Tour de France 2022 from NACON and Cyanide Studio is this year’s version of the classic Tour de France game series, where players will be following their favorite contestant and hope to win the challenge. Check our Tour de France 2022 review!
Fight for the yellow jersey in the official game of the Tour de France 2022. Experience the new online mode with weekly challenges and leaderboards.
In Solo mode, you can now deal with incidents (injuries, illnesses) during the 92 stages available.
Tour de France 2022 from NACON and Cyanide Studio is my first dive into the Tour de France series, an annual biking simulator that will allow you to the complete 21 stages of the world-renowned Tour de France. As an amateur biker myself, I was excited to give this game a try.
The first thing you should do if you’re also new to the franchise is to follow the Training Mode that will help you learn how to control your bike. The controls themselves aren’t very hard to get the hang of. You’ll basically be pedaling automatically by keeping the R2 button pressed. You’re encouraged to watch colored arrows on the road to determine if you’re going too fast for an upcoming curve. You can also brake with the L2 button and take an aerodynamic pose if you’re going downhill to keep your momentum.
Race Mode is the main event as it’ll let you play the 21 stages of the Tour de France in almost real-time. You’ll begin each of the stages with an explanation of the course, and your goal will be to finish the race. The first one is only a few kilometers long, so it won’t take much time. But as soon as you begin the second stage, with its almost 200 kilometers, you’ll understand that the races can be really, really long to finish, easily reaching one hour each.
The gameplay will quickly feel a bit repetitive as you only have to keep the R2 button pressed, avoid other bikers and take some energy gel as you progress through each stage – and avoid running out of energy. Luckily, the developer has included a hidden Fast Forward feature which is accessible by pressing Circle and then R2 to go into the fast forward mode, so that you can jump ahead to the more interesting moments of the race, like crossing a huge bridge, or going uphill and downhill a steep mountain range.
You can manage your team in the Pro Team and the Pro Leader modes, and race of the moment is a new game mode in 2022 that allows you to follow a race against other players in online races and make your place up the new leaderboard.
New features for Tour France 2022
– New online mode with leaderboard
– Race incidents (falls, illnesses…)
– New preparation system
– New interface on cobbled sections
– More intense races with a more aggressive peloton and more collaborative breakaways
– All 21 official stages of the Tour de France 2022
– New «Primavera classic» inspired by a major Italian Race
– New Teams: Eolo-Kometa Cycling Team, Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, and Uno-X Pro Cycling Team
On the presentation side, the graphics seem dated for a PlayStation 5 game. As the race start, you’ll notice how every biker has the same face, which is weird, and the NPCs around the track that are cheering for you look like they were made for a PlayStation 3-era game. At least most of the game is played from a third-person perspective, so looking at your character from behind felt more natural.
At least the bikes look great. There’s also a neat CGI cut-scene before each race that shows the race Parcours on a 3D map of France, which was always great to discover. I was surprised by the loading times since this is a native game that should make good use of the super-fast PlayStation 5 NVMe, and loading took about 20 seconds before each race. This isn’t outrageous, of course, but it is something that I wasn’t expecting.
If you’re looking at getting the Platinum trophy, then this is a game that will require some effort in order to reach it. There are 43 trophies (22 Bronze trophies, 20 Silver trophies, and 1 Gold trophy), and you’ll have to finish and win every race in the game. The few others are miscellaneous trophies asking you to play at the Legend difficulty and finish first in Pro Team and Pro Leader modes.
My experience with the Tour de France 2022 was a mixed bag. The graphics feel dated, and playing a race for as long as one hour per race felt a bit repetitive. The shorter segments did prove to be more fun to play. I was, however, impressed by how well the different courses were represented and how the bikes were modeled. If you’re a fan of the Tour de France event, then you might find this release interesting.
Disclaimer
This Tour de France 2022 review is based on a PlayStation copy provided by NACON.
