Tour De France 2024 Review

Tour De France is an annual event that appears to be soaring in popularity more than ever recently and rightly so. The 121-year-old historical endurance cycling marathon has recently come to its conclusion and alongside the 2024 edition, we also have the video game depiction, Tour De France 2024. Developed by Cyanide Studios and published by Nacon we have a title that also seems to go from strength to strength with its yearly entry.

Admittedly I’ve only very recently introduced myself to cycling again after purchasing a bike last year and I struggle to retain the stamina to power through a 10-mile round trip to work. So I have total admiration for all the riders who spend their life living and breathing this magnificent slog of a race across intense yet beautiful terrain. What is the actual game like this time around though and does it have pedal power to become a winner?

New Additions FTW

I’ll be honest and say that I have never played the previous instalments of Tour De France, so if you have then unfortunately I can’t draw any comparisons to the past. However, sometimes it is better going into a series of games with a totally fresh look. After some extensive research, it appears like there are a few decent additions this time around to interest the hardcore cyclist community who have an adoration for these games.

The most notable is the new Criterium mode which allows you to compete against real racers online.  You’ll be taking on opponents in different trials of the iconic event with up to six players controlling two cyclists each. You will be responsible for your primary and backup riders and you’ll face the same challenges that you would during the solo experience. This mode adds huge longevity especially if the single player modes are maxed out by you.

Hurrah For A Tutorial

I know that some absolutely detest tutorials in games if they just want to get going with playing. For me though, I like to comb through the control scheme and the mechanics before I dive into everything a game has to offer. Tour De France 2024 will teach you how to not only manage your cycling but how to develop different strategies to adapt your rider to fatigue and stamina management which is an absolute must.

In an endurance event like TDF, you can’t just go in all guns and blazing from the off and expect to pedal your way to victory at a continual fast pace. It’s about choosing the right moment to attack and strive for that yellow jersey and with plenty of kilometres ahead of you, it isn’t an easy feat. The tutorial will also introduce you how to consume gels to top up your energy to keep yourself going.

Play How You Want To

As you can imagine, racing for 200km in real time is going to take a long while and you can absolutely do this if you want to. There is however a fast forward feature that will allow you to progress the race taking into account your personal stats. This is perfect if you fancy playing for half an hour but don’t want to endure the whole event. You can choose your cyclist from 900 real life riders, I am not sure if this is accurate as I didn’t count. Alternatively you can create your own and start your career from scratch, which is what I opted for. The customisation options are fairly basic but I’ve seen worse in other video games, there is enough to tailor everything to suit you.

After diving into the myriad of different game modes on offer, it is safe to say that no two races ever felt exactly the same for me. The first couple of attempts ended badly for me by attacking too much and burning out. This results in taking time to recover and get going again and slipping behind massively in races. This is where sitting behind other riders and catching onto a slipstream helps, biding your time to attack at the right moment and using energy gels to keep in a good status. Using the downhill gradients feels super fun when you latch onto some serious speed, then you feel the burn as you power uphill. Tour De France 2024 does nail the realism element.

Graphics & Audio

Visually Tour De France 2024 isn’t mind blowing and I didn’t expect this either. You have to remember that the sheer length of these circuits and combining this with landscape, scenery and the animations of cyclists and spectators probably is a difficult task on a budget. Having said this it does come across pretty enough to make it feel as if you’re in the moment and whilst there is the odd performance niggle here and there, for the most part it is fairly smooth. I especially liked passing through busier areas of events to clusters of cheering fans roaring amongst the crowd. Absorbing the high intensity of traffic of riders at the beginning of event donning their sponsored lycra cycling gear is like a rainbow of vivid colour.

Some of the landscapes are beautiful though and the effect of the sun glistening through the clouds does look impressive when you’re belting through the roads at speed. Having watched some YouTube videos of previous games, it does look like the graphics have majorly improved year on year. Menus are clean, crisp and for the most part easy to navigate to understand and there are loads of options for statistical analysis for those who love to number crunch. Audio design is pretty spot on across the board with those spectators adding to the excitement and atmosphere of the event amongst some narration giving you the heads up on what is ahead.

Final Thoughts

For my first crack at a Tour De France title, Tour De France 2024 gets almost everything nailed when it comes to the structure, pacing and atmosphere of the real life event depicted in this video game. It isn’t just about tapping pedal all the way to the finish line. Instead you’ll be introduced and learn all the elements of how to adapt yourself during the races, managing your fitness to really get the most out of your pacing and utilising gradients to your advantage. For me it took several hours to even get to a level where I thought I could be in with a chance at victory, but that is the beauty of this game, there is a learning curve but it is fun to engage with.

Real Life Competition For Veterans Of The Series

For veterans of this series of games, no doubt it will be much more of the same for you ultimately and whilst the online multiplayer is limited with only 6 of you competing, it is a great start at building in competitive play with real life players. There is a potential for tens if not hundreds of hours of gameplay here depending on how you enjoy the game and what you want to gain from it ultimately. On consoles though, you aren’t going to find a better competitive cycling game than one that is dedicated to the biggest event on the planet in this field. Tour De France 2024 is a solid entry and worth a look at.