| Descent | Parallax Software / Interplay | 1994 | |
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In Descent you fly a spaceship rather than go on foot.
It's a mix between a regular 3d-shooter and something like Wing Commander.
It's noted for popularizing
the use of true 3D rendering technology and providing the player with six full
degrees of freedom to move and to look around. Descent uses a software renderer due
to the fact that affordable 3D graphics accelerator cards were not mainstream as
yet. While Doom uses sprites to render enemies, Descent features fully-3D-polygonal
enemies. Other than Doom and its successor Quake, Descent does not use BSP trees
to speed up rendering, but a system of connected cubes forming bigger rooms and
tunnels connecting them. This geometry allowed for very efficient visibility culling,
and the first true three dimensional rendering environment of the time. Another
significant improvement over Doom was that Descent used sprites (two dimensional
bitmaps) only for powerups and not for opponents. With true 3D enemies, the game
introduced a higher level of realism. Descent had a dynamic lighting system that
enabled the use of flares to light areas, as well as laser blasts and explosions.
The dynamic lighting also allowed more gradations of light in the mines, which gave
a more natural and realistic appearance to in-game lights. Descent offers excellent competitive
multiplayer game play over a LAN. It's also touted as being one of the first games
that allowed on-the-fly joining of multiplayer games, whereas in Doom it is
presumed that all players have to be queued prior to initiating the match. There
are 27 levels corresponding to 27 different and unique mines (and also three
secret levels). The first three begin on the Moon, the fourth on Venus, the sixth
on Mercury, and these levels also make up the shareware version. In the commercial
release, the path continues out towards Mars and on towards the moons of the gas
giants Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and finally until Pluto and Charon. There
are 3 secret levels, which can be accessed by secret exits that are placed as an
alternative to the regular exits in certain levels. It features ten weapons; five
primary weapons and five missiles. A shooter fan with a good orientation will like
Descent. See also: #Arcade Explosion, #Beyond The Meltdown, Complete 3D-Action Accessory Pack, The, Descent Addon: Levels Of The World, Descent: Dimensions Unofficial Addon, Descent Mission Builder, #Digital Warfare, #Doomsday Disk, The, #Levelmania, #Mega Wad Vol.1, #Superdead, #Stellar Combat: Mission Pack, #Ultimate Add On's Tournament Edition, #Ultra Level Add-On, #Violence in 3D |
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