Maroc - 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - 17/Jan 03:57

Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders – Review

All the way back in 2020, we reviewed a nifty sports title, Lonely Mountains: Downhill, which managed to entertain us quite a bit. In Downhill, we were BMX riders who had to clear tricky tracks in order to make it to the finish line. We concluded that the game offered nice visuals, an interesting gameplay loop, and a fun concept overall. Now, Megagon Industries has finally ported its next title, Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders, to the PlayStation 5, after its success on PC. As we missed the original PC release, it felt like a great time to finally check this one out. Story Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders has absolutely no story value whatsoever. You customize your avatar at the beginning of the game, and that’s pretty much it. Snow Riders is all about the gameplay, and that’s perfectly fine. There is also no real career mode to play through, as you’ll immediately be dropped into the Time Trial mode, which will take you a while to complete, before the other modes are unlocked. We didn’t mind the absence of a narrative here. Graphics Snow Riders does have an interesting graphical style. The game makes use of low-poly assets for the skier and many of the smaller obstacles on the different slopes, while offering a more realistic representation of the snow and the tracks you leave behind. We personally loved this contrast, and it was satisfying to see what effect we had on the fresh snow or the tracks that were left behind when we had to restart at the previous checkpoint. The different camera angles all come with their own challenges, as the top-down view can show obstacles more easily, but makes it harder to see in the distance. The fixed camera view makes things easier when it comes to seeing in the distance, but the blurry field of vision comes with its own set of challenges. We quite enjoyed the differences here. That being said, the game doesn’t feel that optimized, as the loading times were quite long. Sound All in all, Snow Riders’ audioscape isn’t bad, but it’s fairly minimalistic. You’ll have to do with nature sounds and the sound of you skiing through fresh snow, which is fairly satisfying. There is no real music to speak of during the gameplay, which we didn’t necessarily mind. There is also no voice acting or anything like that present in the game. Gameplay Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders is a sports game in which you’ll have to go down slopes either in the time trial mode or the trick mode. The objectives here are quite clear, and there’s honestly not that much more to explain here. You try to master the controls as best as you can, find shortcuts, perform tricks, and just make it down in one piece. There is a tolerance, if you meet your untimely demise, but the game is still fairly unforgiving here. It will take some time to learn the controls or even to find the best ways to travel down slopes, as there are always many obstacles in your way. It’s satisfying eventually to stick tricky landings, and it’s really nice when you start taking corners perfectly. The physics are decent, and in most cases, when you fall down, it feels fair. We did struggle from time to time seeing where we had to go, but that was also part of the experience, as making split-second decisions is also key in real life when barreling down a slope. While highly entertaining, we did feel the game felt a bit inaccessible for newcomers to the genre or for casual players. The difficulty level is quite high, and the game punishes you heavily for every mistake made. On top of that, the grind is real, as unlocking new content goes really slowly, and the experience gained from clearing slopes is also really low. For us, this made the game more into something we’d pick up occasionally rather than spend hours upon hours on to make some progress. It’s fun, but it would have been nice if the progress system was a bit more balanced. Conclusion Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders is a great sequel to Lonely Mountains: Downhill, but it does not feel like a very accessible title for casual players. The grind is real here, the content is fairly limited, and the game just misses a certain ‘something’. What is present, however, is highly entertaining. The physics are great, the visuals are on point, and when you start unlocking new things, everything becomes even more interesting. If you were a fan of the first game, you’ll probably love what’s on offer here too, but if you’re looking for something casual and zen-like, this one might not be it.