The NDA for the beta is over now since the beta was made public today. I played for around 15 hours and unlocked each sport. To me, none of the game feels as good as other games, it tries to be SSX, Steep, and Descenders, with having the atmosphere of Dirt 5, but doesn't do what aspects it has of those games as good as those games.
The snowboarding and skiing isn't as precise as Steep or as wild as SSX, there are not as many bike controls as Descenders has, and the dialog might somehow be more cringeworthy than Dirt 5. It also really tries to be THPS with famous songs from the games and a few sound effects so similar I wouldn't be surprised if a lawsuit is filed.
Also the snowmobiles bounce off things and send all of the momentum completely the other way immediately but hopefully that is just a glitch in the beta that will be fixed, but even if that's the case they are still boring to drive. The graphics are nothing special as well, I only had an invite to the PS4 version, but it still looked quite worse than the PS4 version of Steep. The videos I've seen of next generation gameplay don't look much better.
For the good things, the map is big and diverse with multiple areas that suit an individual sport each well. This should make strategy important like when to shift from snowboard/ski to snowmobile in order to gain more speed and ultimately pull off bigger tricks later. Also, the variations of sports are cool such as the rocket bike and parachute with a motor.
Lastly, there are a lot of events plus interactions in freeroam. Each sport has events correlating to all aspects of it and there are countless NPCs that will do tricks and race around the map. The game does feel "alive", but it quickly becomes that in the sense of " watz crackin' fellow zoomers" with all of the generic yells and one liners written by rich people with an average age of 62. I guess if you liked that in Dirt 5, you will love it here.
Overall, there is a lot to do, but none of it is as good as other more focused games. I see it as a glorified party game for kids given the basic controls, many small events, and atmosphere that I am too old to think of a good word for. This is just a beta, so maybe things will get more fleshed out and professional writers will be hired within the two months until the full game releases, but I'm not feeling too sure of that, so right now I rate the game 5 out of 10 with the potential of much improvement but the expectations of a more cringy OnRush. Many good ideas that are poorly executed making a game that feels like a ripoff with shaky creative direction.
I will post gameplay clips soon.
