“Just like riding a bike” is a statement that doesn’t apply to me. I literally nearly fell off a bike after not riding for about ten years, so it’s kind of ironic that I am reviewing Descenders, a ‘Rogue style’ mountain biking game. Even more ironic is how much I loved this game. Me, who would rather stay inside and smash buttons than smash the pavement. Me, who would rather read about people going on crazy adventures than going on them myself. Me, who gets anxious rather than pumped to go on a roller coaster. Yup, this girl loved this extreme sports game.

Descenders has been out for a while on Xbox One (and Xbox Game Pass) and Steam, but is making its way onto PlayStation 4 this month. The game is a pure mountain biking experience, equipped with a variety of different tracks and challenges that will keep the player motivated to keep on pumping them wheels.

There are six different “rides” in Descenders. The first, Career Session, sees the player ride through different tracks on a map that leads them to the “boss track.” Each of these tracks have objectives that, if completed by the player, gives them an extra life. You start off with four lives and every time you stack it, you “respawn” and start back at the nearest checkpoint. These objectives include “perform 2 front flips”, “complete track without taking hand off the accelerator” and “finish the track in X amount of time.” Also, the more fancy your tricks, the more reputation points you achieve. These points, called “Reps” in game, go towards how desirable you are to three bike sponsors and also open up new tracks and objectives.

The first tracks you can play on are part of the “Highlands.” These are made up of flat yet curvy tracks with ramps and sometimes medieval castles that you have to fly over. I wasn’t a fan of the castles as I had NO idea how to actually get over parts of them without smashing headfirst into one of their cavities. I also found the ramps that had rocks between them and another ramp quite difficult to jump successfully. However, I cheated and went onto the grass around these obstacles so I didn’t stack it and lose another valuable life! That’s a great feature of the game, it does let you play how you want to. You don’t have to be a total daredevil and do all the tricks all the time, though it won’t get your Rep points up. You can, like me, totally dodge ramps that are too daunting and/or you don’t really know how to ride without totally stacking it.

A cool feature of Descenders is “Freeride.” Here you can customise a track’s visual style (whether it’s day, night or dusk), its steepness, curves and the amount of platforms/hills/ramps on your path. You can also build your “crew.” Crew members are unlocked via career sessions and depend on how many tricks you perform. Your progression is shown via a circle on the upper left of the screen that gradually fills up with green depending on your moves. These moves can include slides, near misses (missing objects around you), wheelies and stoppies. Once the circle is filled in with that greenie goodness at the end of your current ride, you will be given the option to choose a new crew member, which is pretty much a bonus. These include wider paths, extra stunts, less curves and more checkpoints.

There are also Daily Objectives that you can complete, but these are a tad boring. The track is just the Highlands map, but with the reward of a special skin, its rarity depending on how many Reps you achieve. This reward wasn’t enough motivation for me to do the exact same track just for some common merch! Descenders Multiplayer is also available. Here you can “Race down the steepest tracks, chill out at the skate park or play a game of hide and seek.” Multiplayer contains four new worlds and a lot of new gear in various colour schemes. I did not have access to the multiplayer option as there weren’t many players around as I was playing with a review code. However, not having this access wasn’t an issue as Descender’s multiple tricks and tracks kept me wanting to get back on my bike.

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