Steep: Road to the Olympics

Ubisoft has plunged the huge potential and brought an expansion nobody will remember after the Olympic Games end. The game is full of imperfections revealing that Ubisoft has bet primarily on the license attraction. Probably the best the game can offer are the new modes of downhill skiing and slalom, or Slopestyle, yet it is obvious, that the expansion could be significantly better.

The title therefore needs to be thoroughly rethought.

Steep: Road to the Olympics is a separate expansion, meaning it's not included as part of the season pass. That's a shame because, if it was, it would be easier to recommend. For a game all about freedom of choice and spontaneous activity, with quite an arcade-centric physics engine, it was clearly going to struggle to convey the technical side of the Winter Olympic Games. The 'Be a Legend' story-mode seems rushed and ill-devised. The footage of athletes is poorly integrated and the narrating and tutoring is all too intense, especially when the experience is so fragmented and dull. Japan, on the other hand, is a beautiful and large region, which really does expand the Steep world with a new aesthetic, new event types, and new challenges. Hence, Steep fans who persevere with the first segment, will eventually receive an impressive content injection. Fans of the Winter Olympics, however, will probably find this one quite underwhelming.