Taking the Plunge with Descenders Next

With its procedurally-generated runs, responsive controls, and roguelike ‘mutators’, 2019’s Descenders carved out an absorbing new path for extreme sports games. Six years later, Descenders Next delivers a follow-up that’s more ambitious than your typical sequel. Yes, the focus on fluid movement and maintaining momentum remains, but the Early Access build also demonstrates developer RageSquid tackling several bold innovations.

Undoubtedly, the most notable change is the shift from mountain biking. Now, snowboarding and mountainboarding provide alternative landscapes and new possibilities. Shrewdly, the adrenaline-fueled descents, white-knuckle runs, and brutal wipeouts are all here.

With Next’s generated biomes, the thrill of dynamic navigation returns, testing your ability to read and react to the landscape. But here, the board riding options present a new challenge since they glide across the terrain in a completely different way. Aside from the obvious lack of brakes on boards, you’ll have to carve to control your speed. As such, don’t expect to be tackling Next’s mountains like a seasoned professional. It took me a few hours before I was moderately comfortable with the new sports. Ideally, the developers would offer several different control schemes to accommodate different skill levels.

Maintaining Momentum is Mandatory

Descenders Next’s trick system evolves the original game’s approach to stunting. You can still chain flips, spins, and grinds to rack up combos as well as tweaks to maximize points. But the new sports require modified approaches to balance and landing. Next’s controls are a bit more expressive and tactile to accommodate the beefier trick system. Now, momentum matters more than ever, especially when transferring to rails and even ramps.

Fortunately, Next preserves the procedurally-generated tracks that make every run unpredictable. This design decision still rewards hot dogs willing to perform tricks, while punishing any mistakes with highlight-reel worthy wipeouts. The original game offered varied mountains and a progression system where you tackled increasingly difficult challenges. Next builds on this with bigger biomes that offer autonomy (speed vs. stunting) across multiple procedurally generated trails.

These Trails are Under Construction

While the title will likely evolve its rather barebones multiplayer component, at present, matchmaking will group you in with randoms. But the original Descenders took several years to reach fruition, so I’d expect Next to mature at a measured but deliberate pace. But currently, the sandbox experience is somewhat limited, offering four parks at launch with more due over the course of Early Access. So, if you’re hoping for a wide variety of environments and activities right away, you’ll have to be patient.

Next’s development roadmap signals a commitment to progression, with plans for additional sports, more biomes, and mod support. This reflects RageSquid’s understanding that Descenders succeeded because of an active community and regular updates. Ideally, Next will follow this same trajectory and push at the boundaries of what’s expected from an extreme sports title.

Descenders Next was played on PC with preview code provided by the publisher.