While one can download a .deb package using apt download $package.deb there doesn't seem to be any way to see the metadata of that file. I mean by metadata something like -[$] aptitude show dgit                                                                                                             Package: dgit                            Version: 3.10State: not installedPriority: optionalSection: develMaintainer: Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk>Architecture: allUncompressed Size: 309 kDepends: perl, libwww-perl, libdpkg-perl, git-core, devscripts, dpkg-dev, git-buildpackage, liblist-moreutils-perl, coreutils (>= 8.23-1~) | realpath, libdigest-sha-perl, dput, curl, apt, libjson-perl, ca-certificates, libtext-iconv-perl, libtext-glob-perlRecommends: ssh-clientSuggests: sbuildDescription: git interoperability with the Debian archive dgit (with the associated infrastructure) makes it possible to treat the Debian archive as a git repository.  dgit push constructs uploads from git commits  dgit clone and dgit fetch construct git commits from uploads.Hopefully there is a way to view the depends, recommends etc. I had viewed also using less in various forums to do the same thing but couldn't get it to work as well. 
How to view metadata of local/downloaded .deb files in Debian
debian
dpkg-deb, which is part of dpkg and therefore always available, can show all the control information for a binary package using only its .deb file:$ dpkg-deb -I joystick_1.6.0-2_amd64.deb new debian package, version 2.0. size 49454 bytes: control archive=1509 bytes.     892 bytes,    24 lines      control                  1887 bytes,    30 lines      md5sums               Package: joystick Version: 1:1.6.0-2 Architecture: amd64 Maintainer: Stephen Kitt <skitt@debian.org> Installed-Size: 176 Depends: libc6 (>= 2.15), libsdl1.2debian (>= 1.2.11) Recommends: evtest, inputattach Breaks: stella (<< 4.7.2) Replaces: stella (<< 4.7.2) Section: utils Priority: extra Homepage: https://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxconsole/ Description: set of testing and calibration tools for joysticks  Some useful tools for using joysticks:   evdev-joystick(1) - joystick calibration tool   ffcfstress(1)     - force-feedback stress test   ffmvforce(1)      - force-feedback orientation test   ffset(1)          - force-feedback configuration tool   fftest(1)         - general force-feedback test   jstest(1)         - joystick test   jscal(1)          - joystick calibration tool  .  evtest and inputattach, which used to be part of this package, are now  available separately.There are quite a few different options to select the content to display, from the packages file listing to specific (binary) control files; see man dpkg-deb for details.