Tour de France 2023 – Review

The Tour de France has been around for 120 years, and while I could chat all day about Football, Basketball and numerous other activities, cycling isn’t a sport I’ve paid much attention to, outside of the usual Olympic flurry of events for a few weeks every four years.

One thing I do know is the Tour de France is possibly the most prestigious event on the cycling calendar, so having not played the franchise before, I decided to dress up in skin tight Lycra, and keep an open mind to take on this review.

When you first start Tour de France 2023, you’re given a pretty basic main menu which lets you choose from a variety of different modes with a sixth panel to access the latest news and updates about the game, with he editor and options on the second page. Anyone as unfamiliar to cycling as I am will want to head into “training” which gives you five challenges outlining the game controls and features such as energy management and team comms.

These fairly short challenges will take about 30 minutes in total to work through and while they do cover everything, it does feel a little rushed and too simple. You simply do what you’re told and then spend the next 30 seconds wondering if you’re actually going to remember that in the main game, thankfully when you do head into a real race, you’ll get a friendly pop-up to remind you what you’re about to do, which are equal parts informative and annoying depending on how much of the tutorials you remember.

Back to the main game modes and there’s four in total… Race, lets you take on a pre-defined race set-up from the full Tour de France to smaller circuits, as well as the option to build your own tour by selecting whichever stages you desire to create your own custom race. It’s similar to a quick-mode in most racing titles, which let you dive in with minimal set-up, while still offering enough versatility and challenge.

Moving on to the second mode “Challenges of the Moment”, this mode gives a selection of challenges, which have their own schedule, and when the timer ends, the challenge is no longer available, usually there’s a few options, but I would have loved to see a few to choose from for both race’s and downhill sprints, as I type this paragraph there’s only two events to choose from, so while it’s nice to have a few extra options, it’s not a mode many people are going to spend time with consistently.

Two modes players are more likely to spend time with are “Pro Team” and “Pro Leader” with the latter allowing you to create your own rider and complete challenges as you improve from season to season, but the main appeal seems to be with Pro Team, which lets you manage your own cycling team, and build their reputation and ranking in order to take part in the most prestigious events, such as the Tour de France itself.

Regardless of which mode you spend time with first, you’ll soon notice Cycling is rarely a one-man race, those team comms we mentioned earlier soon become important as you try to juggle attack commands to keep as many of your team towards the front of the pack. It’s also easy (in a convoluted way) to switch control to any other rider on your team, which means in Pro Team mode, you’ll probably spend more than enough time with more than your main rider.

Taking a closer look at “Pro Team” you’ll begin choosing your teams Jersy, name and country before starting to build your team of riders, you’ll start off with a low budget of 300,000 euros, so you’ll need to stick to younger or lower rated riders, while trying to keep a decent balance between riding styles, a team full of mountain riders won’t do great on flat stages, but you’ll need a few for the tough climbs.

Initially you’ll only have 3 events you can take part in, but as you work through these, you’ll soon unlock more events, and more money to hopefully acquire even better riders as your team continues to expand.

I’ve always enjoyed management and simulation aspects of games, so I felt at home with the Pro Team mode, but gameplay leaves a little to be desired, mostly down to the source material.

Cycling isn’t the most exciting sport, I’m sorry but F1 cars speeding around at 180mph, or rally cars winding down tight roads, they’re far more entertaining than cycling, at a similar speed to everyone else, in a group of other riders, all going at a very similar pace,
The race setup allows points to be acquired for doing better in certain sections such as a hill climb, but the actual racing gameplay feels like playing Forza in the slowest cars, with all assists on as you’ll usually be holding “X” to follow another rider.

Actual control feels a little loose, so the real challenge comes from timing those team comm orders, and sitting in the slipstream of a leader, and then using up your energy and attack meters to try and win the main stage sections.

I’ve probably done a really bad job of explaining how mundane that all feels, and I’m sure fans of cycling will be throwing their water bottles at me any minute, but games, even strict simulations, are still a video game at heart, and if we had to sit through every 150yd walk in a game of gold, we probably wouldn’t enjoy those games as much either.
One great addition is the ability to play split-screen co-op in most major modes, I would have loved to see online options, but if you have a cycling buddy close by, it might be time to invite them round for a croissant to enjoy the game together,

With Tour de France, there’s enough cycling to please enthusiasts, but there’s just not enough game to please gamers, one instance is the blow-out.. When you push too hard and use up all of your energy, you hit blow-out, which drops your speed right down while you recuperate, due to the clear rubber-banding, opposing teams wont race off and leave you in the dust, they’ll sit just a few lengths in front of you, waiting for you to get back and challenge them, the same is said for doing well, the other riders are never far behind, even when you have a team full of fantastic sprinters and feel you’ve perfectly timed a breakaway, these gameplay elements, such as breaking away from the pack, just feel a little too random, which pushes the enjoyment away from the actual racing.

Thankfully with the Pro Team mode, there’s still plenty to enjoy, and while most people aren’t going to sit for the duration of kilometres of roads, you can thankfully spend a few minutes to build a good team position and then fast-forward large sections, only to regain control for those important point-scoring checkpoints.
Maybe I’m being a little harsh, because it’s always going to be tough to push more gameplay out of a guy on a bicycle, so kudos for the team in building a mode which isn’t over-reliant on the actual race controls which along with rubber-banding can lead to plenty of frustration, especially when you have a perfect race, time your sprints to perfection and still get pipped to first place because the game decided you’d built up too much of a lead at the wrong time.

Looking at presentation, Tour de France has some impressive areas, from the overview of the stages, to the general ease-of-use for the menus, but for every good point, there’s a few negatives, following another rider feels a little random depending who’s name pops up the second you hold X, and while graphics are scenery aren’t bad, it all feels a little to last-generation, with spectators and the lead car seemingly floating around the road, and while the bikes and some scenery seem weel detailed, you’ll soon notice plenty of things which aren’t as rich, many lacking simple details like a basic shadow, which just makes them feel superimposed .

Audio is, well, we’re cycling at 40-50kmph, along usually deserted roads, it’s safe to say audio is never going to be strong, but there’s a valid effort to add a little life in to the climbs where you’ll often find those floating spectators scattered across the roads and while the commentary is a little robotic, it at least keeps you informed on what’s happening around you.

While Tour de France 2023, isn’t a game I can see myself playing long term, I can see its appeal, especially to fans of the sport and while there’s a few shortcomings, these are mostly around the sport and not the game itself, generally if you’re a fan of Tour de France, I think you’ll quite happily invest time into the Pro modes making the price around £41 fair for fans of the genre and while there’s not as much depth as games like F1, there’s more than I was expecting.

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