Title: Descent
Players: 1 (Link-up for 2)
Version: Japanese NTSC
Software House: Who really cares?
Save Game: Card or huge password.

OK, I wanted to be fair and wait until I had owned Descent for a whlie
before passing judgement. This is for the simple reason that, after only a
few hours, I...I thought...I thought Krazy Ivan was actually GOOD. [blush
with shame] It is only after the initial `wow' factor settles down that you
can be objective.

Descent has been with me for around two weeks and I am still playing it
more than all others in my collection. This is Good. For those few of you
who don't know, it is a 3D shooter. You are, however, inside a small craft
of some kind and this is where the main difference is from Doom et al.
Because you are not on your feet, you have full (360 degree?) sphere-like
rotation and mobility. The sensation of this complete freedom of movement
when you get a little close to the TV is, I think, very like swimming deep
under water.

The objectives are very similar to Doom, there are Bad Things which want
you dead, and there are Good Things to help you progress. The Bad Things
are little wierd insect-like ships of varying scaryness. The first are
obviously real easy to kill, as they are slow and so are their fireball
shots. Eventually you'll find green enemies which reminded me of the Demons
in Doom, because they don't shoot anything at you, but just wander up and
do some Badness on you. It's horrible if you're not aware of one in a room
and it sneaks up on you - you're only made aware of it by this
wince-enducing metal-on-metal squeeking sound as it tears in to the back of
your ship. Yeeuuuk. There are also Spectre-like ghost versions of these,
but they are much harder to spot than in Doom.

The Good Things are color coded keys and the many weapons which you can
pick up. I'm not going to sit and tell you what each weapon does, that
would be sad. Suffice to say that L1 fires whatever `Preliminary' (laser)
you have selected and L2 fires whatever `Secondary' (missile) you have
selected. Other Good Things are, I guess, the little blue people which you
pick up - although I've no idea what they actually do.
Because of the dark lighting of many areas in the game, you can also fire
flares which burrow into the wall and light everything around them for a
short time. The lighting effects are gorgeous. Each color of laser, whether
from the enemy or you, will light the surrounding corridor or wall very
smoothly.

All of the controls are completely definable, as well as the usual presets
which PSX games seem to have. You can even define controls which are not
available when you first play the game, like `strafing' up and down, or
having an instant `look behind you' view.

The levels are mostly huge and complex. But the problem is, as you have
that `freedom of movement' through each angle which Doom does not allow,
the maps are 3D, sprawling wireframe, pieces of 21st century art.
Absolutely fucking useless for finding your way around though, which is
generally the idea of maps. This does lead to getting lost quite a bit, or
continually going past the same part in a small area of the level saying `I
must have killed everything, wheres the end?' But this effect subsides as
you grow used to the game.

At the end of each level there is an Alien Breed-esque part where you shoot
a reactor and its all Red Alerts, 40 seconds, and find the exit. You will
lose a life if you do not find the exit before the explosion, but you still
progress to the next level. Even if you have several lives though, it's
worth finding the exit for the ridiculously beautiful FMV sequence which
follows - full screen and the nicest I've yet seen, including Krazy Ivan.

Bit for those who buy the game: Turn the rave music off, and the cockpit,
and the auto-center.

Erm, I hope I've not left anything important out. I recommend Descent to
you all. Don't worry about the Japanese text, I've figured most of it out
already. The pre-mission text which tells you what to do is in English.

8/10

-- 
Graeme Nicholson
lbgn@easynet.co.uk