I hope you’re not finished with Steep just yet, because Steep is not finished with you or your money.
As the original game comes up to its second anniversary, the legendary extreme sports event X Games makes its way into Steep, taking over the Alaskan mountain with a host of brand new events.
It is an exciting prospect, returning to Steep after a long time to try out some new events, however the number included as part of the X Games content is very misleading. There are 15 events in total but when you break that down you get: five training scenarios, seven freestyle events inspired by X Games, and only three actual X Games events. Those being Slopestyle, Superpipe and Big Air.
The training scenarios are useful, introducing grinding and explaining how to perform them. The default controls are still fiddly though, something that has plagued Steep since the original launch. The training also offers an opportunity to ride a halfpipe and get a feel for the momentum but in all honesty, these training missions are best seen as a boost to your XP. They also need to be completed before you can move on.
The freestyle events are unlocked after both the training and X Games events, and are an extension to the latter but play more in line with the rest of Steep itself. They each have a points goal for Bronze, Silver and Gold, and you earn a medal based on your performance. Separated into Medium and Hard – there are no easy tracks on here – these are very much what you would expect from Steep.
The X Games events themselves are presented slightly differently to what has come before, and you do get a sense of being able to compete in the X Games when you take on any of the three events. Each event has two runs and your overall score is a combination of them both. They all take place under floodlights and have a crowd gathered round each event.
There is commentary available with these three events, to enhance the realism. However, even after only a couple of restarts to better my score I was hearing the same lines over and over again and was quickly looking for a way to turn this off. The lines are poorly spoken and are not anything like how X Games commentators typically sound.
Annoyingly as well, you do not get to play as your customised character. My base Steep competitor is a female wearing a pink yeti suit, one who would roar appropriately when bailing or landing a good trick. In the X Games events, you are assigned a generic male, with no option to customise in any way.
These limits extend to the store as well. It’s still a convoluted mess to navigate but this new DLC doesn’t appear to bring any new items for sale either.
Also not included: Any new achievements. And that is massively disappointing.
All of this combines to ensure that Steep X Games feels like a real bare-bones DLC cash grab. For the price of £7.99 (as long as you have the base game in place already), you will find less than an hour’s worth of gameplay included. The training missions feel deliberately lengthened to increase playtime, the three X Games events are good but nowhere near enough, and the freestyle events that follow are no different from what exists in the base game already. You can purchase the X Games pass priced at £11.99 which includes some relevant 1990’s music and Rocket Wings, which will be released at different dates, but these should have been included within the £7.99 pack already, such is the lack of content on offer here.
