I must say I'm a little dissapointed

[The Duke]

For a bit of background I am a big fan of Lonely Mountain Downhill. I’ve beaten all levels with all bikes and completed all challenges. If I put my mind to it I can easily finish in the top 50 of a daily run. I’m not saying this to brag, just to put some context that I really enjoyed that game and am pretty good (although certainly not world class) at it.

So I was very much looking forward to this game and it's pretty good but I feel in many ways it is a step down from its predecessor.

Firstly I just find the snow theme to be a little bit more boring than the mountain bike theme visually. Obviously each mountain still has its variety of trees and other obstacles but the majority of the ground is naturally going to be white no matter what track you are on. Its not a huge problem but I think it does hurt it compared to the variety that downhill could offer.

The major problem in my opinion is the toned down nature of the single player. I am definitely more skilled at this type of game since playing downhill however I found these challenges not challenging at all. Quite often I would beat all three challenges that they offered on the first try by 15 seconds plus. Contrast this with downhill where I would often beat a level, find I’m like 30 seconds behind where I need to be and then spend quite a bit of time trying to locate enough shortcuts to beat the damn challenge.

The challenges really should force you to use different bikes as well. You would have to master the trail in downhill with a couple of different bikes before you fully completed it. Here I just stuck with the viper the whole time because I really had no issues with it. I’m sure if I decided to see how far up the leaderboards I can go I will have to experiment with different bikes but for a casual run through the game there really is no need.

I also wish that free rider and night mode was still a thing. I’m sure the developers have plenty of stats showing that a lot of people struggled with that and gave up but I personally loved the challenge. By the time I was able to beat those modes I knew the mountain inside and out. With this game? I play it once and move on. It just feels quite underwhelming to be honest. I hope they bring them back in a new plus game mode DLC in future.

Finally I believe tricks apparently are more of a thing in the team mode (which I have yet to play) but to be honest I forgot they were even a thing while playing Solo as I could not see any reason to use them. Why not add in a challenge per trail to do a certain amount of tricks? Because otherwise as a mechanic it seems like a bit of a waste of time gameplay wise.

I have played some multiplayer quick races and obviously there are bugs their that Im sure the developers are well aware of and will get them fixed but even with a flawless setup it still seems a little ... shallow and poorly thought out? Playing against randoms with limited interactivity (the trails are so long it's rare you are really josling it out with a competitor for any real length of time) On top of that if you are in the top couple to finish you are quite often waiting around while others stumble their way through the course. Maybe an automatic time out should be added (say 90 seconds after the winner crosses the finish line) to allow for quicker rematches? I would also love to see a rating system implemented (something like Rocket League for example) so there is some reason to do the best you can, something to strive for rather than just playing random matches with people you don’t know and only interaction is with an emoticon.

Ultimately there is a lot to like about this game. I still love the graphic style (even if it lacks as much visual variety) and I still love the feel of the game. I am playing on gamepass for now but will be looking to pick this up on Steam sometime this year to support the Devs. I just wish the game had the challenge of its predecessor.

[YinYin]

The automatic timeout is 120 seconds after the winner finishes.
It becomes visible after 60 seconds and will reset to 60 every time another player finishes.
Feels good enough to me, since you can spectate, practice on the bunny hills or ride the trail back up to the resting spot.

Also aren't the badges a rating system (besides your placement)? If you are the one with the top speed/longest jump/most tricks/longest backwards riding/most or least crashes, you get additional experience and currency. Or do you mean a ranking system?

And you are probably missing some fixes/features, because the gamepass version can lag behind a bit on patches.

[drewgopoo]

We want more single player content and challenges!!! It's called LONELY mountain for buttsakes. The first game really embraced the idea of "lonely" and solitude. It's cool to add multiplayer but it should be secondary to the single player content

[>-FISH-D]

Very good points OP. Though I much prefer the skiing theme here and don't mind all the white. The big issue with the game is definitely the single player content. It's extremely light and what is actually offered I feel is geared more towards beginner / casual players. There are currently no difficult challenges that compare to those found in Lonely Mountain Downhill,

Also, good point about the tricks being useless in single player. There needs to be challenges geared towards scoring points on each slope run. It needs to be tough also, not set at baby difficulty.

[Papagenox]

I'm hoping there are a couple more mountains added for free eventually, as there were with Downhill. Unfortunately my reaction times at 63 don't let me use bikes like the Pacebreaker (I'm not quick enough to control its speed-- I feel like a brand new student driver put behind the wheel of a supercar), so I can't progress beyond a certain point but I enjoyed what I could.