Descenders Next Review

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Fast Facts

Have you ever wanted to ride a snowboard or a mountainboard, and do tricks down mountains as blazing speeds? Well, Descenders Next might be for you.

An Impeccable Aesthetic

As a fan of the original Descenders, I was cautiously optimistic for what was coming in Decenders Next, since I really did enjoy the original. Still, it seemed like they were taking some big swings to change the overall formula of the game, and one place I will say that they have nailed it is in the general art style of the UI and game. The colour palette is much more striking, and the use of Polaroid photographs to show what base camps look like was a genius idea. The game also runs super well while snowboarding. Although mountainboarding did cause a few frame drops, I would attribute that to my PC and the foliage being more intense.

It also has a soundtrack that is really well thought out, as all of the songs really nail the the extreme vibe that the game is going for, and while some songs stick out more than others, it’s a good time knowing that there are aren’t really any duds in a game that’s meant to be meant to be running a breakneck pace, as well as the fact that the music can match the intensity of the gameplay.

2 Wheels to 1 Board

Descenders Next swaps bikes for the boards, with 2 sports in the game at the time of writing, snowboarding and mountainboarding, which I personally think is downhill skateboarding with extra steps, though at it’s core, the gameplay hasn’t changed. You select a node. head downhill really fast, do tricks, try not to land in a way that would leave you seriously injured in real life, get points if you manage to finish, and then you repeat that process over and over while trying not to lose all your lives. The gameplay in general is fine, and adding braking as they have helps quite a bit over carving, but I do feel like the boards can be a bit hard to control, the mountainboard in particular I had a bit of trouble with, as it feels bit hard to control due to various changing levels of terrain, as berms and rocks I found to be a bit glitchy sometimes, even bailing when I thought I had landed safely. I did get used to it, and enjoyed in the end, but it was a pretty hard road getting there.

Snowboarding I didn’t really have these issues at all, and it’s definitely the better out of the 2 modes for me, as I felt that the board was good to control on most of the terrain honestly, though I’ll reiterate that adding brakes helped quite a bit as the speeds in this game can pick up really fast, and it had me a bit on the limit trying to focus during stages, though you make the argument that it’s the point of the game.

Big Worlds, not a lot of substance.

The big changes that Descenders makes are in the way runs take place now. You still go from node to node, but you can’t change biomes this time, as the runs take you from you’re base camp, to race course, a slopestyle course, or even another base camp. The more nodes you unlock in a certain biome, the closer you get to reaching the boss level, which is more standard Descenders, as you go from node to node to get the boss jump to complete the run, and unlock the next biome. This is a decent way of progression, but the game doesn’t really tell you how to unlock these things. I assume the idea was for it to come by chance, but even when I had the map fully visible, I didn’t get any sense that I was able to progress to the next biome.

The most disappointing thing about Descenders Next, currently, though, has to be the lack of things to do outside of just using your boards. You have the same three teams from the last game, Arboreal, Kinetic and Enemy, each with a different focus, but once you join the team and complete the required objectives, there’s nothing for you to do for them, which is very disappointing, even though you unlock new gear for your avatar. They have said things like a race mode, boss rush, and mod support are coming with new sports, but I feel like there needs to be something else here for me to sink my teeth into.

Final Thoughts

I really want to love Descenders Next. The vibe and feeling of snowboarding and mountainboarding has been nailed through great music choices and UI, some solid gameplay, and its game structure builds off the core of what worked in Descenders, while adding mechanics that fit very well. However, there’s just not enough there, and while the game is in early access, for £25, I think you should get it on a price drop, stick to the old Descenders for now if you don’t mind bikes, or wait a bit till they have added more.