[h1][b] TLDR: Big levels and a handy redo button help, but awful controls and a cringe story ruin the experience. Inconsistent inputs make even simple tricks frustrating, making this hard to enjoy or recommend.[/b] [/h1]
[h1]PROS: [/h1]
➕”Reshred” button allows you to redo messed up jumps (and you’ll be messing up CONSTANTLY)
➕Levels/world feels big
[h1]CONS: [/h1]
➖Terrible and inconsistent controls
➖Main story is pretty cringe - both writing and voice acting
[h1] [b] Content (Game world/Narrative) – [5/10] [/b] [/h1]
The game world feels big. There are multiple levels each with various setups to compliment tricks - jumps, rails, “Street”, and vert halfpipes with massive jumps. I found the levels good, but there is no exploration or (at least that I found) cool hidden areas.
There isn’t so much a big narrative here, but there are missions that have a small cutscene before and after that adds some flair to the game. There is no plot other than shredding.
That being said, what little simple plot available is not good. It’s very cringy and full of snowboard-isms that will make you roll your eyes. These missions serve as a type of objective/tutorial, but otherwise, do not play this for the story.
Honestly, I’d rather they skipped the whole story and focused on a better tutorial.
[h1][b] Gameplay (Mechanics/Difficulty) – [2/10] [/b] [/h1]
The gimmick here is around the free-form controls and how it’s supposed to emulate a natural feel, similar to the free controls of EA’s Skate (which I have not played). Other than the unique controls, it brorrows from other extreme sports games with multiple different moves, often with the same look and names of skateboarding, points, and even Tony Hawk’s S-H-R-E-D collectable letters.
I think it has a great foundation of snowboarding mechanics, but what kills it for me are the controls. I found them insanely inconsistent and often just plain terrible. The handy Re-Shred button, which allows you to instantly redo a failed jump, was essential in nearly spamming it trying to perfect even the simplest things. I would often mess up a jump in multiple ways by holding the controls the same way each time. Don’t ask me how that works. After 3 hours, I still haven’t figured out how to turn while holding a up or down trick.
This game feels very difficult to learn the controls, but once you overcome that, it seems fine.
[h1] [b] Graphics (Quality/Technical) – [6/10] [/b] [/h1]
Graphics seem good. When you get enough speed, the look and feel of the game reflects that. The snow trails are present and detailed. Animations can be a bit stiff though when wiping out.
On the technical side, the game can experience stutters, especially when loading into a level. I didn’t like how on startup the game forces you into a loading screen and then a run automatically without you being able to choose.
I did notice a few bugs - wiping out caused my player model to blast off into the atmosphere.
1440p @ 240hz | installed on SSD
[h1] [b] Audio – [3/10] [/b] [/h1]
Music is eh, okay. It sounds like more of a relaxing synth vibe. Problem is the variety, there’s only something like 10 songs, so it repeats very frequently.
There is voice acting and hooo boy is it terrible. You can tell who the professional snowboarders are, because all their voice acting is terrible. It really doesn’t help that the writing is so cringe.
[h1] [b] Replay Factor (Longevity) – [5/10] [/b] [/h1]
I think there’s some good replay value here, as after the missions are over, the ability to board down hills and perfect points is always a thing. Other than that and achievements, I couldn’t say specifically as I didn’t get far into the game.
[h1] [b] Final Verdict – [3/10] [/b] [/h1]
Shredders attempts a realistic spin on the arcadeyness of extreme sports games, and while it succeeds some of the time, it absolutely fails in other areas that I consider too important to overlook.
By far my biggest complaint is the controls. Every single mission felt like such a struggle to do even the simplest things. Often I would redo the jump multiple times only to mess up in new and exciting ways while attempting to do the same thing over and over.
The game does a terrible job at helping the player learn its unique control scheme. Often you’ll get a text box before a mission that simply says shows the R-stick up and RB for a tailgrab or something, but it doesn’t explain how spinning works, or what the left and right stick is supposed to do. I decided I had enough when I couldn’t even figure out how to break or slow down, cause pressing left stick, right stick, and D-pad all down apparently had no effect.
Aside from the controls, I found the story’s narrative to be utterly cringe. The writing is terrible and the voice acting, obviously from non-voice actors/professional snowboarders (which is cool) sounds like it was recorded over the phone and underwater at the same time.
If you can overlook those glaring points, you’d be left with a game that does allow some great freedom and feeling of speed of snowboarding. The levels felt huge and varied enough that ranges from an Olympic-style ramp setup to a snowy street area full of ramp grinds and stairs.
Overall, I cannot recommend Shredders. I found the controls to be too frustrating. If I cannot get even the simplest of commands down after hours of playing the game, then the game needs to do better at either making the controls better or teaching them better to players. The cringe story was icing on the cake of not wanting to make me continue.
[h1] [b] Recommend? (Price) [Y/N] [/b] [/h1]
[h1]No[/h1]
$30 is expensive for this. Because of how the controls are, and that it requires a controller, I would strongly suggest waiting for a sale.
You can find my curator page here: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Synik_GR
