187 Ride or Die Review

187 Ride or Die tries to be a driving game and shooting game all at the same time but doesn’t really get either aspect right. Sloppy controls, simple gameplay, and a very poorly executed overall theme of hip-hop and the “gangasta” lifestyle make this one a rental at best. There isn’t anything horrifically wrong with 187 Ride or Die, really, but we have seen and done all of this before in much better games.

Gameplay

To describe it in the simplest way possible, I would say that 187 Ride or Die is Mario Kart in a wife beater and baggy pants (i.e. it’s gangstered-up). Just like in Mario Kart or Twisted Metal, the objective is to drive around and shoot the other cars in order to win the race. You drive over weapon pickups and then you press a fire button to have the person in the passenger seat lean out the window or stand up through the sunroof and start shooting. The shooting aspect is pretty simple as all you have to do is hold a button to have them shoot forwards or backwards and your passenger does all of the work. The driving part of the game is also pretty simple. The cars drive like they are on ice so it is very easy to slide around corners. Doing these powerslides builds up boost which you can then use to speed your way to the front of the pack.

The problems with the gameplay stem from the fact that the game is too simple and too easy for its own good. Your passenger does all of the shooting so driving over the best weapon pickups and easily sliding around the course is a cake walk. The gameplay is about as deep as a kiddie pool which makes the game feel very repetitive very quickly.

Features and Modes

In addition to the standard races there are modes that replace the weapons with mines, modes where the last racer on each lap is eliminated, and an arena combat mode where there is no racing involved, only destruction. There are also races where you have to avoid the police. The single-player game gives you a taste of all of these race modes, but there isn’t a very big difference between them and the game has a serious case of rubber band AI that ensures every event is mind numbingly repetitive.

There are also some multiplayer and online modes in 187 Ride or Die. You can play co-op where one player drives and the other shoots both on and offline. You can also play in the various race and arena combat modes on Xbox Live as well. One problem with the online play is that your car choices are limited to whatever the host has unlocked. Considering that not many people will get this game to begin with and those that do likely won’t play it long enough to unlock much, it seems that online play is doomed from the start.

Graphics and Sound

Graphically, 187 Ride or Die isn’t too impressive. The cars look decent enough, but there are only a handful of tracks which get pretty old after a while. At least it has a silky smooth framerate.

The sound is perhaps the worst part of the game. The soundtrack consists of previously unreleased tracks by Guerrilla Black and sounds good for the most part, but the sound effects and voice acting are horrible. The thugged out dialogue sounds forced and “phoned in” and is unintentionally hilarious more often than not.

Bottom Line

If you are looking for a new racing or shooting or hip-hop game for Xbox, keep searching because 187 Ride or Die won’t satisfy any of those itches. We have seen and done all of this before in considerably better games and the hip-hop theme and thuganomics of it all just come across as ridiculous instead of serious. Another issue is that the game tries way too hard to keep things even. You are never too far behind no matter how badly you do and even if you run a perfect race your opponents will be right on your back bumper. It just isn't very much fun to play like this. Rent it or wait till it hits the bargain bins because 187 Ride or Die isn’t worth the price of admission.