2 reaons to play this: the beautiful, timeless art style, and if for some reason you liked the platforming in Doom Eternal and Titanfall. I usually dislike platforming sections, but when the whole game is that, there's some fun in getting in the flow of the mechanics. It's aged well and is fun to play, but IMO misses some elements which would make it a 5-star classic: average noire detective story, average combat, and the core element, platforming, does not quite have the flow of something like Tony Hawk or Jet Set Radio. But an admirable attempt at something new.
IMO the AI is better than Stalker 2, the gameplay and story is more focused. With the quality of life improvements, it feels like I'm playing a DLC of Stalker 2, not a game that is almost 20 years old. Definitely pick this up if you don't mind trying to hang onto life for a couple of hours getting pounded until you find some decent gear and artifacts.
Almost totally destructible environment; you can blow holes between areas of the map that are not pre-calculated. This is a lot of fun; I wish more games had this. The game itself is an OK shooter which holds up averagely for a game of its time..
I love 6DoF shooters, so this one has been on my wishlist for the last 25 years or so. Unfortunately, it's a disappointment - IMO it hasn't aged as well as the original Descent, which predated it. The enemies are uninspiring: ugly tanks and tiny NPCs who are trivial to bait from a distance. The weapons are from an unfortunate era in game development, when particle effects were used for everything. They feel toy-like after Descent's legendary loadout. Sound effects are grating and repetitive. Level design is OK - it has the claustrophobia I'd expect from the genre, without being a labyrinth which constantly requires the map. There is a variety of missions and puzzles, which sets it apart from others in the genre. It's a pity the uninspiring shooting makes them a grind. The other standout is the 3D map view, which is one of the clearest of any in the genre. It's hard to get lost here. The remastering is flawless: everything runs smoothly and glitch-free. The low-res textures are a mess on modern hardware - I'd recommend playing with no texture filtering. I dind't play multiplayer; couldn't comment on that. I'd recommend picking this up on special only once you have already played all the Descents + Overload to death.
Love it, but the later levels feel a bit same-y. One of the games I consistently pull out every few years for a replay.
The first Descent shook my world when it released. The second made incremental improvements to a winning formula: adding a Guide Bot and a bunch of very fun weapons. The third? A bit of a letdown. Don't get me wrong; this is a good game, but I don't think it has aged nearly as well as the first two. It has some terribly kitschy cutscenes, and the robot design is more goofy than threatening. The engine was made in a time when 3D acceleration was in its infancy, and in my opinion, it really carries the baggage of this era. The pacing of this game seems to suffer from the scale of the maps in the new engine, too. In contrast, the minimalistic limitations of the original Descent renderer gives it a more threatening and claustrophobic aura. I replayed Descent 2 recently, right after finishing Doom Eternal, and D2 still rocks my world. If you are new to the series, I would recommend playing the first 2 Descent games, then Overload, then leave D3 for when you when you really need a Descent fix.
I recently finished all the Doom Eternal content on nightmare difficulty, and then went back to play Descent 2. This game holds up so well in comparison. One reason why the new Doom is so innovative is that it requires the mastery of "hardcore" controls combos, in 3 dimensions. This is something which Descent shares, which puts it decades ahead of its time in that regard. Descent 2 does not mess with the successful formula of the first title; it only fixes its biggest issues, and throws yet more interesting enemies and weapons into the mix. For example: you now have a cute Guide Bot so you do not keep having to check your map constantly, and the terrifying "glass cannon" hitscan enemies of Descent 1 are gone. If you buy any retro game, and don't mind putting a bit of time into learning novel mechanics, you definitely want this.
