Rims Racing | Preview, in order to race with a motorcycle you must first build it

Rims Racing | Preview

Sometimes I regret certain games from my childhood. Do you remember Mondo Motori? It was not simply a matter of playing with toy cars, but you could experience something completely different: the thrill of stepping into the shoes of a mechanic and an engineer. The vehicles could be disassembled piece by piece with the appropriate metal key. Everything could be customized, from the wheels to the engine to the aileron and you could even swap the pieces between one vehicle and another. Your car acquired a completely different importance, taking the form not as a simple model to be moved around, but as a living creature, a personal creation resulting from one's own inventiveness. And this was how every dragster race made with friends in the garden became more beautiful because you built victory with your own hands.

Racing video games have accustomed us badly, often putting us in the position of being able to dispose of hundreds of licensed motorcycles and cars without giving us the chance to really get our hands dirty in setting up our motorized alter ego. Then instead comes the Italian Raceward Studio with its Rims Racing which offers only and exclusively eight bikes. These are some of the most desirable bikes on planet earth but there are only eight.

I begin to think that something has gone wrong when I then discover that each of these vehicles has the beauty of five hundred spare parts for over forty-five concretely demountable pieces. And it is here that the emotion I was talking about at the beginning is rekindled, that wonderful feeling of total control over the vehicle that becomes your creation, like the sculpture that the artist molds in clay.

Motorcycle education

Raceward Studio boasts a team of about forty people, is located in Milan and is made up of veterans of the world of Italian racing games with various names who have worked under the banner of that beautiful motorized country that responds to the name of Milestone. The publisher is the French Nacon known for his commitment to driving games with several years dedicated to WRC to his credit and a nice Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown in the works for some time that should sanction the return of the series that changed the world of driving games with its injection of open world multiplayer online.

We first got to see a presentation by the developer and then get our hands on a trial version of the game on PC. First of all, know that it is not long before the release of Rims Racing: the launch date is set for August 19, 2021. The game will be available for the vast majority of platforms, namely PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X / S, PC, PlayStation 4 , Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. The version at our disposal offered a rather advanced gaming experience even if certain elements were missing, still in the process of being adjusted, such as the soundtrack of the game, which we therefore did not have the opportunity to listen to.

The The mechanism behind Rims Racing is simple and sophisticated at the same time: you buy motorcycles and spare parts under license, you chase the perfect optimization and the maintenance of the vehicle in good health, going so far as to remove every single screw of your vehicle and try so to win in competitions around the world. Rims Racing would then revolve around an educational purpose: thanks to the possibility of disassembling the bike in all its parts, the title would allow and would also require to understand how the two-wheeled vehicle actually works in its complexity.

The involvement of the user is very high because in order to put the parts of the vehicle in hand it is necessary to perform real quick time events that simulate, at least in intention, the assembly and disassembly actions of the parts at our disposal. This feature is very interesting, even if I fear it may become a bit repetitive in the long run, although it is also possible to automate it as you progress through the game. Obviously everything is regulated by an in-game system, divided into credits that you can invest at the bike level and points that you can spend to upgrade your team.

Numbers and names

However, by switching to the present modes, a tutorial and a section called Academy will be available for novice pilots, after which it will be possible to try your hand at Career mode or in single races and tests or, if you prefer, a multiplayer will also be available ranging from the classic online to a more rare and therefore appreciable splitscreen. It will then be possible to indulge yourself on an artistic level with a photo mode full of options.

Among the bikes at our disposal we will find absolutely respectable beasts such as the Ducati Panigale V4R and the Kawasaki Ninja ZX10 RR, obviously decomposable piece by piece, reproduced with care thanks to the support of the manufacturers. Not only the bike, but also the rider will be customizable, at least from the point of view of clothing, with over two hundred accessories, and posture. On the other hand, it will not be possible to change our alter ego on a physical level, except as regards the build.

We will have the opportunity to race in numerous circuits passing from Zolder to Nurburgring and then melt between roads inspired by real places such as Passo San Marco or the Atlantic Ocean Road. Each place will present different types of asphalt and it will be possible to confront different weather conditions which unfortunately will not be dynamic. On the other hand, the track will change during the race with, for example, a wet surface that will tend to dry out with the passage of the bikes lap after lap.

Everything under control

The menus have a rather stylish and evocative appearance showing itself in a mix of 3D environments, depicting your Headquarters and dynamic indicators on the screen. The career of Rims Racing will be based on a calendar composed of dozens and dozens of events that will be faced gradually while lovingly managing your vehicle and while facing an RPG-style progression, with various skills and unlockable bonuses as regards your team.

Taking into account your bike becomes not only a pleasure, but also a necessity, as worn or damaged components will lead to perceive differences in the behavior of the vehicle. There will therefore be both aesthetic and mechanical damage, as far as the vehicle is concerned, and only visual damage, as regards the driver. Once replaced, the pieces can be crammed into your inventory or resold in the shop to set aside some useful credit to make other purchases. And speaking of purchases, there will be no unlockable elements: in fact, everything will be accessible from the first moment by having the right number of credits, a bit like it happens in reality.

A very interesting feature, which also reconfirms certain Rims Racing's educational purposes, is then constituted by the Motorbike Status Check, a tool that, during any race, will allow you to keep under control the operating statistics of your vehicle in real time, teaching you to manage the best tuning and management of electronics in order to find the perfect synergy between vehicle and driver.

Many qualities, but still some edges

Surely Rims Racing boasts many qualities and a rather interesting concept, but it shows how the guys at Raceward Studio still have to refine certain edges of their product. The team is working on it and the finished work will be different, but it should be noted, for example, that some tutorials still work imperfectly and that the menus are not completely managed through the use of a keyboard. The pilots' artificial intelligence is still in the process of adjusting, with opponents already capable of making mistakes, which however, for the moment, still have a tendency to pile up a little too much in real group accidents. The collisions are pretty good and even the crashes of the pilots convinced us enough, usually the Achilles heel of this type of games.

Graphically Rims Racing is discreet, with a good design, but with a non-technological sector. exactly to the latest cry. The representation of the motorbikes is beautiful, the movement of the surrounding elements is sufficient and the representation of the tracks is acceptable, albeit with some elements that are still subdued, such as a representation of the road surface that is a little too coarse. The gameplay, on the other hand, has found an excellent compromise between arcade and simulation, with precise and fluid control of the vehicles both with keyboard and joystick. Of course, some things are a bit perplexing, such as the excessive slipperiness of the curbs or grass or certain strange falls at low speed, but in general the driving feeling is very satisfying. However, it is also possible to calibrate the level of the simulation to better adapt it to your preferences.

There are also small touches of class such as the rubbing of the side of the vehicle on the roadway during the most extreme bends, with consequent unpacking of the bike and scent of sparks. The difficulty curve is well calibrated avoiding early frustrations and allowing everyone to start having fun aboard their two-wheeled racing car. Furthermore, by modifying the settings and components of your vehicle, small changes in the reactivity and behavior of the bike are really perceptible. In short, there is still some work to be done, but it seems that Raceward Studio is on the right track. Rims Racing is the game dedicated to the little mechanic hidden in our biker soul. Come on guys, we can't wait to get our hands dirty again!

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