"If You're Sick of Shotguns and Pistols..."

Man, do I love Descent.

There was a time, not so long ago, when Comptuer Gamers were being buried by DOOM and DOOM Clones. Walk around and carry a gun.. or a big stick.. or a magic wand.. or whatever the game gave you.. and shoot the same old monsters/humans/beasts or whatever. It got boring.. Mac Users didn't have it so bad, though, since most of those games were published for PC users only. But there was one game that dared to set itself apart from the others. That game was Descent.

I first heard of Descent in a magazine article. I thought, as a first person shooter, it looked kinda dorky. The enemies were all stupid looking robots with low poly counts.. I didn't realize at the time they were supposed to be space ships. And I wasn't impressed by the phrase "full 360 degree action." Sure... wasn't that what ALL the games were these days?

It wasn't until I saw the game in action that I saw the difference. You flew a space ship... and that's why the enemies were so different looking. And the action REALLY was in 360 degrees.. you could fly your ship up, down, left right, all around in 360 degrees.. up and down had no real meaning, just as it is supposed to be in space. The game looked spectacular, even the explosions. It played smoothly, although there were a lot of buttons to go through. And it even offered a lot of weapons and such for the taking.

A handful of months later, it hits the Macintosh platform. I couldn't be happier. I was even lucky enough to get a copy for free from MacMall. Oh, joy!

Immediately after popping it in, I played for hours. The Mac conversion was even nice enough to include some CD tracks with music that wasn't found in the PC original.. very good, studio recorded red book audio tracks with some nasty bass guitar. It doubled as an audio CD.. oh, joy!

Now that I'm through my first impressions, maybe I can delve into the game a little further.

The plotline is pretty basic, but that's okay for a purely action title. Apparantly, some evil apparations have invaded some mining planets, and you're the man who'se supposed to go in and clean them up. Fine. You get one ship to take on all those nasties. Why the bigwigs who put you in charge of this trust you to do it alone is beyond you, but you're gonna try anyhow.

You get dropped into a mine. Whee. You have a piddly little laser and that's about all. Whee. Then you start flying.. and if its your first time, you're gonna get motion sickness or you're just gonna get your fingers in a mess. Relax... learn to strafe. Soon, the fully 3D world will become second nature. The game is really smooth.

In every level, your mission is the same. Find and rescue prisoners, blow up the enemies invading the mine, take out the power core and get out before the entire thing explodes. It's quite a bit more than your usual shooting game, but it would have been nice to have a little more variety in your objectives. There are a couple boss encounters.. some really nuts hard boss encounters.. but its nothing you can't handle with a little practice.

Now, I'll be honest. I'm a real sucker for level variety, but Descent just doesn't have it. That's really too bad, too. But after you get past the first dozen or so levels, things just start looking the same. And since you're doing the same thing level after level, it might start to get a little dull. However, there's always a few new enemies to get you involved.. and the boss fights can get hard. VERY hard. The enemies also have superior intelligence relative to most other games of this genre. It's nice to have a challenging game that isn't difficult because the enemies just need to be shot a bazillion times before they die.

The weapons can be pretty cool. You can power up your basic laser multiple times, until it can take out even some of the medium class enemies in a shot or two. there's different types of missles scattered around.. and another nifty feature is the missile cam. When you shoot a missile, in the top corner of your screen you can watch its first person path.. definitely a neat effect. But even when you're down to nothing but your basic lasers, this game is a blast to play.

The graphics range from phenomenal to OK. Considering the time, the cinema scenes, all rendered in the game engine, are pretty neat. The mines, although not constructed very believably, make good use of textures and make it clear where you're going, making certain rooms distinctive over others. However, all the environments are dark and groody in a way that makes it hard to tell one level apart from the others. It would have been nice to fly around some alternative environments.. a few wide open space would have been nice, since most of the game might have you feeling claustrophobic.

The music in the mac game is spectacular. There may only be about ten tracks or so, but they are professionally done with a studio sound by people with talent. Some of the tracks are even off in the mood a bit, but that's okay, considering how well done they are overall.

Control is complex but tight, and once you get used to flying around in a world with no ups or down, I can assure you things will go much better than you planned. Shooting is a breeze, and accessing your secondary weapons isn't too bad either. Strafing in four directions will soon become second nature, and once you get the hang of the subtleties of the game, nothing can stop you.

Oh, By the way? Did I mention there is a MULTIPLAYER mode in this game? Wow... now that is nuts. You get a lot of players involved, and you won't know what to shoot at. Honestly, Marathon and Quake make for better multiplayer games overall, but this one is a neat diversion. You'll need a fast connection, though.. keeping track of these polygons requires some bandwith.

If you're like me and get sick of all the same old, same old first person shooters that have flooded the market, get in touch with Descent. It's just good to get behind the wheel of a ship every now and then. If you're not comfortable with the space sim/1st person shooter hybrid, though.. stick to either X Wing or Marathon.

And if you have motion sickness... ESPECIALLY if you have motion sickness.. just stay away all together.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99