What Makes DESCENDERS So Exhilarating?

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This video takes a look at Descenders-a curious little title that I tried out on Game Pass on a whim. I'm so glad I did, because Descenders is quickly becoming a new favourite of mine that I'd highly recommend you try out if you have access to Microsoft's subscription platform. A delightfully pure mechanical core allowing for a procedural-but-structured experience that allows you to take things on your own terms; simultaneously deeply relaxing and utterly terrifying in its sheer speed.
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Text intro animation by Isaac Holland - / drazgames

[@WritingOnGames]

The first 1,000 people to use this link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare:

[@N00BSYBORG]

Needs a VR update so I can experience the terror of nearly dying from the comfort of my couch.

[@johannlabertaler6095]

I really don't play a lot of sports games, it is rare for me to play games which require training and repeapting gameplay, but I loved Descenders. It just felt so good

[@yt49ab6p5]

I wanted to leave a comment here thanking you for recommending this game. When I was a kid, I fell in love with a jet ski racing game called Splashdown, and I've been looking for a similar feeling to that game for like 15 years. And thanks to this game, I think this is it. In a different way, it made me recapture similar feelings of speed, control and cozy familiarity. Probably has a lot to do with the music as well. So again, thanks.

[@Iggsy81]

Game Pass is the best thing to happen to gaming in many years tbh. gaming media never explain that cos they dont have to pay for their games so they dont care, but for the average consumer it's' a godsend.

[@bamfyu]

Descenders is a fantastic game, I have over 100h in it.

[@TheIrland09]

I thought it got boring after a couple of hours personally. The procedural generation gets really repetitive.

[@SCORP1ONF1RE]

arcade physics, when done right, are the number one reason we play video games... descenders, mario, gta, f-zero, trackmania, call of duty, celeste, tony hawk, forza, doom, halo, mirrors edge, the crew, just cause, dying light, red dead, spiderman, far cry, crackdown, borderlands, marvel vs capcom, tekken, street fighter, vampire survivors, redout, wreckfest, rocket league, etc...

[@TheIrland09]

The limited lives ruined this game for me unfortunately.

[@Pacuta_]

You know what? You convinced me. This is a PS+ game and I wasn't even going to bother before I watched this video. Thanks!

[@andersonzuniga4082]

I mean this game is fun don't get me wrong, but it looks more fun when your watching someone thats good at it

[@pavlovolegphoto]

As a mountain biker i can't watch off-track bits at this speed - my mirror neurones screaming all at once - You are dead!

[@timothymclean]

3:25

[@rickydo6572]

This reminds me a lot of Downhill Domination on the PS2, minus the violence, and the edge, and it looks less competitive, in fact, I'm positive the devs of Descenders were inspired by it just by how similar the game looks in the video at least.

[@jp9707]

With roguelike games I always like to imagine that the player character is in purgatory, unable to escape this endless loop of gameplay. So in Descenders they can hang out in the lobby area with other people trapped in the loop, or they can choose to ride through a unique track, giving them a fleeting and exhilirating sense that they are finally escaping, before either dying or completing the run and being dragged back to the lobby. Their fate is to be endlessly taunted by the impression that they're fleeing to freedom, only to end up back where they started. They see an infinite number of landscapes, each one different to the ones they've seen before, but all made up from the same ingredients, until gradually they start to seem like one homogenous track. Even the relative escape of riding through these unique landscapes, giving the false impression of seeing new sights and escaping to freedom, is gradually taken from them as each track starts to seem more and more like the tracks they've ridden through before.

[@DigiTism]

Can’t wait to see speed runs of this.

[@NicoBleackley]

Easily one of the best games of this generation.

[@synthetic240]

When you were talking about the sense of insanely dangerous speed, it reminded me of playing Need for Speed: Shift. There was a track were you get to drive a high-end supercar along a very long one-way course (rather than doing laps). Near the end, there's a (nearly) straight-away that was several km long. So I'm doing like 400 km/h, scared to even tweak my steering for fear of flying off into space.

[@raidenslicingwatermelon]

I’m a sucker for momentum and anything having to do with BMX or dirt bikes since the classic THQ MX games. Decenders is a massively fun time

[@redpandarampage2191]

Content on this channel is great. Your recent Dishonored 1 video got me to try the game and I loved it, so thanks!