Shredders

It is time to shred the snow! Shredders is an open world playground for all your snowboarding needs. Only snowboarding, though. Don’t expect skiing or anything like that. But it does snowboarding fantastically. If you want to pull off some sick spins, gnarly jumps, and all sorts of tricks, in a winter wonderland, Shredders is for you. Though it does take a lot of practice to become somewhat good at the game.

Find it on Steam.

First off, Shredders only works with a controller. So make sure you have one that works on the PC if you want the game. The game is fantastic if what you want is to snowboard around and have fun. The game does have a story mode that acts as a tutorial, and you do need to go through it to unlock more areas.

You are one half of Shreddagon, a couple of dorks making snowboarding videos for internet fame. You are the silent one that does all of the crazy stuff. Through the story, you meet more characters, go to new locations, and pull off fun stunts. The story mode is mostly a series of missions along with some cheeky and fun cutscenes. Completing the missions is doable, but getting 3 smileys takes a lot of effort. The voice acting in the game is a bit amateurish, but it does have a certain charm to things. Also, I’m not sure if some of the characters are supposed to be real snowboarders or not, but they do feel that way.

You also have some mild character customization. It is mainly clothes, ranging from goggles to snowboards. There are a lot of real brands in this which is pretty neat. Though I am not any kind of snowboarder, so I don’t know how good any of the brands are.

The controls for the game can be pretty complicated. You need to use both analog sticks, both triggers and both shoulder buttons in various combinations to do tricks. Not to mention needing to properly time things and wind up jumps. Being a snowboarding game makes controlling where you’re going all the harder since it is mainly just gravity giving you acceleration. Any bumps in the terrain can throw you off your line, and you won’t be getting back easily. It takes building up some muscle memory and game sense to really get your flow going.

There are times when you will get annoyingly stuck as the game is unable to decide which direction you should sled in while any real snowboarder could navigate their way out of that. Overall, the snowboarding action feels smooth with fun physics. Gliding along, performing big jumps is great. Though the tips on the loading screens can go by too fast depending on how fast you load, and they are pretty useful information.

The game world is varied and full of cool stuff to see. It is all one big open world, and you can snowboard between various zones. Though teleporting will be faster and more convenient. Everything may be covered in snow, but there are a lot of variety around from boarding down mountains to through towns and on top of roofs. There are purpose made tracks and the wilderness. Also hanging around the world are things to collect, so keep an eye out. And to help you out, you can set your spawn point practically anywhere you want through use of a drone. Take advantage of that and practice jumps at your favorite ramps or go through your favorite tracks.

The game does have a multiplayer mode, and it will start you in multiplayer mode. That is mainly just you and other players sharing a world but not really interacting with each other. There are random times events that pop up where you can put up a score and compare yourself against anyone else that also wants to try.

If you are looking for a realistic snowboarding experience, Shredders has everything you want. All the snowboarding action without the cold, the chance of getting injured, the $500 snowboards? Indeed. It takes a lot of work and practice to get good and get good scores. If you want a more casual experience just riding around the world, you can do that as well. And if you really want to, there are some gravity modifiers and jumping modifiers to help you in getting collectibles or just play around with.

Find it on Steam.