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Sequels to movies are rarely as good as the original. Thank god this isn’t the case for computer games. As computer technology advances, so too do games. In this case, Descent II completely outclasses it’s predecessor. If you thought the original Descent got your adrenaline pumping, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Don’t be fooled into thinking that Descent II is a minor update with a few new robots, weapons and levels. If you haven’t played Descent before, you’re in for a treat.
Descent II is basically a 3D shoot-em-up. You fly around in a ship while trying to find and destroy the reactor of the mine you’re in and escape. Sounds easy? Sure… Right until you find yourself careening down hallways, shooting at enemy ships, dodging their shots, and doing 360 degree flips. Unlike other games like Doom, when I said 3D, I meant 3 dimensional space, not just a 3 dimensional perspective. Moving up and down are just as important as moving left and right. Believe you me, you will know the meaning of vertigo.
Descent II has a decidedly more sinister feel to it than the original. The levels are large and complex, and the enemies infinitely more intelligent. I think the biggest change is in the improvements done to the artificial intelligence (AI) of the game. The 30 new robots don’t just differ in appearance and armaments. Different enemy robots now have distinct personalities, from the thief-bots that try to steal your equipment with hit-and-run tactics to bots that play peek-a-boo in an effort to lure you around corners into armadas of their bigger siblings. Some enemy bots just barrel straight into you while others try to dodge and jockey for the best position before they let loose.
And have I mentioned the complexity of the levels yet? Don’t worry, you’ll soon get used to being lost. But that’s just part of the fun, especially with the inclusion of bonus secret levels. The atmosphere itself lends to the excitement. The CD sound track sets the mood and the dark corridors will have you staring intently into your monitor. The graphics are fantastic. If your computer is up to it, everything flows very smoothly. In addition, the use of lighting, or lack thereof in many cases, lends to an incredible sense of impending doom. One of the items you can pick up, a head light, can become crucial in certain situations. The movies and cut scenes are very slick too. While the sound effects are what you’d expect — lasers, machine guns, missiles, explosions — the combination of music, sound and graphics can really get your heart pumping.
Not everything is rosy with Descent II though. I had a rather tough time installing and starting it up with my hardware setup. The install procedure kept crashing until I unloaded my network drivers. Once that was done with the game kept freezing up my computer before anything would start. Many crashes later I managed to solve it by starting it without sound. A little more fiddling and I discover that I can’t use my Gravis Ultrasound sound card in 16 bit mode. Bummer. But once it did start…
All in all, I have to say that Descent II is a great game. It may not be for everyone, especially those who get motion sickness easily, but once you get used to piloting in 3 dimensional space, you’ll be mesmerized by the intensity of the action. Add the possibility of challenging your friends through network play and Descent II is definitely the best 3D game available on the market today.
| Product: | Descent II |
| Company: | Developed by Parallax Software |
| Cost: | $49.99 |
IBM PC and 100% compatibles, 486DX-50 or faster, 256 color VGA or SVGA
monitor, 8MB RAM, DOS 5.0 or later, 10 MB hard drive space required.
Full retail version requires 16MB RAM if running from Win ’95, 25 MB
Hard drive space, 2x CD-ROM.
No Spam
Adult 
Gambling
Unfinished
Deception
Plagiarism
Not English
