Descent 2 takes an "if it ain't broke, then don't fix it" approach to the classic Descent formula. However, there are some new additions, like new weapons, and cool new gadgets like an afterburner, headlights, and an "energy-to-shields" converter. The game engine and sound effects are mostly recycled from the original Descent, except for the sounds of the new weapons and enemies. However, the graphics are an improvement over Descent's already state-of-the-art graphics. Descent 2's environments and enemies are completely different from those in the original Descent (as opposed to how Doom II recycled most of Doom's environments and enemies), and of course, the levels and storyline are different (of course -- how else would it be a sequel?) If you liked Descent, then you'll love Descent II. If you loved Descent, you'll drool over the sequel's new levels, environments, enemies, and features. Even if you're sick of the same old gameplay, Descent II still has enough new additions to the original Descent formula to make it well worth playing, and it's still a blast to play. Like the original Descent, this sequel gets a 10 / 10.
2 Reviews
96% - Parallax's analogy to Doom II is expanded, has improvements
FreeMediaKids18 March 2021
If you thought you could not further ingest truly 3D mines you had dived into, you will find out that was only the beginning. Now you are plunging deeper in space and deeper in tunnels with more danger to entertain you, and for longer periods of time. Just as you come back to claim your reward from the largest mining bureaucracy after cleansing the Solar System's mines of murderous robots infected with an extraterrestrial virus, your employer informs you that you must clear more robots located deeper in space. You are forced to accept the quest with the threat of lawsuits and forfeiture of your reward should you have refused. You also have familiar orders to find hostages in the mines and whack your ship into them. Obviously they need to be rescued. It is a simple story, but as you take over the controls of the mercenary Material Defender, you will soon see why this sequel shook its rivals.
The core of the sequel remains the same, but it does boast many features and much-needed improvements. Its engine is more powerful, graphics are more clear-cut, and digital sound gets a fidelity upgrade. Some official patches even allow it to use hardware-accelerated graphics, and just like the original, Descent II officially supports virtual reality. To be realistic, it has some of what the present's standards would call 1990s clichés (minimal plot, shoot everything that moves, find keys to unlock doors, reach the exit), but Descent II is ahead of its time and sometimes feels like an actual modern first-person shooter. Even the lighting has been improved to the point where lights can now be shot out. While one can alternatively listen to the six standard MIDI tracks or no music at all, we are clearly meant to listen to the built-in digital CD soundtrack featuring industrial metal, some of which is composed by artists such as Skinny Puppy and Type O Negative. The latter better fits the mood of thrashing enemy after enemy and other objects deep in outer space and in a fairly destructive environment. As an interesting feature, while it may no longer be relevant for modern PCs, it is possible to load audio CDs and play their soundtracks instead.
The wireframe automap is still readily accessible and justified, but can still be confusing to use for viewing complex structures of the map. Fortunately, we have the most important addition to the series: the Guide-Bot, a tour guide and the only robot throughout the entire game not corrupted by the nasty alien virus. This robot is not cumbersome to use, and while combatively passive throughout, firing only flares to light up dark rooms, it is quite knowledgeable about the mines. In each level, the Guide-Bot is trapped in a cell normally not far from the entrance which must be located in order to release it. The player can then command it to find things such as a shield, a robot, a hostage, or a player-dropped marker. The default command is finding the next objective, which is locating either the next colored door key or the mine's reactor or boss robot to destroy. The Guide-Bot will come back to the player if the two go far apart, and ultimately it makes navigating the mines faster and more straightforward than using the automap. The Guide-Bot does have minor shortcomings, such as accidentally firing its flares at the player's ship and not factoring in the player's limited arsenal, leading it to find weapons the player cannot collect. At least its camera can be used to see what it is seeing. I would also like to note that, based on my testing, the Guide-Bot cannot collide with the player and seems to only take damage from the blasts of explosions; non-explosive weapons do none, interestingly.
I notice that the Descent II levels are more detailed and appear to make more use of elevation, whereas the original's levels are relatively more horizontal and give me impressions of flying through a little more than simple networks of tunnels and jointed boxy rooms. The rooms and tunnels in Descent II are less boxy and more cavernous. I say "more cavernous" instead of describing the levels themselves as larger because, while I could not conclude whether the levels outsize the original's, they do seem to be less claustrophobic. Now it is time to share my experiences with Descent II, which are very similar to the first Descent game. It is packed with surprises, literally. While the robots' AI is not drastically different from the previous cast's (some of them will still remain inside door-sealed rooms after losing the player), this game's cast of enemies no longer only directly attacks the player's hull with an even wider range of weapons. Instead, some of them will try to explode on contact with the player ship or will do their best to deprive the ship of all of its earned weapons, items, and energy for its laser weapons. The items the tough and agile "thief" robot can steal range anywhere from headlights (one of the new power-ups) to even invulnerability, and will have the careful and disciplined player make sure to check all of their six sides while still remembering where "up" and "down" are. All of this makes it a tenser experience than the original could provide. I always like to find secret areas as my personal "tertiary" objective. They are aplenty, more clever, and almost a necessity to complete levels on the hardest difficulty level. It was good in Descent, and it is even better here since this game's secret levels now have their own special rules. The secret areas are so common that a player should be able to find at least one within their first hour of playing the campaign straight. The arsenal has also been doubled. It is largely just upgraded derivatives of the older arsenal, but I found myself using all of them at various points of the game. They include guided missiles, short-ranged omega cannons used to zap enemies, blinding flash missiles, and literal earthshaker missiles, the last of which is as good as it sounds.
And Descent II keeps multiplayer and its four game modes: a deathmatch mode called Anarchy, team Anarchy, Anarchy with robots, and cooperative. The eight-player and cooperative's four-player limits are still there, although robot deathmatch now allows up to eight players instead of four. I believe I critiqued the previous game's multiplayer as lacking variety, but Descent II almost manages to make it complete. New to multiplayer is Capture the Flag, a two-team variant of Anarchy in which points are primarily scored by retrieving the opponent's flag and returning it to one's base. Also, the administrator and server has far more control over how to configure their games and their rules, as well as more control over managing their servers. They can decide more conditions for ending a level, the option to display all players on the automap, which weapons and power-ups are allowed in the game, and even the ability to use markers as surveillance cameras. As far as the commands are concerned, hosts now officially have the option to kick or ban bad players, everyone can even handicap themselves to make matches more competitive. As a bonus, if you have the Vertigo Series expansion pack, you will receive two additional game modes called Hoard and Team Hoard, yet other variants of Anarchy in which points are scored by destroying enemy ships, picking up green orbs, and bringing them to green-lit areas. The hoarding is due to the fact that holding more orbs at once multiplies their value near-exponentially, so if one player who has many orbs has their ship destroyed to another player and their orbs stolen, that player now has the foothold. Unfortunately, the lack of servers and opportunity to start one inhibits my ability to tell you what multiplayer is like, but I recall having positive experiences with my brother years ago in Descent 3's cooperative-the mode we always personally preferred. I am certain that if he and I were to reconvene with other pilots, we would see that Descent II is one of the best multiplayer games for DOS.
It is true that there are hours of content to keep us busy and even more hours to study in between and afterward, and with increasing difficulties, it is a learning experience that is here to stay, keep us preoccupied, and draw us back into action from time to time, but, while it is less repetitive, something still feels amiss about that. Hours into the campaign, the simple primary objective of shooting up enemies eventually becomes exhausting. The only secondary objective of rescuing hostages for bonus points also eventually becomes too familiar, and so does multiplayer mode. I may just be an unwitting sucker for taking the violence for granted, especially in the context of early FPSs, but I have not been convinced that we were meant to repeat supposedly various cycles of tasks with one of the tasks taking up most of the time. I think that is the problem with this kind of repetition, where it is not that there is too much of one thing, but rather too little of others. I do like shooting up the enemies, but I also wish I could do a little more than rescuing the miners and finding secret areas. It is important to know that there is not much left one can do to add more variety to the game while still keeping it simple, but if I had worked at Parallax or Interplay, I would encourage them to add more unique secondary missions and perhaps another multiplayer mode whose *primary* means of scoring involves less shooting.
Descent II learned from older sibling and what it could have been, and while still slightly repetitive, it wisely took steps of making technical upgrades to the engine, helping players navigate in more complex mines with the Guide-Bot, increasing variety, expanding multiplayer, and making the experience tenser while keeping it adequately simple. The possibilities of Descent levels and mods have just bounced far forward, and with modded engines, one could do far worse than to grab their joystick and go down again.
The core of the sequel remains the same, but it does boast many features and much-needed improvements. Its engine is more powerful, graphics are more clear-cut, and digital sound gets a fidelity upgrade. Some official patches even allow it to use hardware-accelerated graphics, and just like the original, Descent II officially supports virtual reality. To be realistic, it has some of what the present's standards would call 1990s clichés (minimal plot, shoot everything that moves, find keys to unlock doors, reach the exit), but Descent II is ahead of its time and sometimes feels like an actual modern first-person shooter. Even the lighting has been improved to the point where lights can now be shot out. While one can alternatively listen to the six standard MIDI tracks or no music at all, we are clearly meant to listen to the built-in digital CD soundtrack featuring industrial metal, some of which is composed by artists such as Skinny Puppy and Type O Negative. The latter better fits the mood of thrashing enemy after enemy and other objects deep in outer space and in a fairly destructive environment. As an interesting feature, while it may no longer be relevant for modern PCs, it is possible to load audio CDs and play their soundtracks instead.
The wireframe automap is still readily accessible and justified, but can still be confusing to use for viewing complex structures of the map. Fortunately, we have the most important addition to the series: the Guide-Bot, a tour guide and the only robot throughout the entire game not corrupted by the nasty alien virus. This robot is not cumbersome to use, and while combatively passive throughout, firing only flares to light up dark rooms, it is quite knowledgeable about the mines. In each level, the Guide-Bot is trapped in a cell normally not far from the entrance which must be located in order to release it. The player can then command it to find things such as a shield, a robot, a hostage, or a player-dropped marker. The default command is finding the next objective, which is locating either the next colored door key or the mine's reactor or boss robot to destroy. The Guide-Bot will come back to the player if the two go far apart, and ultimately it makes navigating the mines faster and more straightforward than using the automap. The Guide-Bot does have minor shortcomings, such as accidentally firing its flares at the player's ship and not factoring in the player's limited arsenal, leading it to find weapons the player cannot collect. At least its camera can be used to see what it is seeing. I would also like to note that, based on my testing, the Guide-Bot cannot collide with the player and seems to only take damage from the blasts of explosions; non-explosive weapons do none, interestingly.
I notice that the Descent II levels are more detailed and appear to make more use of elevation, whereas the original's levels are relatively more horizontal and give me impressions of flying through a little more than simple networks of tunnels and jointed boxy rooms. The rooms and tunnels in Descent II are less boxy and more cavernous. I say "more cavernous" instead of describing the levels themselves as larger because, while I could not conclude whether the levels outsize the original's, they do seem to be less claustrophobic. Now it is time to share my experiences with Descent II, which are very similar to the first Descent game. It is packed with surprises, literally. While the robots' AI is not drastically different from the previous cast's (some of them will still remain inside door-sealed rooms after losing the player), this game's cast of enemies no longer only directly attacks the player's hull with an even wider range of weapons. Instead, some of them will try to explode on contact with the player ship or will do their best to deprive the ship of all of its earned weapons, items, and energy for its laser weapons. The items the tough and agile "thief" robot can steal range anywhere from headlights (one of the new power-ups) to even invulnerability, and will have the careful and disciplined player make sure to check all of their six sides while still remembering where "up" and "down" are. All of this makes it a tenser experience than the original could provide. I always like to find secret areas as my personal "tertiary" objective. They are aplenty, more clever, and almost a necessity to complete levels on the hardest difficulty level. It was good in Descent, and it is even better here since this game's secret levels now have their own special rules. The secret areas are so common that a player should be able to find at least one within their first hour of playing the campaign straight. The arsenal has also been doubled. It is largely just upgraded derivatives of the older arsenal, but I found myself using all of them at various points of the game. They include guided missiles, short-ranged omega cannons used to zap enemies, blinding flash missiles, and literal earthshaker missiles, the last of which is as good as it sounds.
And Descent II keeps multiplayer and its four game modes: a deathmatch mode called Anarchy, team Anarchy, Anarchy with robots, and cooperative. The eight-player and cooperative's four-player limits are still there, although robot deathmatch now allows up to eight players instead of four. I believe I critiqued the previous game's multiplayer as lacking variety, but Descent II almost manages to make it complete. New to multiplayer is Capture the Flag, a two-team variant of Anarchy in which points are primarily scored by retrieving the opponent's flag and returning it to one's base. Also, the administrator and server has far more control over how to configure their games and their rules, as well as more control over managing their servers. They can decide more conditions for ending a level, the option to display all players on the automap, which weapons and power-ups are allowed in the game, and even the ability to use markers as surveillance cameras. As far as the commands are concerned, hosts now officially have the option to kick or ban bad players, everyone can even handicap themselves to make matches more competitive. As a bonus, if you have the Vertigo Series expansion pack, you will receive two additional game modes called Hoard and Team Hoard, yet other variants of Anarchy in which points are scored by destroying enemy ships, picking up green orbs, and bringing them to green-lit areas. The hoarding is due to the fact that holding more orbs at once multiplies their value near-exponentially, so if one player who has many orbs has their ship destroyed to another player and their orbs stolen, that player now has the foothold. Unfortunately, the lack of servers and opportunity to start one inhibits my ability to tell you what multiplayer is like, but I recall having positive experiences with my brother years ago in Descent 3's cooperative-the mode we always personally preferred. I am certain that if he and I were to reconvene with other pilots, we would see that Descent II is one of the best multiplayer games for DOS.
It is true that there are hours of content to keep us busy and even more hours to study in between and afterward, and with increasing difficulties, it is a learning experience that is here to stay, keep us preoccupied, and draw us back into action from time to time, but, while it is less repetitive, something still feels amiss about that. Hours into the campaign, the simple primary objective of shooting up enemies eventually becomes exhausting. The only secondary objective of rescuing hostages for bonus points also eventually becomes too familiar, and so does multiplayer mode. I may just be an unwitting sucker for taking the violence for granted, especially in the context of early FPSs, but I have not been convinced that we were meant to repeat supposedly various cycles of tasks with one of the tasks taking up most of the time. I think that is the problem with this kind of repetition, where it is not that there is too much of one thing, but rather too little of others. I do like shooting up the enemies, but I also wish I could do a little more than rescuing the miners and finding secret areas. It is important to know that there is not much left one can do to add more variety to the game while still keeping it simple, but if I had worked at Parallax or Interplay, I would encourage them to add more unique secondary missions and perhaps another multiplayer mode whose *primary* means of scoring involves less shooting.
Descent II learned from older sibling and what it could have been, and while still slightly repetitive, it wisely took steps of making technical upgrades to the engine, helping players navigate in more complex mines with the Guide-Bot, increasing variety, expanding multiplayer, and making the experience tenser while keeping it adequately simple. The possibilities of Descent levels and mods have just bounced far forward, and with modded engines, one could do far worse than to grab their joystick and go down again.
See also
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