Descenders Next is ready to take extreme sports to another level
By Brian Allen
More than 30 million extreme sports aficionados went downhill at full speed with trick biking offering Descenders, the kind of success that guarantees a sequel. Publisher No More Robots and developer Ragesquid made it official today, unveiling Descenders Next, a game they want to make "the only extreme sports game anyone will ever need, ever again."
The original Descenders focused on mountain biking and earned many accolades in doing so. But sequels are about going bigger, farther, and faster. Descenders Next will start with boarding sports, and add more sports over its life cycle. It will feature online multiplayer, lots of tricks to grind, and explorable biomes. In Descenders, your athlete's reputation was important both in unlocking new skill ranks and gaining new gear. The rep mechanic returns and it will still allow players to keep their extreme athlete looking fresh with some cool outfits.
Procedurally generated mountains will chain into parks and vistas, with several challenges to overcome. Some will be time trials asking players to get to the bottom as fast as they can, while other
stages will focus on doing sick tricks. For those interested in exploration, a scavenger hunt mode encourages players to get into every cranny, nook, and mountain crevice.
Descenders wore its extreme influences on its ripped-up sleeves, summoning the spirit of SSX Tricky and Skate with every tight turn and insane trick. This title added roguelike trappings to the
proceedings, with life points and boss battles. Combining these with the ability to earn rep gave even more pressure to have the perfect run.
After Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater dropped, for a long time you couldn’t shake a skateboard
without hitting another extreme sports title. But as gaming trends inevitably do, they burned out as too few games offered imitation instead of innovation. Descenders scratched that long-awaited extreme itch for millions of players, and I’m excited to see what the franchise comes
up with – wait for it - next.
Descenders Next is coming to Steam and Xbox Game Pass in 2025. They'll need some help testing, and you can sign up to do that at DescendersNext.com.