Descent is a 3D first-person shooter video game which was released in 1995. This is the first installment of a trilogy, followed of course by Descent II and III. The story is fairly simple. You are a mercenary ship hired to gather information about a computer virus infecting the robots used for off-world mining operations. You travel across the known universe, hopping from world to world as you destroy the robots within the mines. The object is to find the color keys on each level, which correspond with a door of the same color, red being the final key needed to complete the level.
Beyond the red door is the reactor, which itself will fire back at your ship, and the area is also heavily defended by robots. By severely damaging the reactor, it will set off a countdown timer. You must then find your way to the exit before time runs out and the reactor's meltdown destroys the mine. In later levels the reactor is replaced by a boss robot (sweet), who also has a timer after being defeated.
The controls are a little more complicated, due to the ability to turn in full 360 as well as rotating up and down. It is easy to get lost as you may spend a lot of the time upside down. I found that exploring the
mines and memorizing as much as I could helped a lot. As far as the graphics, they were pretty good for the time they were released. It is easy to get addicted to this game. The AI was fairly cutting edge as the enemy was able to dodge you fire, as well as play strategic maneuvers against you, making for some exciting one on one dogfights.
The weapons you can acquire are pretty cool. There is the fusion cannon, which has the ability to kill several enemies at once. However it can be difficult to master. The best feature of this game was the multiplayer, in which you can challenge other players to battle within the different mines.
