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Grab the Dramamine, Descent is back

by: Eric -
More On: Descent

Players with a few years on them might remember the 1995 release of Descent, one of the first true 3D shooters on the market. I don’t mean 3D in that Descent used polygons instead of sprites, I mean 3D in that the player was given unlimited movement options. You could go up and down as well as forward and backwards and side to side. Descent took full advantage of this freedom of motion, forcing players to abandon any true sense of “up and down” or risk losing their lunch.

Upon the time of its release, most shooters were ground-based corridor affairs, similar to Doom. Take a look at this sweet 90’s commercial, with a creepy robot voice explaining the many ways that Descent is superior to Doom.  Not too subtle.

Now, 23 years later, Descent is back. Having Kickstarted the game a few years back, Descendant Studios is preparing to move the new version of Descent into beta in the closing months of 2018. In its newest incarnation, Descent will offer players “both a deep single-player campaign with more than 15 missions and expansive multiplayer gameplay including spacecraft customization, multiple class roles, and four-player online co-op gameplay. Multiplayer modes will include cooperative Survival, as well as PVP modes like Anarchy, Corporate War, and Miner Mayhem.  Players will be able to unlock up to 20 ships with full tech trees across classes including attack, defense, engineering, and support.”

There’s a lot going on there. To celebrate the move to beta, the makers of Descent released this new trailer. The spirit is the same, but there’s a lot less Doom talk this time.

Descent 2018 is now available for pre-order at https://www.gamersfirst.com/descent/pre-order. Folks that pre-order will also get these bonuses

  • PC Beta starting last this year

  • A custom version of the Generation III “Viola” ship w/ exclusive paint job

  • Special PC Beta challenges to unlock exclusive pre-season cosmetic rewards

  • Multipass upgrade for multiplayer seasons 1 & 2 with additional gameplay challenges

  • “Secret Missions” DLC with additional single-player missions, landing later in 2019!

Additional information is available here.  I gotta admit, this one threw me for a loop. I had no idea anyone was bringing this franchise back to life. Now I can get slaughtered in 3D all over again!