When it was first announced at E3 in a ballsy move to close out Ubisoft’s conference, Steep raised a few interested eyebrows before, quite fittingly, getting buried under an avalanche of other games showcased over the weekend. Anticipation has been mildly bubbling ever since, which is why it was almost a surprise to find out that it was receiving an open beta weekend.
An open-world extreme sports game, it’s obvious that Steep has a lot to offer right from the beginning. It sadly does not offer you the chance to connect to a Ubisoft Club account – you have to have one. Signing up to a service when you just want to jump around in some snow is a quick way of taking me out of the game. Shoehorning it in to collect email addresses seems cynical.
That annoyance out of the way, Steep’s most immediately obvious quality is its scale. With the action taking place on a massive mountain range, there’s no shortage of places to ride around. The game wants to lead you by the hand to begin with, but the temptation to simply explore is too much, whether it’s by foot, board, or parachute. Transitioning between these isn’t quite as straightforward as it ideally would be: sometimes changing between a board and a wingsuit will cause your avatar to bug out and be stuck between thoughts.
Anyone hoping for a new SSX might be disappointed by Steep, purely because it’s a more serious and accurate representation of extreme winter sports. It thrives on realism; a dodgy angle on a landing can kill any momentum during a race or even knock you out. Although it might be possible, I haven’t been able to spin a board around my feet like Jesus. Steep is all about doing the little things to make the big picture.
To ease you into the almost punishing realism the game has to offer, Steep asks you to complete a series of different challenges across all disciplines. While it might be good for those who prefer crash course tutorials, I found that Steep shunts you along with too much urgency to the next thing without really letting you settle on one fundamental. As cocle-warming as it may be to hear a guy who sounds like Matthew McConaughey congratulate you on a job well done, it wears slightly that he just keeps piling on your tasks. Ubisoft’s other efforts tend to work in their tutorials organically during a regular playthrough (Far Cry Primal, a relatively dense game, is a good example), but Steep wants to chuck everything at you in the hope that it sticks.
Traversing the monolithic mountain could have been a chore, so the addition of fast travel is welcomed. With a few simple inputs in Mountain Mode, you can go from the summit to a random race without any fuss, though there is a lot of fun to be had in taking the long route. The landscapes are Instagram worthy – Steep’s practically begging you to share screenshots of its beautiful world. From what I’ve gathered so far, it could be a game that emphasises freedom as much as it does competition. There will doubtless be plenty of players who want to do nothing apart from descend the mountain and relax as the views whiz by.
Steep isn’t without its inevitable gameplay faults, however. Jumps have a tendency of not registering, meaning you go over ramps like a barrel and annoyingly break up decent streaks. The physics in general also feel a little subpar at points, chucking you into wild spinouts if you don’t get your angles. Clipping and transparent assets are always something to expect with open-world games and Steep isn’t without its fair share.
Playing online with others is as smooth as the game’s marketing wants you to believe. As soon as you dawdle through the tutorials, you’re immediately dropped in a world with other players, who you can then team up with or challenge to a race. You have a lot to take on, so it’s good to see that you don’t have to do it all alone. There will also no doubt be plenty of social features added after launch as it feels a bit lacking for the time being, which would make everything just that little bit sleeker.
I’ve spent a couple of hours with Steep so far and feel like there’s plenty beneath the surface I am just not getting. It’s hard not to appreciate what the game is trying to do and it does it mostly well, though it just never clicked with me. It’s not a game I’d been rushing to make the most of during its open weekend, though this may just be down to personal preference – there are so many other new releases closer to my tastes still to be ticked off the list.
Steep looks like it will appeal to a certain audience and even if you aren’t a fan of all things extreme sports, it has something to offer. It isn’t a game I would personally rush out to buy, but for anyone looking for something lighter to do after a hectic release schedule that heavily featured digital murder, you couldn’t ask for a better antidote.
They really do need to tone down the dudebro dialogue, though.
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