Playing with a friend

[Buntkreuz]

Hi guys. I saw this game and wanted to try it before gifting it to a friend.
While it was somewhat fun, i felt like i missed races and racing against others on longer tracks.
It seems to all be around performing trick jumps, which im not too much interested in. Im more the guy trying to reach the goal as fast as possible while competing with others.

So now im asking whether there are ways to play with a friend. Are there races we can do against each other?
Can we play the Career Paths together and how is interaction between me and my friend when we play?
Solely based on ghosts and statistics or can we actually play with each other?

[Guyler]

Yes, you can play online with your friend, provided that you're both on the same platform.

PC and Xbox in this case are considered the same, so if you play on PC and your friend plays on Xbox, or vice versa, you can play together.

Playing on Playstation or Switch restricts you to playing with other Playstation and Switch players, respectively.

Career Paths can be played online with friends or strangers. You have the ability to host an online game that can be optionally set to public or private. Setting it to private will allow you to play Career mode with only your friends. Private rooms are protected by passwords, so just give your friend the password and you're good to go.

Online Career Mode works the same as Single-Player except you can see the other players riding down the paths. You play each level until every player crosses the finish line. If you cross the finish line before your friend, then you will switch to a player-following camera that will show any other players. Like single-player, there is no time limit. Once all players do cross the finish line (or bail enough times to lose all their lives) the level will progress in the same roguelike fashion as single-player. I believe the host chooses which nodes to follow, but I'm not sure on that one.

The simplest way to describe really is that's the same as single-player but other players are riding with you. It works well.

You can also play Bike Parks, which are always online unless you explicitly play in offline mode. Those are freeride, though, so any rules/restrictions to determine who "wins" is entirely up to you to decide. Bike Parks do have finish lines, though, so it's possible to have a race.

[Buntkreuz]

Then its not for me/us i guess. I hoped for a proper experience in multiplayer, not just playing alongside others i dont really notice.
Just seeing occasional ghosts of other players is of no interest to me and doesnt bear any proper multiplayer interaction. In fact, it could also just be entirely singleplayer then.
I hoped there would be long tracks to race on.
However all i played was pretty short anyway and no racing experience to be seen whatsoever.
This would need other players to be physically there, starting at the same time with each other and driving on a long track with different paths/routes and occasional challenges to the driving.

This game however seems to be targetted at players that want to do tricks and "show off" to others as visible ghost drivers.
Tricks are ok as long as they take a secondary role, but this game heavily focusses them.
I like the idea of having a sponsor team and the better i perform the better my reputation becomes, as well as i love the idea of a "rogue-like" pick your path experience in a campaign featuring different challenges.
However, all those tracks ended up being the same experience.
Reaching the goal fast doesnt do anything, instead its all about spinning and free handing.

So yeah, not for me i guess, I expect more from "online" than just seeing some ghosts.
Thats like playing Dark Souls without summoning other phantoms but thinking that seeing other players ghosts or their messages is some sort of multiplayer.

Its a nice way of interacting indirectly, but its exactly that, indirect and uninvolved.
Im looking more for an experience with direct interaction and involvement.
I hoped Descenders would be more of an oppulent Trials with more freedom and in 3D.
Sadly its not.

Thanks a lot for your response.

[No More Robots]

Hi Argentum! To clarify, as Guyler's answer was maybe not super clear -- you can absolutely play races against strangers and friends, as a "proper" experience. When you create a multiplayer lobby, it will start a series of races, where you all set off on a 3, 2, 1, GO, and then must cross the finish line first.

So yeah, everything you've described above, is in the game :)

[Buntkreuz]

Originally posted by No More Robots:

Hi Argentum! To clarify, as Guyler's answer was maybe not super clear -- you can absolutely play races against strangers and friends, as a "proper" experience. When you create a multiplayer lobby, it will start a series of races, where you all set off on a 3, 2, 1, GO, and then must cross the finish line first.

So yeah, everything you've described above, is in the game :)

Thanks for your answer. Any plans to flesh that experience out further?