Tour de France 2015 (PS4) - Review

by Joseph Trotter , posted on 30 July 2015 / 4,565 Views

The Tour de France is the Taylor Swift of sport; great to look at, but you probably wouldn’t want to be involved in it. As helicopters sweep the Alps and the summer sun splashes across the tall, full forests, it is easy to see why one would want to holiday there. It is harder to understand why one would want to fill oneself with drugs (sometimes allegedly, sometimes definitely), whip on lycra, and bomb down the mountain so quickly that Swiss people ring cowbells at you. If any of that sounded appealing, you may like this game.

Realistically you won’t, however, for Tour de France 2015 appears to have been developed in an attempt to dilute the sport of cycling into its most turgid form.

Enjoy the strategy and intrigue of a tight peloton? Would you like it boiled down to an over-simplified yet unwieldy (how is that even possible?) in-motion menu, the results of which barely have any effect on the race?

Time-trials, aren’t they exciting? Ever wanted to see Chris Frame (sic) skate around a monotonous French town as though on ice, slipping from corner to corner? Sounds tempting.

Perhaps you would rather spend over an hour slowly moping through stretches of countryside akin to a rejected Farming Simulator 2015 map slashed through with tarmac, but without the potential sweet relief of being pushed off your bike by an intruding maniac? Spit on me and throw urine – you know how to party!

The only relief, and probably the game’s only good idea, is a fast-forward option in the pause menu to skip large portions of the race to get to the best bit – the end. Unfortunately, this element is ruined by the realisation that you must now start another race, and the bitter circle is fulfilled. There are plenty of game-modes and options available – the Tour itself, a multiplayer mode, challenges and training – although why you would want to extend the torture is a question only a sadist can answer.

Fundamentally, the problem with Tour 2015 is that it is very difficult to try and transform the viewing experience of the Tour into a tangible, immediate video-game experience. I sympathise. However, with Tour 2015 it is very difficult to find anything worth commending. The game features a certain level of depth through potential race strategies, but these are so poorly explained and implemented that they remain virtually inaccessible to all but series veterans. A simple tutorial explains the fundamentals of riding before thrusting the player deep into the peloton with little context or explanation. There is no learning curve.

This might be excusable if Tour 2015 was any fun, but it is mind-numbingly dull to play and watch. It features the passivity of a simulator, but (fast-forward feature aside) expects the Tour to be ridden out. That would be fine were the gameplay dynamics anything like engaging, or the scenery enrapturing, but you spend most of the race doing sweet nothing except tuck yourself into the peloton.

Although this all may be consistent with actual Tour racing, it doesn’t make for an invigorating gameplay experience. This coma-inducing gameplay is not helped by the presentation, which is awful. Music is Feeder-light, while graphically Tour 2015 struggles to make any element interesting. Landscapes are re-used, towns brown and dull, spectators cardboard cut outs, and the riders are shells. Details are blurred, and there is little wish to explore the wider area, if such a thing were possible, due to the monotony. 100km of tarmac is tempting in comparison.

Tour de France: Season 2015 is awful. Graphically sterile with barely any gameplay, Tour 2015 is one of a select number of games that makes you wonder if you ought to re-assess your hobbies. A grind in every sense of the word, Tour struggles from the conversion limitations of its influencer and a fun-vacuum; it is simply not enjoyable to play or experience. Nor is it engrossing; it is inaccessible and staid. The only real positive is that it serves to remind gamers they could be doing something better – like watching the actual Tour de France.