Descenders Xbox Game Preview Impressions

It’s hard to believe that in 2018 there hasn’t been a game that truly represents the extreme sport of downhill mountain biking the way that skateboarding and snowboarding have experienced in the last two decades. One would have to go back to the early 2000’s in the Playstation 2 era to find the last game to even attempt at making a mark in the genre, but RageSquid’s Descenders looks to change that.

The concept of Descenders is simple: get from the top of a summit to the bottom as fast as you can without smashing into a tree. You’ll weave, jump, and maneuver through a series of trails with a limited number of lives, with the end goal of reaching the boss track. These boss tracks are more or less a standard track on steroids, with a massive, cinematic jump to cap it all off.

The path from your starting trail to the boss trail is not a straight line, as you choose your own path on a topographical map of the location you’re riding on. You can choose to beeline it right for the final trail, or take your time and perhaps stumble upon a trail with a sponsorship bonus or a first person trail that changes the view of your ride to a helmet cam. This can be risky however, since you are only given 4 lives to start off with, and any miscalculation of a turn or an improper landing on a jump resulting in a bail will cost you. The bonus objectives on each trail come in handy, as completing tasks like landing front flips or descending to the finish line under a time limit will score you an extra life.

The biggest feature of Descenders are the procedurally generated trails. Each trail is generated based on three categories: steepness, stunts, and curves. The trails generated in each of the four locations aren’t drastically different from one another, but different enough that you don’t feel like you’re playing the same thing over and over. It all feels pretty organic, as if you’ve packed up your bike and driven to a local conservation area to rip through all of the trails.

Being in early access, there are a few hitches in the roguelike nature of the game, mostly with its bonus objective system. As the trails get more intense the bonus objectives become key to accumulating lives, and it can be frustrating when an objective is given to you that is impossible to complete. For example, on a trail with no stunts or jumps you could be asked to perform two backflips or 360’s.

One thing that really stood out while playing Descenders was how well done the sound is. The game’s soundtrack is decent, but I found myself cranking down the music and really enjoying the sound effects on their own. The noise of the bike’s chain and gears going ballistic as you plow through the steep terrain, the satisfying sounds of the tires whipping loose gravel on a hairpin turn, and the devastating crunch of your biker slamming into a tree are all well executed and add to the intensity of each trail run.

Overall Descenders is a pretty solid experience that captures the essence of the extreme sport of downhill mountain biking excellently. The roguelike trail building is a unique feature with some minor hiccups, but that is to be expected when playing an early access title that is still a work in progress.

A Xbox One Preview code for Descenders was provided by No More Robots