Equestrian games are either hit or miss with this niche audience that it has to cater to. Rival Stars Horse Racing’s lineage comes from mobile gaming, but wants to deliver something between racing and cosy gaming straight to your console.
Freemium or full game?
Let’s start by telling what the game isn’t. It’s not a typical freemium mobile game port where you’re met with a UI plastered with micro-transactions. I cannot speak about future additions to these at the moment of speaking. Some of the features were still locked behind my current progression level, but I’m sure they’ll unlock accordingly without needing to pay extra on top of the game’s initial price. The progression ladder is long and will have you complete tasks to unlock XP, materials, and upgrades for your rundown ranch.
The game’s story starts by throwing you into a race to show you what the game’s about. To be honest, the racing part is only a quarter of the time you’ll spend playing. The game’s story about a rundown ranch you have to restore to new heights is told through menus and stylised imagery that is reminiscent of mobile games. You’ll spend quite some time in these menus, and the game made sure to make it look pretty enough. By playing the game, you’ll upgrade and renovate stables, homes, gates, and even the ranch itself, so you’ll always be looking at something new. The game makes sure to personalise the experience by removing UI elements when idle, so you can just look at your horses and foals in the stables while listening to the cosy sounds and music that complete this cosy and warm atmosphere.
Because the game comes from a lineage of touch-screen mobile versions, the UI itself is also its biggest limitation. Menus are sometimes awkward to navigate through, even if the game maps buttons to certain on-screen items such as goals, horses, shop etc. At times, I got frustrated because I had to press R1 and L1 to navigate, but the game wasn’t showing these options on screen besides the other button-mapped menu items. Nothing that cannot get patched, but bringing this type of mobile UI to consoles is tedious.
The game does a great job at highlighting new options or upgrades’ availability by making them bright orange. That way you know what to do next, but it’s just clicking boxes most of the time and not spending that much time horse racing or jumping itself. The free roam mode is okay, and you’ll eventually unlock other places besides your own ranch, like Switzerland or even a golden dune area to relax in.
One problem I ran into with the easy upgrades was when I clicked everything I could to progress, but then my horse was already level 6 in speed, and suddenly, the game goals asked me to level a horse to speed level 3. That meant backtracking and breeding a new horse, which is part of the game, of course, but it meant putting resources into my foal, and so it slowed the game down quite a bit.
Nevertheless, by winning races, you level horses quite fast. That is in story mode, of course, in multiplayer, I found no one to race against and was matched with bots and random horses instead of my own horse. Why am I suddenly riding “Shadow’s Cauliflower” instead of my trusted Nebula?
Sounds great?
Rival Stars Horse Racing is quite detailed, and I actually learned a lot about horses, caring for them, racing, personalising, and how this all fits together in the game. The amount of customization it offers is mind-boggling. From different coats, breeds, traits, patterns, dilution colors, and types to full or irregular fetlock socks and Pinto, Brindle, or Dapples patterns. These are just a few of the new words I learned playing this game. And I am a seasoned Red Dead Redemption player. The game takes horse customization and breeding very seriously. Although on the side of actual horse genetics, it takes some liberties to make the game a bit more enjoyable. To the discontent of actual horse fanatics.
Visually, I think it looks okay coming from a mobile platform but it’s not the triple-A treatment by far. The stylised parts look great, and some of the 3D racing parts look stunning, like the Sakura race track. But you’ll notice some less polished textures around you quite fast. Nothing game-breaking but do not expect to see Red Dead Redemption 2 level design or animations on horses and environments. Where I think the game does a great job is in sound design. The music is cosy and warm in the calm parts and when browsing the UI menus in your homestead. But when racing and coming in at 500m and 200m from the finish line, you feel the thrill of the race through the intelligent music cues. I also cannot “unhear” the typical racing trumpets at the start of every race.
Conclusion:
While excelling in some parts with lots of customization and unlockables and great sound design, the game’s UI and in-menu storytelling reveal its mobile origin. You’ll spend quite some time racing, breeding perfect foals, and upgrading your homestead. But you’ll spend an equal amount in tedious stylised menus. If you’re really into equestrian games and able to look over its shortcomings, you’ll be able to see this as a cosy game with lots of upgrades and unlocks if you’re willing to spend the time.
