Descent

Descent is what got me into gaming. Sure, I'd played Wolf3D and Commander Keen, even Catacomb Abyss years before it, but this is what made me a gamer. At the time, the full six degrees of freedom was breathtaking, along with the enemy AI, the lighting effects, the soundtrack, and the massive levels. Blowing up a reactor and hurrying to escape through the emergency exit is always an intense experience! The weapons were varied, with your primary weapons ranging from simple (yet upgradable) lasers, to a vulcan cannon, to the mighty fusion cannon which you could charge up and deliver a large blast of energy to your foes (fun fact: you can damage your ship by overloading the fusion cannon!). If that weren't enough, you had a full set of secondary weapons, ranging from dumbfire concussion missiles, to plasma-releasing smart missiles, to the shockwave inducing mega missile. Descent also offered an unparalleled multiplayer experience for it's time, with highly competitive drop in (you could join at any time during a match) play. The common gripe many have with Descent is it's seemingly overwhelming control structure. Many will use a joystick or gamepad, both of which I dabbled in but I always returned to a keyboard/mouse setup. For some, it may take much experimenting to find something comfortable, but the reward of total freedom of flight is well worth it. A year later, I was poking around in some PC Gamer magazine and came across Descent 2. I hauled my butt over to the store and grabbed a copy, only to return home and not be able to run it! It needed 8MB of RAM to run, and I only had an old 486/4MB of RAM machine! I was so sad, but then I learned how to tinker with the memory manager and I got it to run, albeit at a low framerate. Descent 2 introduced so much, it felt like an entirely different experience. You had a guide-bot to show you around the level. You had 10 new weapons, including the beastly Omega Cannon (a direct stream of energy), to the devastating Earthshaker missile which would shake the entire level upon exploding! There were locked doors that could only be opened by destroying switches hidden around the level. The robots were incredibly varied and the already excellent AI was improved. You had an afterburner to speed you around. There were also some graphical upgrades, such as coloured lighting and support for higher resolutions. There were full motion video cutscenes, and the story from Descent 1 is continued. The multiplayer was just as excellent, although some preferred Descent 1 due to it being more difficult (the weapons were quite overpowered in D2). I have beaten both Descent 1 and 2 countless times and played hundreds of online matches. Eventually, I lost my discs when I moved on to other games, so I jumped on the Descent package here at GOG.com when it launched. Playing them again after about 7 years was a real treat, and I played it using the Descent Rebirth engine (google it) to enjoy high resolution graphics. I would recommend Descent to any shooter fan, any flight game fan, and anybody looking for a fresh challenge. It's simply one of the best franchises you will find here on GOG.com, and I hope other people will have as much fun with it as I have had.

I remember when Descent came out back in 1995. Among a flurry of Doom clones, it instantly stood out from the pack by showing everyone what a truly 3d game can be. It takes the classic FPS concept of collecting keys and fighting bosses to reach an exit, then twists it into something Escher would be proud of. For the first time you actually had to think in three dimensions and the freedom this gave you was exhilarating, once you got the hang of it. While the graphics are dated, the gameplay is timeless and definitely worth checking out again, or for the first time if you missed out on this unique spectacle in PC gaming history.

This package represents a quantum leap for the gaming industry. While most were content with the quasi-3D antics of Doom, this amazing experience redefined what we thought of as immersion. I can still remember the first time I watched someone else play descent; I had never seen someone physically move their head side-to-side, up-and-down with every flick of the mouse. The ability of a x486 machine to literally grab a human's attention with such strength is something that heretofore had never been possible. After this, the bar had forever been raised. Any gamer should own this solely on principal alone, but it's fun as hell to boot.

Descent is one of those games that could only have happened in the early 90's. The mechanics of the gameplay while not unique (collect key, open door, blow stuff up), the way it's all controlled is. The 6 degrees of freedom is being quite literal. The likely hood of motion sickness remains high to this day. Because this game is flight based, many will say it's only really playable with a joystick. However, with just the right combination of keyboard and mouse it plays excellently. The graphics are revolutionary for 1995, 3d polygonal graphics a full year before Quake. A full 3d map for when you get lost in the mines that you can view at any angle, etc etc. Really when it all comes down to it, Descent is a fantastic action game for the ages, challenging, exciting, rip-roarin' fun. Prepare for your Descent.