympics, everyone who buys the supplement should get into the competition without any problems. However, it would be great to see, for example, additional tasks that would somehow affect the success of the character.

But "Become a legend" is not only a string of tests and competitions: stories of famous athletes perfectly fit into the story line. Before each run a video clip is launched, in which one of them broadcasts about emerging difficulties, unexpected joys and just shares impressions of the Olympics and preparations for it. Many of these people have won gold medals in Sochi, including being invited sage kotsenburg (Sage Kotsenburg), then became the first athlete to get the "gold" in the men's slopestyle. Even people far from sports will surely be interested in listening to boring stories in the intervals between the plot tasks.

Compared with the preparation itself, the Olympics are much more difficult. There are nine disciplines here: supergiant, downhill, slopestyle, big-air, halfpipe, snowboard cross, slalom, giant slalom and parallel giant slalom. If you take one of the first places in one of the trials, the main character will joyfully wave his hands at the stormy ovations of the audience and the national anthem for which he is speaking. Since the whole Olympics are scattered around the mountains of South Korea, the atmosphere of the largest sports competition is almost non-existent. Performed in one discipline, spoke in another, passed all the races - and it all ended.

Become the first without doping

But the tests themselves turned out to be remarkable and sometimes limit the player in the possibilities, which makes the conquest of the medal not so easy as in "Become a legend". In the halfpipe, for example, do not allow to infinity "farm" points - you can perform a maximum of six tricks, after which it is better to immediately go to the finish and not waste time. The same applies to slopestyle, where these tricks are twenty. The movements of the judge are also evaluated strictly - after each of them it is desirable to perform a grab (grab your hand for the board and land accurately), otherwise you can not wait for high scores.

The most difficult disciplines are the slalom and its variations, since by deft clicks on the buttons a victory is not won here. To lay bends before each gate or near each flag is not so easy at first, but with each new attempt you perform better and in time you pass the track almost perfectly. Here you need to constantly adjust your speed and think over the following actions in your head, and, since in Steep speed was always felt perfectly, from the successful passage of such tests you get great pleasure.

Although the mountains of South Korea can only be visited for participation in games, the vast territory of the mountains of Japan is available for free research. And this location turned out to be the best available. Then you fall into the cherry blossomed zone, which is breathtaking. Then you find yourself near a small settlement with a multi-storey pagoda towering over the rest of the houses. Rolling around the mountains here is fun thanks to the mini-ski jumps that can be traveled around and with which you can perform steep tricks on the way to the next goal. 

The open world has always been one of the key features of the Steep, and in addition the opportunity to go where the eyes look, has not disappeared anywhere. There are also a lot of tests, using binoculars, you still look for new landing zones, and mountain stories seem to be just as strange entertainment, in which you are still enthusiastically participating. There are also serious tasks, like insane flights on reactive wingsuit, and funny episodes - in one of them it is necessary to jump from roof to roof in Tsumago village. The mountains of Japan are divided into four regions (Daisetsudzan, Sapporo, Dzao and Hakuba), and in each of them is full of special places, tests and other opportunities to find classes for every taste.

In other words, Road to the Olympics is the same Steep , only in other locations and with new trails for testing. Released a year ago the game was not perfect, but it offered something that can not be found on the market. Huge areas with beautiful places, a variety of sports, the ability to instantly switch between them and the constant desire to beat their own records - all the same is in addition. If there is no desire to return to the original, then you can not pay attention to the DLC, and bored on a free ride through the mountains to skip the Road to the Olympics definitely is not worth it. 

Pros:challenging and diverse Olympic trials; a large and beautiful new territory with a lot of entertainment; excellent videos with the participation of famous athletes. 

Cons: The Olympics paid not so much attention as preparation for it; story campaign is very short and easy.