Descent II, a first person shooter from 1996 by Parallax Software (same company who went on to produce the mildly successful shooter, Red Faction) continues where the original started. Compared to the original, the premise is entirely the same - save humanity from the rebellious machine - though the sequel does sport some noticeable improvements with better graphics and more complex level design, as well as introducing new weapons and even secret levels.
The lack of storyline (go fight robots!) certainly doesn't break up the monotony of level after level of.
.. robots. However, it doesn't take much skill to jump right in, and as you progress through the mines powerups to weapons and accessories provide a reward for your time in the catacombs. Small puzzles abound in Descent II which adds something new to the series, allowing players access to powerful weapons and other add-ons early on in the game.
The difficulty scales quite well; rookie is quite easy for the novice player whereas hotshot is very challenging. Oddly enough, you get multiple lives; never quite figured out why. The sight of being blown up in letterbox third-perspective is aggravating as you witness all your gains spew out waiting there for you re-spawn and collect up the pieces.
Despite its fallbacks, Descent II is quite immersive
and intriguing. Though it can be easy to find yourself lost in a maze of rooms, the automap works very well to allay these situations. Although most would consider a joystick a must for a piloting game, I found the controls work just fine with computer keyboards. Whatever your preference, it's completely configurable.
Luckily, there is icing on the cake. Because the source code for Descent II was graciously released into the wild, several projects have introduced Open-GL version support that can take advantage of today's more powerful hardware, Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. In addition to single player mode, Descent II can be played multiplayer and can access customized level content modules created by users of Descent level editing software.
