Descent 3 + Mercenary

The Descent Series is still at the top of my list. Yes, games have evolved today into amazing pieces of work graphically etc. but the 6 degrees of freedom and concept behind Descent stands tall even today. Multiplayer Descent 3 is just incredible fun either direct TCP/IP with friends or joining a hosted game via http://d3.descent.cx/tracker.d3 or the other trackers that are still alive and kicking. I've played Descent since the beginning and when PXO (in-game tracker) went down it was a sad day indeed. There are still many Descent-ers still keeping the fire alive and someday, just maybe, Descent 4 will arrive and when it does, the stars will shine brightly!! GOG in making available this game again has made this gamers world a little bit brighter as I had lost my old installation. The Descent 3 version is already patched to 1.4 and is so convienent and simple to install. Thank you GOG! You rock! Long Live Descent and its uniquely special characteristics - There really isn't another game out there that is so well done and stands the test of time. As I said, newer games are amazing but Descent is one of those that doesn't get old thanks to multiplayer. I'm going down again. I'm finally home.

After the excellence that was Descent 2, its hard for anyone to follow it up. Descent 3 however was able to recapture most of the magic while bringing it up to date in the graphics department. This is one of those game that, arguably, cannot be compared to anything else. Superb graphics at the time, unmatched true 3D gameplay and some devilish level design make this one of the Interplay classics that everyone should experience.

I'll start with what I like. Descent 3 has the best art direction out of any 6DOF shooter. It has the coolest looking robots, it has the coolest looking level architecture, and the coolest environments. Where every level in Descent 1 and 2 was a mine, Descent 3 has levels that take place in cities, prison complexes, old temples, underground societies, lunar surfaces and even a really cool map that takes place inside of a huge battleship. I would actually recommend this game to Metroid Prime fans. The levels are massive and the ability to seamlessly move between outdoor areas and complex underground areas was impressive when the game came out, and it's still impressive now. There is a greater variety of weapons and equipment than it's predecessors. There's a flamethrower, deployable turrets, a lightning gun that steals health from enemies, swarms of homing missiles (think Macross) a sniper railgun, a superweapon that creates a miniature black hole. There are even powerups specifically for the guide bot. Descent 3 also has a really cool dynamic soundtrack. The songs start out simple but as you complete mission objectives more instruments get added to the song. I can't think of any other game that does that. Now for the bad. Descent 3 somehow manages to be too easy and too hard at the same time. In Descent 1 and 2 you had a limited amount of lives to complete a level with. In Descent 3 you have an unlimited amount of lives which means that every level can be completed through mindless attrition. So how can a game with unlimited lives also be too hard? For starters, every enemy in the game is ridiculously good at dodging your attacks and they have a lot of HP on top of that. This is also the only single player game I can think of where you can be spawn camped. Descent 3 also has a lot of issues with the graphics. There's no widescreen support, there's no way to adjust the FOV and every time you access the map the settings will reset back to 16-bit color.

The GOG package avail. is easily worth every penny spent on it. In it you get the expansion pack, Mercenary, and quite a few additional, yet seperate levels for the game and we won't even talk about the mods. Descent 3's storyline is as much improved over the last two, as are the graphics. The levels are enormous and can take some time to get through. The gameplay is pretty much what you'd expect from a Descent game except for some minor changes. Ex. you don't have a life count for levels anymore. The game plays more like a regular FPS in this regard. If you get killed you respawn just a little bit back from where you blew your last chance for glory, limitlessly. Also, boss battles are such that if you die the amount of damage that you dealt carries over meaning that your not starting the fight from the begining each time you die. Personally, I wasn't fond of this change, it took away my sense of satisfaction of overcoming a difficult fight. I could just mindlessly throw everything I had at a boss and just travel back to the fight until victory. This made me feel that I didn't need any skill just time until the opponent lost. That said, I really liked being able to choose one of three ships to play a level with. Though they didn't handle differently they did statistically alter my play strategy. One ship can take a boatload of damage and another can carry extra missiles and the third utilizes superior speed. All are different sizes and have a blend of other strengths and weaknesses. The only real negative thing I have to say about this game is that it has a bug that made me re-start one of my levels. For me it was on the sixth mission, I beat the boss and instead of starting the cut scene nothing happened. It took a little internet search to realize that on two or three different levels this bug can corrupt level data and prevent you from advancing the story. The only way to correct it is to re-start the level and everything should work splendidly. Fortunately for me it was only on the one level that I had problems with, the rest were fine. The framerates are silky smooth and I didn't have any of the graphic glitches that I had in Descent 2. The soundtrack is still awesome and I don't need to mention the "360 degrees" thing again. Overall a terriffic gaming experience.