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Summary - The developers of the latest Descent release have gone to some lengths to keep this title from getting dull. The evidence is a choice of fighters, indoor and outdoor encounter areas, varied mission objectives, and even an expansion pack that let's you play the bad guys. Come along as Lee Anderson gets to the bottom of Descent. (1,900 words)
ack when Duke Nukem 3-D previews were just starting to whet my appetite, another title showed up that bucked the trend and brought the popular first-person-shooter genre to a new level in the PC market. Descent made its mark on gaming history by coupling space- vehicular combat with Doomlike, hunt-for-keys game play. Descent II followed soon after, but was just a revamped edition of the original. Descent 3, though, offers a new approach just in time for the series' ascent to the Linux platform.
Descent 3 is a first-person-shooter crossed with an intense flight simulator in which you fly your craft through deep Martian ravines and claustrophobic mine shafts, eliminating mining bots that have gone loco. Featuring the same full three-dimensional movement and realistic flight effects seen in its predecessors, Descent 3 also boasts outdoor battle areas and intricate level design with mission objectives. I have no doubt that addicts of previous versions will feel right at home in this exemplary sequel.
When we left our hero...
The story of Descent 3 goes like this: you manage to survive the catastrophic blast after blowing up the warp core at the end of Descent II but get hurled into space. Facing imminent death as your craft drifts towards a nearby sun, a PTMC mining ship plucks you from the stars and saves your life. In return, you embark on a mission to eliminate the deranged mining bots that have overrun PTMC turf.
In the meantime, you find out that Dravis, the guy who hired you in Descent II (and left you high and dry) is involved in all of this. He's got something to do with the computer virus that made the mining bots go crazy in the first place -- and now it's payback time.
The levels
Before you start each level, Descent displays a mission objective sheet that explains exactly what you...