Review: Riptide GP2

Any time I see that Vector Unit is releasing a new game on the Google Play Store, my interest piques. They have become synonymous with visually beautiful, well-crafted racing games. Last month, the follow-up to their first rocket-powered jet ski racing game Riptide GP debuted on the store. No persuasion was required for me to part with my money – however if you still need some, read on.

The first aspect of Riptide GP2 that impressed me was the visuals. For a game with such a low footprint on the device (less than 60MB), the question of how they got such colourful environments and fast-paced racing out of it is mind-boggling. When you compare this to the thousands of MBs of inferior games, you quickly realise how talented Vector Unit is as a company.

Since the first title, the career mode has gone through an overhaul. There are 8 different series, each consisting of a number of events – these include standard races, elimination events and stunt challenges. Completing each task awards you with a star rating out of three, with later series being locked behind a star rating. The events become progressively more difficult, but never feel unfair.

In order to help you progress, the money you earn winning races can then be spent on upgrading your jet ski or simply buying a new one. For those who despise grinding, you can top up your cash reserves with in-app transactions — but thankfully, these are not forced on you in any way. Everything in the game can be purchased using cash earned. You can also customise the vehicle’s paint job, for the budding Xzibit’s among us.

Running in parallel to the monetary- and career-progression systems is a profile levelling scheme. As well as earning money and stars for each event, you also gain experience. As you level up, you earn skill points – these are then spent on character upgrades. Not only can you enhance the length of your boost (stop sniggering!) and your agility (basically making landing your jumps more forgiving), you can learn new stunts. While they require more elaborate finger movements to pull off (I said stop sniggering!), you gain more boost and more points in the stunt challenge tasks.

The multiplayer mode has also received some improvements, with performance over even a mobile data connection being stable enough for a fun experience. The introduction of the Google Play Game Settings system, the Mountain View company’s answer to GameCenter on iOS, has also led to quick and easy match-making so I never had to wait long for a race. Moving between Android devices is also simple now with cloud saving and achievement whores can rejoice at the inclusion of their favourite vice.

Riptide GP2 is a barrel load of fun. I have spent hours with the game, with the stunt challenges and hot laps providing enough of a change to keep the gameplay interesting. I am still astonished at Vector Engine 4, with its complex shaders and dynamic lighting. It seems big things can come in small packages (ENOUGH SNIGGERING!)