Skiing has compelled video-game designers since the dawn of the computing age. The reasons are straightforward: snow is comparatively simple to render on screen, while the lilting rhythms of carving a path down a virtual mountainside encourage the sort of flow state that attracts many players to the medium. Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders is not attempting to be the most realistic depiction of the sport, but rather an impressionistic interpretation that captures its essential spirit. It meets this goal with grace and flair, a game that democratises the joy of skiing, an increasingly rarefied activity in this climate-bewildered world.
You first choose your skier, a blocky yet adept cipher, then take on a series of slopes across various snow-draped hills, racing to pass a series of generously spaced checkpoints in as quick a time as possible. These courses are not like racetracks; there are, instead, dozens of naturally formed routes and shortcuts, and much of the challenge derives from picking the optimal path down the slope, while still being able to adapt to accidents of physics that inevitably upset your plans.
Glide into a rock or a pine tree or fall from too great a distance, for example, and your skier will crumple, cartoonishly. No matter: injury and death is but a momentary state, and, with a stab of the “respawn” button, you’ll be back on your skis, spirited back to the most recent checkpoint. It’s possible to skip entire portions of a slope but if you miss a checkpoint you’ll need to restart the entire run – an understandable limitation if the leaderboards (which at time of writing already have more than 100,000 entries) are to remain meaningful marks of attainment.
It’s not all frenzied competition. A Zen mode allows you to “explore the mountains on your own terms”, as the game puts it, delightfully. This option showcases the exquisite execution, the delicious “game feel” as you become increasingly proficient at taking corners at speed, kicking up clouds of glistening snow dust, before leaping into the clear air, your skis two arrows aimed at the sun.
