Descenders developer RageSquid keeps bringing free updates throughout Early Access.
Descenders, when we reviewed it, was a game of two halves. We enjoyed the way it actually played but felt it was lacking in some game modes and features. The joy of Early Access, however, is that developers can modify, improve, and in this case, add to the base game.
(And for the record, if a game’s out and you can pay actual cash money for it, then reviews are up for grabs. Don’t give us any of that “but it’s not finished yet, you shouldn’t be reviewing it” nonsense. They’re taking your money! Let us tell you whether you should be paying it or not.)
Over the past six months, RageSquid have added a new environment, secret levels, and changes to the way teams work within Descenders. They’ve also fixed some of our specific criticisms from the review, including bonus objectives that were sometimes impossible for a specific stage, and the addition of that all-important freeride mode (so you don’t need to worry about objectives and can just get crazy).
The latest update to Descenders is another welcome addition: a replay mode.
It sounds a bit daft, when you think about it, that a pretty, trick-based game like Descenders didn’t have a replay mode already. But as we said up top, Early Access, adding things all the time, and all that jazz. The main thing is, now that it does have a replay mode, it’s a good one. It includes the ability to slow down and pause the replay, and to view from any angle. You can also hide any of the UI elements. Essentially, it’s a moving picture photo mode.
There’s also another new secret level and a bunch of other fixes and tweaks. We don’t know how long Descenders will stay in Early Access, but if RageSquid keeps bringing welcome new features, then we can’t complain.