Descent

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Game Review

Descent is a 3D sci-fi first-person shooter notable for the "six axis" movement, developed by Parallax Software and released by Interplay in 1995. The game was originally released to MS-DOS, but was ported to Mac OS and Playstation.

The game is set out in the Solar System. You play a mercenary, called the “Material Defender” who has been hired to destroy mining robots who have been infected with a virus. The “Material Defender” works for the Post-Terran Mining Corporation. It's your job to rescue captives and destroy the infected mines. The game is notable for giving you 720 degrees of movement in which to do so. To finish each level you must destroy the mine's reactor. After you've done so you have only 45 seconds to find the escape hatch and leave the mine before it explodes – with you in it.

Decent is a game that was years ahead of its time. The game pushed computers of the time to their limit, and still looks good today. This groundbreaking game is definitely worth a play for fans of first person shooters.

The game was released on Steam and GOG, although it is no longer being sold there due to a publishing dispute. In 1998 the source code of Descent was released publicly.