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Steep (video game)

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Steep
Developer(s)Ubisoft Annecy[a]
Publisher(s)Ubisoft
Director(s)
  • Igor Monceau
  • Arnaud Ragot
Producer(s)Sébastien Arnoult
Designer(s)Arnaud Mametz
Programmer(s)Sébastien David
Artist(s)Pierre-Olivier Pou
Eduard Marinov
Marlène Latourre
Writer(s)Barry Keating
Composer(s)Zikali
EngineAnvilNext 2.0
Platform(s)
ReleaseDecember 2, 2016
Genre(s)Extreme sports
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Steep is an extreme sports video game developed by Ubisoft Annecy and published by Ubisoft. It was released worldwide on December 2, 2016 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Developed by Ubisoft Annecy beginning in 2013, it was their first original game. It is set in the Alps, where players can participate in several winter and extreme sports disciplines, namely skiing, snowboarding, paragliding and wingsuit flying. With later downloadable content, mountains in Alaska, Japan and Korea were also included in the game and rocket-powered wingsuit flying, sledding, basejumping, and speed riding were incorporated as additional sports. Furthermore, two of the game's expansions allowed the player to take part in the Winter X Games and the 2018 Winter Olympics. The game places a great emphasis on online multiplayer, focusing on competing in various winter sporting challenges with other players online.

Upon release, the game received mixed to average reviews. While critics lauded the overall graphics, vast open world and enjoyable activities, they also pointed out its lack of direction and overall scope, while criticism was also directed at the fact that being online was mandatory to play most of the game.

Gameplay

Steep is an online multiplayer extreme sports game set in an open world environment of the Alps, centered on the Mont Blanc, the tallest mountain in Europe, which can be explored freely by players.[1] Later downloadable content (DLC) also added the Alaska Range, centered on the Denali (formerly known as Mount McKinley), the tallest mountain in North America, as well as Japanese and Korean mountain ranges into the game. Korea features the venues of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang County.[2] The game can be played from either a first-person or third-person perspective. The game also utilizes camera angles similar to GoPro during races, via a sponsoring deal.[3] The four main activities available in the game include skiing, wingsuit flying, snowboarding, and paragliding.[1] With later DLC, rocket-powered wingsuit flying, sledding, basejumping, and speed riding were also incorporated.[4] Players can switch between these activities by using the game's menu wheel.

Steep is an online-focused game, in which all players share the same game world, engaging in various sports activities simultaneously.[5] Players can collide with each other unless disabled in the settings.[6] To navigate the world quickly, players can use the "mountain view" mode, which shows different "drop zones" in the game. These drop zones serve as fast travel points that allow players to reach different parts of the game's world without having to actually move that distance. There are various hidden races, challenges, and areas, which can be discovered and unlocked through exploring the world.[7] Players are equipped with a pair of binoculars, which can be used to discover new locations.[8]

The game has a trick system, which allows players to perform special maneuvers such as spinning and grabbing while they are skiing or snowboarding. Players receive points if they perform tricks.[9] If the player performs excellently in a race, they will receive a medal as an award. When the player crashes during a challenge, they have the ability to retry it immediately[10] and view the amount of g-Force the player's character endured during the crash.[11] When players move around on the map, their path will be recorded automatically and can be viewed through entering the mountain mode. Players capture screenshots and view their own performance data.[5] These replays can be shared to the game's community and various social networking sites. Players can set and share their trail as a challenge for other players.[5] There are six types of play style ranging from racing, to exploring.

The game features a nonlinear story, that follows the chosen player characters as they seek to become a winter and extreme sports legend. To achieve the rank of "Ultimate Legend", the characters have to attain legendary status in all six disciplines the game has to offer.[12] With later DLCs, the player can also enter the Winter X Games,[13] and take part in an event called "Winterfest", where he has to overcome costumed adversaries to be crowned the "King of Winter". The "Road To The Olympics" featured a new story campaign, in which the player character, an aspiring winter sports athlete, has to complete a series of events to qualify for the 2018 Olympic Games and become the first athlete to win gold medals in all three freestyle disciplines: big air, slopestyle, and halfpipe.[14]

Development

The game was developed by Ubisoft Annecy, a French studio which had previously worked on the multiplayer modes of the Assassin's Creed franchise and the Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell franchise as well as assisting in the development of Tom Clancy's The Division. The game was co-developed by Ubisoft studios in Kiev and Montpellier.[15] Steep became the first original game created by them.[5] Development of the game was started in late 2013.[16] The concept was inspired by the developer's close proximity to the Alps, and another Ubisoft game, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands, whose large open world forced developer Ubisoft Paris to implement transport methods such as paragliding. The Trials series also influenced the game's design.[15] Ubisoft originally was not convinced by the development team's concept, but they later greenlit the project's development, mainly due to the huge popularity of extreme sporting videos on the video sharing website YouTube.[17] The developers were also inspired by the renewed interest in the skateboarding game Skate 3 after it was re-popularized through Let's Play streaming events performed by YouTubers and others.[18] According to Igor Manceau, the game's director, the team pitched the project to Ubisoft as they believed that the game's online structure and open world are elements that are new to the sports genre.[15]

Manceau claimed that the game was a "passion project" and a "natural progression" for the studio,[19] and that it was designed to be accessible for newcomers and complex for fans of the genre.[5] The team collaborated with the action sport industry and consulted several professional skiers and extreme sports athletes and experts, such as Louis Aikins, Kevin Rolland, Sammy Luebke, and Horacio Llorens.[20] However, one of the professional skiers, Matilda Rapaport, died while shooting a promotion video for the game in Farellones, Chile due to a sudden avalanche accident.[21]

The game was revealed with a trailer and playable demo at the 2016 Electronic Entertainment Expo as the closing act to Ubisoft's press conference.[22] An open beta was set to be released prior to the game's official launch.[23] Steep was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on 2 December 2016.[24] A new region, Alaska, was introduced into the game as a free update soon after the game's release.[3] A version for the Nintendo Switch was announced but later canceled. [25][26]

Additional expansions

The game was supported by a season pass during the first year of its release cycle. The season pass included the Winterfest DLC, adding sledging and new challenges, the Extreme Pack, adding speed riding, basejumping and rocket-powered wingsuits, as well as the Adrenaline Pack, adding night races and new outfits. In June, at E3 2017, Ubisoft announced that a Winter Olympics expansion, Steep: Road to the Olympics, would be released on 5 December 2017.[13] The expansion featured new mountain ranges in Korea and Japan and let the player take part in the 2018 Winter Olympics.[2] For the third year of the release cycle, the X Games Pass could be purchased, including the Rocket Wings DLC, adding more rocket-powered wingsuit events, the 90s DLC, adding 90s-themend clothing, as well as the eponymous X Games DLC, allowing the player to enter the Winter X Games competition. All three releases could be purchased separately or as enhanced versions of the base game, respectively.

Reception

Steep received "mixed to average" reviews, according to video game review aggregator Metacritic.[27][28][29] While critics generally lauded the game's vast open world and enjoyable activities, critics also pointed out its lack of direction and overall scope, with critique also being directed at its always-online concept. In February 2019, Ubisoft announced that Steep was played by 10 million individual players.[39]

Matthew Kato of Game Informer awarded the game a positive review. While he was initially wondering if a game solely centered on extreme sports and a vast open world would capture the players, he found Steep to be very captivating through its open world, gameplay, and atmosphere.[32] He called the "volume of challenges [...] admirable, as is the scale of its open world", but was especially pleased with how well the world was tailored to cater to each discipline, thus interacting with the world was a "breathtaking and demanding" process.[32] He noted that the trick system was aimed at accessibility and thus did not provide a feeling akin to the Tony Hawk's series of video games. TJ Hafer of IGN also rated the game positively for similar reasons, describing Steep's world as "one of the most diverse and visually interesting open worlds" in video games.[36] He called the physics of the game "satisfying" and noted that they managed to find a balance between realistic and arcade approaches.[36] Unlike other critics, he found the open concept of the game to be working out well. He lauded the game for its well executed controls, which he described as "intense, engaging, and at times [...] frantic."[36] Also, he praised the game's open world, which he described as "gorgeous" and also "just awe-inspiringly gargantuan", with its "grandiose, attractive environments".[36]

Ray Castillo of EGM gave the game an average rating and was more critical. He too lauded Ubisoft Annecy for the game's graphics and world design, stating, that the "game looks gorgeous, and each mountainside has character to it."[31] Furthermore, he noted the customization options for the different characters as very rich. However, he was critical of the game's map and objective structure, stating that the map opens up too early and is convoluted, while the presentation of objectives is confusing, and they do not seem to be designed to lead the player to an end goal through constant progress. This led him to conclude that the game lacked direction. He called the fact that the game has to have an internet connection to be played "unforgivable". He concluded, that while the game had "a lot of good ideas at its core", it was "more frustrating than fun."[31] Similarly, Hafer noted that the paragliding path was the least entertaining of the four initial play styles but if a player wanted to complete the game, he was forced to do these events. Furthermore, he missed the option of increasing a character's stats, as is was handled in most classic extreme sport titles.[36]

Additional expansions

The additional expansions were similarly received as the main game. The Road to the Olympics DLC was criticized by Kato of for providing little substance. While he enjoyed the Japanese mountain ranges, he was very critical of the game's new story mode and the Korean mountain. He noted that the mode "half-heartedly attempts the staging of its own Olympic drama" without conveying an Olympic experience.[14] The decision to only include freestyle disciplines in the story while completely omitting skiing events such as Super-G or giant slalom added to that sentiment. He questioned the decision to include the Korean mountain ranges where the Olympics took place but not making them accessible in freeride mode. All in all, he noted that the expansion "restrict what is best about Steep with little to show for it in return."[14] Chris Shive of Hardcore Gamer was less critical of the expansion, calling the new story mode "a goal-focused narrative that so many gamers have been conditioned to crave", while noting the game's stunning visuals, especially in the Japanese mountains.[40]

The X Games Pass was described by Michele Sollazzo of Eurogamer as a completion of the game's development, bringing it to its final form. Also, he noted that the expansion provided a good contrast to the previous Road to Olympics expansion, as it focused more on extreme sports. While he noted the X Games expansion itself as short, he found the competitions to be rather challenging.[41] Stefan Stuursma of XGN also noted the difficulty of the X Games events and felt the new challenges added depth to the game. However, he criticized Ubisoft for not including a new area and the relative small amount of content in the new DLC package.[42]

Sequel

In January 2020, reports about a sequel first surfaced, when an anonymous source claimed that development was "deep into the production phase", with Ubisoft already licensing music.[43]

Notes

  1. ^ Additional work by Ubisoft Kiev, Ubisoft Montpellier and Ubisoft Sofia

References

  1. ^ a b Orry, James (13 June 2016). "Ubisoft reveals extreme winter sports game Steep". VideoGamer.com. Archived from the original on 9 August 2016. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  2. ^ a b Newhouse, Alex (9 December 2017). "Steep: Road To The Olympics Review". Gamespot. Archived from the original on 23 January 2019. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
  3. ^ a b Miller, Ross (13 June 2016). "Steep is Ubisoft's new extreme sports game, complete with 'GoPro view'". The Verge. Archived from the original on 14 June 2016. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  4. ^ Barker, Phil (22 November 2016). "Rocket wings, sleds and more are heading to Steep". Redbull. Retrieved 5 March 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ^ a b c d e Makuch, Eddie (14 June 2016). "Ubisoft's Open-World Action Sports Game Is a Challenging Thrill". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 18 June 2016. Retrieved 14 June 2016.
  6. ^ Futter, Mike (13 June 2016). "Ubisoft's Steep Is A Connected Action Sports Game In The Alps". Game Informer. Archived from the original on 17 June 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  7. ^ Blain, Louise (17 June 2016). "Steep is beautiful but its open world leaves me cold". GamesRadar. Archived from the original on 12 October 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  8. ^ Furniss, Zack (13 June 2013). "Ubisoft's Steep is scratching my SSX itch". Destructoid. Archived from the original on 14 June 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  9. ^ Coffey, Helen (14 June 2016). "Experience extreme skiing without the risk in new video game Steep". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 17 June 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  10. ^ Kollar, Phillip (15 June 2016). "Steep: Watch 15 minutes of Ubisoft's new extreme sports game". Polygon. Archived from the original on 16 June 2016. Retrieved 15 June 2016.
  11. ^ Senior, Tom (17 June 2016). "Steep pits you and your friends against the mountain". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 16 June 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  12. ^ Reparez, Mikel (21 June 2016). "Steep: How You'll Go From Scrub To Legend". Ubisoft. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  13. ^ a b Frank, Allegra (12 June 2017). "Steep's first expansion is all about the Winter Olympics". Polygon. Archived from the original on 9 February 2018. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
  14. ^ a b c Kato, Matthew (13 December 2017). "Steep: Road to the Olympics. A Lonely Mountain". Game Informer. Archived from the original on 4 June 2018. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
  15. ^ a b c Partridge, Jon (13 June 2016). "Find your own way down the mountain in Steep". Red Bull. Archived from the original on 16 June 2016. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  16. ^ Makuch, Eddie (14 June 2016). "Ubisoft Announces Open-World Action Sports Game for Console, PC". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 16 June 2016. Retrieved 14 June 2016.
  17. ^ Dring, Christopher (13 June 2016). "The story behind Ubisoft's new open world action sports game Steep". MCV. Archived from the original on 24 October 2016. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  18. ^ Dring, Christopher (4 January 2017). "How PewDiePie and Skate inspired Ubisoft's Steep". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  19. ^ Schwartz, Terri (13 June 2016). "E3 2016: Ubisoft's Steep Link Open World And Sports". IGN. Archived from the original on 16 June 2016. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  20. ^ Takahashi, Dean (13 June 2016). "Ubisoft's Steep is a daredevil sim for winter sports". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on 16 June 2016. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  21. ^ Hilliard, Kyle (19 July 2016). "Pro Skier Matilda Rapaport Dies During Promotional Film Shoot For Ubisoft's Steep". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 23 July 2016. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  22. ^ Grayson, Nathan (13 June 2016). "Steep Is Ubisoft's Open World Alpine Sports Game". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 14 June 2016. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  23. ^ Skipper, Ben (13 June 2016). "Steep: Ubisoft announces new open world skiing and snowboarding game at E3 2016". International Business Times. Archived from the original on 16 June 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  24. ^ Frank, Allegra (17 August 2016). "Steep drops this December". Polygon. Archived from the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 17 August 2016.
  25. ^ Watters, Chris (12 January 2017). "Ubisoft Reveals Nintendo Switch Lineup". Ubisoft Blog. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
  26. ^ Craddock, Ryan (9 August 2018). "Ubisoft Has Halted Development Of Steep On Nintendo Switch". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on 19 August 2018. Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  27. ^ a b "Steep for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 2 December 2017. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  28. ^ a b "Steep for PlayStation 4 Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 26 December 2017. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  29. ^ a b "Steep for Xbox One Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 25 November 2017. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  30. ^ Makedonski, Brett (6 December 2016). "Review: Steep". Destructoid. Archived from the original on 9 December 2016. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  31. ^ a b c Carsillo, Ray (8 December 2016). "Steep review". Electronic Gaming Monthly. Archived from the original on 10 December 2016. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  32. ^ a b c Kato, Matthew (9 December 2016). "Mountain High - Steep - PlayStation 4". Game Informer. Archived from the original on 10 December 2016. Retrieved 9 December 2016.
  33. ^ Leack, Jonathan (6 December 2016). "Steep Review". Game Revolution. Archived from the original on 7 December 2016. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  34. ^ Johnson, Leif (16 December 2016). "Steep Review". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 19 March 2017. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
  35. ^ Loveridge, Sam (11 December 2016). "Steep review: 'A peaceful distraction that eventually wears thin'". GamesRadar. Archived from the original on 11 December 2016. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
  36. ^ a b c d e f Hafer, TJ (7 December 2016). "Steep Review". IGN. Archived from the original on 7 December 2016. Retrieved 7 December 2016.
  37. ^ Reynolds, Whitney (12 December 2016). "Steep review". Polygon. Archived from the original on 13 December 2016. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  38. ^ Edge Issue 302, Feb 2017, p.116
  39. ^ "Ubisoft Has Proudly Revealed That Over 10 Million Players Have Already Joined STEEP Community". Gamefrogger. 20 February 2019. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
  40. ^ Shive, Chris (4 December 2017). "Review: Steep: Road to the Olympics". Hardcore Gamer. Archived from the original on 22 February 2019. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
  41. ^ Sollazzo, Michele (10 December 2018). "Steep X Games - recensione" (in Italian). XGN. Retrieved 7 March 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  42. ^ Stuursma, Stefan (26 December 2018). "Steep X Games Review - De reden om terug te keren naar de piste?" (in Dutch). XGN. Archived from the original on 22 February 2019. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
  43. ^ Bardwell, Thomas (16 January 2020). "Steep 2 Is Secretly in Development at Ubisoft – Here's Every Detail We Know". CCN. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
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