[MS-DOS games review] DESCENT - Fully 3D Environment Robots Shooter.

zulman (56)in #gaming • 7 years ago

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Back again with me @zulman discussing another old games in order to bring back sweet old days memories for those of you who ever heard about the game and giving you information about some best old games for those of you who never heard about it. In today's post, I would like to talk about the game that still belong to the genre of Racing, the game called "DESCENT".

Hello everyone, welcome back again to my article update about old MS-DOS games. How are you doing all today? I hope everything is still going as you want and everyone is still in good health. Again, as always and always be, there is only one type of content on my blog, and that is another review for MS-DOS games. The games that will be reviewed in posts in the game that was release under the year 2000. Then, as for today's post, another DOS game that i would like to discuss is a game that is belong to the genre of shooter. This game is a game that the player still play shooting enemies where the player itself is inside a thing that look like somekind of vehicle that is i'd say quite difficult to control. This game also have Sci-fi theme to it. The game itself is very interesting to play. However, it will take more time to learn how to properly play the game since it is quite difficult to play.

This video game, that we are going to discuss todays is called DESCENT, this video game is belong to the genre of shooter. in term of the game play, the game is really good. the gameplay of this game is taken place where the player is sitting inside a vehicle that be used to eliminate enemies by shooting them. What make it a bit difficult is that, the arena where the game taking place is not in the openworld but inside a mine. This will be quite challenging because it is quite difficult to remember the route inside a mine. Especially for the player who never play this game before, it will take sometime to remember the map of this game.

Not only that, in term of controlling the game when the game is played is also quite difficult, well, at least for me personally. The reason for that is because the keyboard interface for moving as well as rotation of the vehicle that the character that the player control is can be very confusing. Well, while controlling such character in a full 3D space is off course, can be easily learn, but still it is difficult because any viewpoint is became possible. However, as hard as it could be, with a lot of practice, most people off course, will found the game is easy to play and can become a very enjoyable game to play.

Well, before we are going to talk in details about DESCENT video game, as usual I would like to make a quick reminder that although this game have a combat gameplay, this game is not violent at all. The character that we destroy in the game is not in human or animal form, instead it is in form of a machine. So, this game could be played by a wider range of age. Another good thing is that, although the gameplay is a bit difficult to play. In fact, it is so easy after you fully learn how to control the vehicle, it will take time off course. After you learn how to fully control the game, it is certain that you will be able to relax and have fun while playing this game. So, for those of you who want to relax and have some fun without the need to think to much, this game is one the game that can give you that.

And again, off course, if you like playing old games.
Alright, Now, Let's start talking about this game. We will start about the history, development and give my opinion on this game at the end of this article.

Now, let's begin by learning a bit about this video game.

DESCENT.

Image Source : Wikipedia

Descent is a video game that belong to 3D first-person shooter video game genre that developed by Parallax Software. This video game was released by Interplay Production company in the year of 1995 in Europe. This video game have six degree of freedom gameplay. In the year 1996, this video games also porte to PlayStation. There are two direct sequels for this game that was release in the year 1996 for DESCENT II and then in the year 1999 for DESCENT III. However, recently there is an attempt to create a successor of this game name Overload. This attempt was funded on Kickstarter. On March 12 in the year 2016, Matt Toschlog and Mike Kulas, the designers of the original Descent games has been successfully funded the project Overload on Kickstarter, they describe it as a 'spiritual successor' to the Descent series.

Now, here is the summary of the game development.

Developers : Parallax Software, Interplay Production
Publishers : Interplay Production, Mac Play, Softbank
Designer : Mike Kulas, Matt Toschlong
Platform : MS-DOS, Mac OS, PlayStation, PC 98
Release : 1995
Genre : Shooter
Mode : Single Player, Multiplayer

Alright, now let's talk a little bit about the story of the game.

In term of the storyline of the game, This game begin with a briefing or talked between a bald executive named Dravis and the player. Dravis, is a post Terran Mining Corporation board executive. The player will play a role of a hire mercenary that hire by PTMC to eliminate the threat of a very mysterious virus that has infected the machines and robot that used by PTMC for off-world mining operation. These macines has been infected and destroy the mining, so that is why the PTMC executive hire a mercenary or in this case the player to destroy all the infected robots and machines.

The level of game progression is taking place in solar system, The game will start at the moon and then proceed to mercury and until to the outbound of Pluto's moon Charon. At the Charon is where the boss robot are. after defeating them, the player cannot come back to the headquarters because there is a chance that the robot is also infected. So, this is become as a hint for the story for the next sequel.

DESCENT Gameplay

In term of the gameplay, this game has two mode which is single player and multiplayer. This video games require the player of the game to be able to navigate inside a labyrinth that locate inside a mine. While navigating, the player also need to be able to fight with the robots or macines that has been infected by virus. The objective of the game is to find and destroy each mine's reactor core in order to destroy the machines and also the player need to be able to escape the mine before the mine is destroy by the meltdown. To get the access to the reactor, the player must collect the blue, yellow, and red access keys. These keys is for each level which required to open doors for the next level. There are also PTMC workers that has been taken hostage, so, the player also can save them for the optional objective.

Since this game is a fully 3D environment game with a flight model vehicle. DESCENT video game require the player to be able to keep their sense of the orientation of the 3D environment. This is what make this game unique, because it is quite different compared to a traditional first person shooter game where in traditional FPS, have less control. But here, the player have more controls due to the fact that it is a fully 3D. There are 6 degrees of movement. The additional controls include vertical movement and banking. This video game's unique movement controls also can make the players to experience motion sickness. So, be careful.

There are 4 difficulties level in the game. another thing that is also unique is that, when you first start the game, the player can choose the level of the game that the player want to play. There are 7 level that the player can choose where they want to start. The player can choose to start wherever they want. This is the first time i found this in the game to be honest. Alright, let's learn how to control the game now.

Now, to save the world, let's learn first how to control the vehicle.

Keyboard Control.

In term of control, there is a lot that you need to learn. Since this game is game is operate in fully 3D space, so you need a lot of control. You can see the table bellow for the control:

Key	Function
Up Arrow	Pitch Forward
Down Arrow	Pitch Down
Left Arrow	Turn Left
Right Arrow	Turn Right
A	Accelerate
Z	Reverse
Q	Bank Left
E	Bank Right
Left control	Fire Primary
Space Bar	Fire Secondary
F	Fire Flare
B	Drop Bomb
R	Rear View
TAB	AutoMap

Alright, here are some screenshots of the gameplay, you can see the image on how the games is look like.

Here are some screenshots of the game

The screenshots is taken from online play

My opinion about Highway Hunter video games.

I have never played the game before and to be honest, this is also my first time trying to play the game. I have to admit that it take sometime to learn how to properly control the game. Especially controlling the robots. It is quite confusing also because of the arena or the map is not so clear where i have been or have not been before. However, after spending some times to learn how to control and remember the map, this game is a very fun game to play. The soundtrack is also very good. So, for those of you who like old DOS game, this is a game that i recommended.

Alright, if you want to experience the game, let's take a look at how to set up the computer to play the game with DOSBox.

>> Setting Up your PC or Mac to play DESCENT Video Game

>>Download DESCENT

You can download the game from this link Download DESCENT

The game that you download come with an archive, you need to extract it and then run it with DOSBox. You can find how to run the game inside DOSBox below.

>>Setup your computer to play DESCENT

Before you can play the game, you need to install DOSBox. Then you will be able to play the game in DOSBox, Here are the step to do it.

Open DOSBox and mount to game folder (Check out the video at the bottom of the article to see how to do it)
Navigate DESCENT folder games that you have downloaded and extracted.
Execute Install.EXE to install then play the game.

If you do not know how to install DOSBox on your PC or Mac? Check out this video

Check out this video bellow about how to setup DOSBox on your computer.

Watch How to Install DOSBox

>> Lazy to install DOSBox? Play it Online

If you found that installing the game is complicated or you just do not want to install DOSBox or maybe lazy to install another tools to your computer? The are a good news for you, as this is an old games, you can play the game online. There is no need any install required, just open the website and you are ready to go.

Here is the link to play DESCENT video games online. DESCENT Online