Rival Stars Horse Racing: Desktop Edition

I would love to be able to recommend this game but I just cant. The only good aspects are the racing/event mini-games and the horse customization. Everything else is pretty bad. It feels more like a demo than an actual game with many missing features and feels more like a very, very long tutorial. It has the foundations to be something amazing but falls short in too many aspects in its current state. It needs quality of life updates, player customization and honestly the story quests need a major update. Its just the same thing over and over again and doesn't really manage to make me interested in learning the story. I'd love to be able to talk to the npcs outside of the quests, maybe something leaning further into the point and click aspects of the game or anything to make me actually care about the npcs here. They seem so lifeless. In short this game has a long way to go and isn't worth 40 bucks, I don't think its even worth 20 when its half off.

I'd say this game is worth it IF buying it with a good discount - as I did. And having some kind of interest in horses, too. It's fun to play every now and then, as well as taking part in the different races and trying to breed and train better horses to compete with. It gets repetitive from a certain point on, making it less interesting to play in general. Love the few different mechanics added for different kinds of races. Would leave on a positive note if the game would let me do what I'm supposed to do! But sometimes it doesn't detect the buttons I have to press. For someone completely new to Rival Stars it had left me absolutely confused when explaining what to press during the tutorial but none of what I did being registered by the game... This leaves me with a bit of a bad aftertaste for the game.

So amazing, espesially the breedings!!!

What on earth? I'm clearly not the target audience, because the playability of this game just isn't there. The game is just: 1. Press different menu buttons to "gain acchievements". Even upgrading the horse stats is just pressing a button - there's no minigame etc, which you'd expect. 2. Racing is just pressing space and steering the horse right and left. I was thinking of the good old relaxing horse/stable games, where you need to actually take care of the horses, the stables, and then you get to race too in different environments. I'm very disappointed - although that's perhaps not the fault of the game. This game just simply wasn't what I was looking for. This game is great for people who enjoy a simple game play, but if you're looking for something more - perhaps not a great fit.

I've been a fan of this game for years, beginning with the mobile version before transitioning to desktop. The one-time payment for the desktop game is a nice change from the microtransaction-heavy mobile version. However, I found myself finishing the desktop game much faster and losing interest far sooner than expected compared to the mobile app, which continues to engage me, with me having about 100 hours, and still having quests to complete and levels to pass. The challenge and slower progression on mobile have kept me invested over the years. For this game, you can do free roam, but the game is mostly a racing game; it is not open world (it would be cool if it were), and the graphics are pretty decent. You have 20 levels and tons of quests to complete, you can breed horses and feed them, but you can't brush the horses. You have flat racing, cross country, steeplechase, and a new one, which is show jumping, although i don't play that mode much. The desktop version is more laid-back, but doesn't get the updates that mobile gets, so it can lack in some places. It lets you fully customize your own horse—something not available on mobile. Plus, there’s no wait time for training or energy limit for racing like mobile, making gameplay more relaxed but quicker. As much I love this game, I regret buying the desktop version only to lose interest after about 40 hours. I continue to play the mobile game, but mostly just to grind. If you’re new to the game, I recommend starting with the mobile version since it is free to download, but strongly advise against spending money on it—the microtransactions are primarily a cash grab, and the horses for sale are definitely not worth it since you can breed better horses if you just put in the time and work. If you like quick and easy game play then I would say get it but don't expect anything over the top

very good game