Descent Review

To: All brave game players looking for some action
From: PTMC (Post Terran Mining Corporation)

Yes, that already classic computer game has made its way on to the PlayStation, and it has brought some pleasant new surprises that were lacking on the computer version. Descent is a first person shooter game in which players must blast everything in sight to progress to the next level. This formula goes beyond other games like Doom and Hexen, in Descent you not only have to worry what's happening in front or behind you, but also what's going on above and below you.

The 360 degree combat of Descent will make first time players of the game gape in amazement, and this amazement will quickly turn into dizziness as you adjust to this true 3-D environment. Fortunately, once you get used to the controls, navigating through Descent is easy. Your ship can roll right or left, move back and forth and has side thrusters to let you strafe a room.

PTMC's mines are loaded with some of the meanest robots out there. Unlike Doom, the enemies in Descent are not killed with one hard hit, in many cases you must score seven or eight direct hits to get a kill. To help you in your struggle the game provides some powerful weapons such as proximity mines, homing missiles, a vulcan gun, and a plasma gun. Players must quickly learn to make hit and run attacks on rooms full of bad guys if they expect to get very far. Look out!! Some of the enemies actually learn from your tactics and change their strategies.

The game translates very well to the PlayStation. It does slow down in some of the graphic intensive dog fights. Also the graphics from both the PC and Mac versions are sharper. To remedy this, Interplay added some beautiful cut scenes between the levels. There are also new lighting effects in the PlayStation version.

For you fans who've played the game before, enjoy 5 new levels of 'Anarchy', bringing the grand total to 30. Another big plus is the sound track!! The music is great and ranges from heavy metal to techno. Descent is the first game I have ever played that should come with a bonus sound track.