Descenders Next Is An Incredible Continuation For The Series - Preview

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Descenders Next was provided by No More Robots for evaluation. Thank you!

I have heard a lot about the Descenders series, but haven't actually had the chance to try it out yet. It looks intense, going down mountains on a bike at extremely high speeds to get high scores and survive sounds addictive. That's why, as soon as I heard about Descenders Next, I knew I had to get into it. Yesterday, the next entry in the series was shadow-dropped, and it's pretty incredible so far in its early access state.

Descenders Next Hands-On (From Nick Hanchet)

There's a lot to love about the aptly-named Descenders Next, the follow-up to 2019's phenomenal Descenders. Once again developed by RageSquid and published by No More Robots, Descenders Next pivots away from downhill biking in favor of snowboarding and mountainboarding, and, as premature as this may sound… may be all the better for it. There's something beautifully nostalgic about snowboarding in these modern games, thanks to the many great SSX titles that came before, SSX Tricky, I'm looking at you, and it seems as if RageSquid has managed to perfectly encapsulate everything great about said SSX games, with their well-loved roguelike take slotting in beautifully.

For those who may not know about Descenders' take on roguelikes, it's a unique experience that captivated me immediately. Regardless of your means of transport, you select from various procedurally generated paths down a mountain, complete with secondary objectives for good measure, and equipped with a finite amount of lives. Each successful attempt nets you a wad of Reputation and Descents, the names of two in-game methods of scoring, as well as a much-deserved hit of dopamine, because hey, you earned it.

Each failed attempt, however, subtracts a life, with the slow but inevitable march towards an untimely death ending your particular string of runs. There are chances to "bank" your runs, nothing like The Weakest Link, that grant you a new base camp and a risk/reward mechanism of granting said Reputation and Descents scoring, dependent on the amount of runs completed before said banking. The more runs completed, the higher the score.

After a few hours of gametime with Descenders Next, I'm hooked. With each path taking mere moments, and the reliance on skill keeping every success and failure fair and deserved, the draw is apparent. I'm captivated not only by the desire, but also by the need to refine my, at present, somewhat lacklustre skills. With what can only be described as an easy-to-pick-up-and-play, hard to master approach to gameplay, I can't wait to see how I compare further down the line as I try to best not only my friends, but also my records.

The freedom to tackle the challenges that Descenders Next beautifully presents is its greatest strength, and with it delivering such a strong first impression, it's easy to envision how grand the full release may be. With the promise of additional, unrevealed sports further down the line, the vision above may look substantially different from the boarding-focused take we have today, and that in itself is incredibly exciting - especially so considering how masterful the downhill biking found in the original was, so it's hard to see how that doesn't make a return also.

Descenders Next on Steam Deck (From Noah Kupetsky)

Thankfully, even in its early access state, the Steam Deck's performance is shaping up quite nicely. Early Access titles often have a myriad of graphical and technical issues plaguing the experience. Still, RageSquid has put the work in when it comes to the little handheld that could. Out of the box performance sits around the 45 - 50 fps mark on average, and with FSR 3 upscaling pulling its ever-appreciated weight, it still looks lovely. It's naturally not as visually appealing as it would be when playing on a desktop, but it gets the job done nevertheless.

What was lovely to see, and something we hope to see happening more often across the board, is the Steam Deck having its own graphical preset. It brings with it a level of respect for those who enjoy Steam's portable offering, and a silent assurance that things could very well improve further as the game marches - or slides gracefully downhill - towards a full release.

This is undoubtedly not only one to watch out for later down the line after the various updates and content drops, but one that should be experienced right now. It deserves your attention, and begs to be played with - even despite the unfounded (in this case) negative Early Access connotations that come hand-in-hand with what can only be described as, potentially, one of 2025's best indie games to look out for.

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