Developer: Cyanide
Publisher: Nacon
Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
Tested on: PS5
Tour de France 2024 – Review
Take your bike and polish your best French, as today we have a game based on a popular cycling race: Tour de France 2024. This cycling racing game, which shares the name of the popular cycling race in Europe, tries to simulate how it is when you take part in it. We expect that we will see some of the big names that we know like, Van der Poel or Pogacar, and some of the famous routes that we see whenever we watch the Tour the France.
Story
In Tour de France 2024, there is no story as it isn’t needed. There is something that looks like a career mode that is called pro leader or pro team, but mostly it is just a race-after-race kind of game. This isn’t bad as the focus here is more on the racing aspect of the game. Simulation games such as this do not necessarily need a story mode to be interesting.
Graphics
Graphically, the game isn’t that amazing. Many of the models have the same face and only are different in what they wear. From the back, the models do look a lot better. The supporters on the side look a little better when compared to the riders, though you will pay them no attention as you are more focused on the race.
The environment is filled with assets that don’t look out of place. Getting into a village or a forest naturally changes the backdrop. All in all, the game does look okay, except for the many similar character models.
Sound
The sound design is fairly good. The music is most noticeable when you are in the menu. During a race, there isn’t any background music, but there are more than enough background noises to make sure things don’t get dull. There is also a commentator who says how the race is going or where we are. We hoped that there would be some more lines as we heard some lines a couple of times in repeat. Fans that are spectating try to encourage you with some words but they also repeat the same lines over and over. The encouragement from the fans can be heard in German, English, French, and a little bit of Dutch. One sound that we heard throughout the whole race was how our rider was breathing. It may be understandable if the energy is low, but not when we just started and have a full bar.
Gameplay
Tour de France 2024 is a simulation game that revolves around, as you may have guessed, the Tour de France. In Tour de France 2024, there are a couple of options you can choose from. We picked the training as it is the tutorial. It is decent in explaining what to do and how it works. The controls aren’t difficult to master and are explained again when you start for the first time a normal race.
To start a race, you can pick a mode. For example, we played through the route of Liège-Bastonge-Liège. The start went well until our energy went down faster than expected. In this game energy control is very crucial to win. Cycling at max speed or going in an attack will consume energy, and once you are out of energy, you are blown up. After this, you will be slow until you recover some energy. To prevent being blown up there are some techniques to save or recover energy and so-called ‘feeds’ that can be used to recover some energy. Feeds are limited in use and can only be refilled at certain points that can be seen on the map. Once you have passed that point your feeds are just refilled.
One of those techniques to save energy is to use the slopes. You can take an aerodynamic position when you go down, this way you keep up speed while you save some energy. This only works if it goes -6% or lower downhill. Another technique to keep the speed while trying to save up some energy is by reducing drag. For this technique you need other riders to go behind them. This technique is also explained well in the tutorial. There is also an option to follow someone. Be warned that you aren’t in control of what speed you take.
Conclusion
Tour de France 2024 is an interesting game. The game has quite a few interactive elements in terms of what techniques you have to use, making sure things never grow too stale. Even though the character models tread into uncanny valley territory, the environments look quite good, and these help with the overall immersion. The sound is decent, except for the constant panting the whole race as it starts to be annoying after the first 10 minutes. We would have perhaps loved a bit more variation when it came to the voiced lines, but then again we do hear the same lines of encouragement in the real race too. Credit should be given where credit is due, and we loved the different languages that were embedded into the voice work. The game could have been polished a bit more, but all in all, we had quite a bit of fun with this one. That being said, we suggest waiting for a sale.
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