Descenders review

Descenders puts us on risky downhill bike rides with endless possibilities, because its tracks are procedurally created. So we will always face new challenges. The game is being developed by British studio No More Robots .

A game about riding a bike down hills, only very, very fast, in first or third person. You are going downhill, in a kind of DOWNHILL, swinging through turns and performing aerial stunts off anything you can jump from. Unfortunately, Descenders stumbles in trying to build an entire game around this procedural mechanic, and doing flips and downhill drifting ends up being easier than moving forward.

The game is centered on the randomization of each run. Not only are the individual tracks randomized, but also turns and obstacles for stunts. The routes become available as you advance through a world, and are equally unique for each run. Even if you fail on the track, when you try that level again, it will be different. By completing an entire run in a world without losing your continues too many times, you can face a boss level: a steep and challenging track ending in a gigantic mega jump.

The levels in each run vary due to their procedurally generated nature, but all contain some basic obstacles, depending on the world they are set in. In the Highlands, grassy fields are interspersed with a quarter of pipes and wooden ramps, up to the castle. The Forest, the second world, adds jumps through fire towers and twisted bridges over rocky pits. In total there are four worlds, all with the final battle and randomly generated tracks.

Between runs you are free to explore a small training area, which consists of: modifying your rider or your bike with cosmetic items, or taking a few rides through the three practice courses available in the small level. The various shirts, helmets, pants and bike decorations don’t affect the game at all other than appearance, but offer some customization points.

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

Graphically the game looks very pretty and well made: the sunset looks very beautiful. The night races are very well lit with quite realistic shadow effects: you can ride your bike through the mountains enjoying beautiful landscapes. That is, if you have time, because the bikes go very fast.
The game’s songs are all licensed so you can stream without problems with blocked content. However the soundtrack doesn’t fit the game very well. Something that could have been hardcore punk rock feels more like a GTA pop radio.

GAMEPLAY

The controls are quite simple: just accelerate and turn, and a jump button, with which, combined with the directional inputs, you can easily perform many and varied tricks. Despite the impression of speed the game gives you, you can easily control your bike on the track and perform tricks and jumps. The tumbles are quite funny and frustrating, but if you don’t know how to control the bike’s acceleration well to gain more speed, you end up falling forward, like a forward somersault, it’s so fast. It happens a lot on the descents, something that sometimes leaves you quite irritated.

Turns can be performed in normal mode and through a type that mimics motocross, in which the rider uses his leg, allowing a tighter turn.
For each of the events, you have objectives within each run: by meeting these objectives, you earn extra lives for your career. Otherwise you lose all your championship progress and have to start over. If you fall while performing a trick, you lose a life right there, going back to the last checkpoint, something that is not that hard to happen.

CONCLUSION

Descenders tries to integrate the fast, sharp gameplay of extreme sports with the procedural generation of modern games. Unfortunately, this combination robs the genre of one of its strongest attributes: far more elaborate and more challenging level design. This is balanced by easy controls and beautiful landscapes, but nothing that will hook you for long. If you miss the “Downhill” game on the PS2, this may be a good substitute.

Story: 5
Audio and visuals: 5
Gameplay: 6

PC version