Lonely Mountains: Downhill

We talked about this game in various threads since its release a few months ago, but it deserves a thread of its own.

Basically you ride a bicycle down a mountain. It’s great. If you have Game Pass or Game Pass for PC, you should definitely play it.

Anyway, I was excited to see this trailer for the first DLC:

Oh, and here was the release trailer back in October:

I get the distinct impression that the makers of that Eyjfal Island trailer have watched this Danny Macaskill video

Never heard of this one, but I love the look of it.

Think I’ll check it out this weekend.

I gave this game a try a few months ago and as soon as the courses got more complex it lost me. Basically you just repeat the tracks until you’ve memorized them. Since the camera is so low you don’t have much view of whats up ahead and can’t really react in time to whats there.

It’d be really awesome If they offered an “easy” mode with the camera zoomed back further!

And regarding the real thing, I’ve got some good friends from Innsbruck in Austria who do this all the time. It just seems nuts to me to lug a bike up a steep mountain on your shoulders, but hey! They appear to be having fun, so to each their own!

Yeah, it’s a fantastic little game. Scratches the same itch as Trials, and executed just as well as the early Trials games, but it plays differently.

It IS tough though! :)

Just tried to get down the first Redmoor Peaks track and I died about a gazillion times. JUST TO FINISH, let alone set a timed record or something!

Fortunately for me I have options that don’t require this. In fact there is a bus that goes to the top of the trail, you ride down, then get back on the bus to take you up again.

I’ve not tried this one but have y’all tried Descenders? It’s pretty freaking great.

I tried Descenders. It’s also on Game Pass. It was too hard for me. Lonely Mountains: Downhill seems hard at first but just two or three runs down a mountain are usually enough to get me much better at it.

In Descenders there’s castle-like obstactles in the way, and no matter how much I tried I just couldn’t figure out how to safely navigate them other than to just go around them, which felt like cheating.

Ok, I’ve managed to get 4 bike parts together, is it worth saving for the Pacebreaker (6 parts / 3rd bike), or is the Trailblazer (4 parts / 2nd bike) already a worthwhile / essential investment?

Seriously, why didn’t/aren’t more people play(ing) this? It’s amazing and on Game Pass (console and PC).

Would be nice if more people put up videos of their runs so I could figure out what shortcuts they’re taking, though. I’m trying in vain to hit the 1m30s time for the first trail of the first mountain (I think) and just getting nowhere. If I try the really fast bike (the Pacebreaker) I can’t ride it that fast anyway or I wipe out, and it doesn’t like more than very modest drops. The Boar is better about that but it’s hard to control its acceleration.

I liked it, but it was really stressful.

It is a German dev, right? I thought I saw something about Brandenburg on one of the splash screens.

I like this game a lot but I find the unlock progression system a bit annoying. There’s a zen like element to the game but that is counter to the time trial unlock system, I kind of wish there was a tourist mode that just unlocked all the trails/mountains from the jump.

Heck yeah, I love your enthusiasm! I loved it! But yes, eventually it got too hard for me. I should try to get into it again, maybe my brain has gotten better at it in the intervening years. (Doubtful!)

By the way, if you’re on my friends list, you should be able to view my times and maybe even watch my ghosts? I forgot if this game had that. I think it did. Maybe?

Yeah, they are located in Berlin.

Don’t know about the ghosts, but there are leaderboards. Currently playing (and furthest along in) the Game Pass version and I’m FreshQu33blets on there, but I also liked it enough that I bought the Steam version with the DLC during the recent sale. What’s your version?

Game Pass version. I didn’t know DLC was out for the game! Cool.

So what’s your gamertag (assuming they’re still calling it that)?

I just gave it a shot and I presume the feel improves as you unlock the bikes? Because the starter felt totally disconnected from the floor. Like it’s drawn on the floor, but isn’t interacting with it in anyway, instead just floating about on top.

Also, the camera might be the worst one in any racing game.

What am I missing?