Ubisoft’s Steep, while not wholly original in and of itself, is new in the context of extreme sports games. Essentially, it’s the snowboarding edition of Watch Dogs, The Crew, or Assassin’s Creed, complete with all those wonderful Ubisoft idiosyncrasies that you either love or loathe.

There’s a large open world to explore, with events and activities like skiing, wingsuit flying, snowboarding, and paragliding strewn about the Alpine environment, and presented in such a way that you’re free to tackle them in any order you see fit.

In a sense, Steep is heavily formulaic (or at least Ubisoft-formulaic). But seeing this familiar form applied to the world of extreme sports does make for an interesting game. Sadly, it doesn’t make for a good one.

Steep starts well. Despite what you might expect, there’s a refreshing lack of clichéd “dude-bro” language and frat boy sensibilities to accompany the extreme sports. Steep celebrates the daredevil nature of snowboarders and skiers, without the inane drivel that the media so frequently attaches to it. Combined with the wealth of options available thanks to the inclusion of numerous extreme sports and you’ve got a game that boasts an engaging attitude, along with the potential for experimentation.