What happened to the Descent series?

R

Ryland

2[H]4U
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Descent was the "space" flight game in which you are dogfighting in tunnels. I think it was originally under DOS then moved to windows before finally dying out. Has there been any news on a resurgence? This was a great game and would look awesome in DirectX 9.
 
there were the two freespace titles and then I think interplay went under/was bought out. either way they're gone now
 
Yeah Descent 1 and 2 were some of the first pc games I played with a 3d accelerator.
I had a STB Velocity that had a TNT chipset. Can't even remember which one, tnt or tnt 2.
I remember it was in the very first wave of agp cards to come out.

Great game and really hard too.
 
Let us not forget Forsaken. Man, that game with 3dfx powered graphics was absolutely incredible.
 
Descent 1 & 2 was under the Interplay label, but creative differences caused a split up of the team. Outrage Studios went on to make Descent 3 and Volition made the Freespace Series. Neither company could stand on their own and pretty much dissapeared. Interplay, once a VERY strong publishing house has been reduced to a small publicly held company that has done less than 100K in biz over the last few years.

Some trendy investors could snatch it up for a song and dance and revive the series, as I am sure the genre is ready to come back from a long slumber.

As a game series goes, both Freespace and Descent were revolutionary in scope and detail. If both technologies were utilized in one unified project I am sure we would have seen several more great titles from the franchise.

As individual titles go, Descent 1 and 2 are near and dear to me as I have fond memmories of playing them for hours on end. Descent 2 was one of the first games to take advantage of 3D acceleration and lighting effects and was a showcase for high end graphics for a while.

Descent 3 was simply amazing. The single player story was riviting and challenging while the graphics were amaizing. With internet play you could do dogfight with groups of friends in some of the most intense action ever seen online (and still surpases may online gaming experiences).

The Freespace series is also a hallmark of space-sim adventure, with freespace 2 still being considered the pinacle of of the genre to this day. Freespace one brought concept of small fighter vs capitolship play to a new level as objects of great size were never truley conveyed correctly (even in x-wing) until freespace.

In all, i really miss the while shebang.
 
i remember me cursing crazy when I blew up the mine reactor in Descent 1/2 and forgetting where the escape tunnel was. :D
 
magnusvir said:
i remember me cursing crazy when I blew up the mine reactor in Descent 1/2 and forgetting where the escape tunnel was. :D
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oh my god truth
 
magnusvir said:
i remember me cursing crazy when I blew up the mine reactor in Descent 1/2 and forgetting where the escape tunnel was. :D
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Yea, I remembered that. You always tried to find the exit first and they try to remember how to get back to it. Not easy.

The Descent games were such a rush on the Insane setting.
 
Defective said:
Yea, I remembered that. You always tried to find the exit first and they try to remember how to get back to it. Not easy.

The Descent games were such a rush on the Insane setting.
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Yes how genious wasn´t the game idea in Descent 1 and Descent 2. To bad they screwed up in many ways with Descent 3 :(.

But that countdown oh my god get goose bumps just thinking of all the tense moments when you managed the impossible and need to get out in time :D
 
Needless to say someone needs to buy the rights and make a fantastic sequel.
It would sell millions on the new consoles.
 
Stereophile said:
Needless to say someone needs to buy the rights and make a fantastic sequel.
It would sell millions on the new consoles.
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True, When it came out on consoles, or even the Pc for that Matter, People just were not in to 3D combat. Since Halo made the FPS and 3D Combat Game mainstream for the masses, it should sell well.

I wonder how many people that thought flying an Banshee in a Tunnel was an origional idea.. Little did they know we were doing it 10 years earlier...
 
Talking about all these old games makes me remeber one of my favorite games of all time - Hexen. I loved that game. Heretic was really good too now that I think about it.

Didn't Interplay just recently get acquired buy another company? I could have swore I read that they did.
 
Thought it was funny to see this thread. I was thinking about how nice it would be to see a sequel to descent a few days ago.
 
Definately good memories of the Descent seriers. I wish it would come back.

 
.Euphoria said:
I still have Descent II :cool:
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I have both Descent 1 and II and still play it sometimes. :cool: :cool:

BTW does PTMC stand for Pan Terra Mining Corporation?
 
Descent 3 is one of the best games for it's time. Its a shame we probably will not see an updated version of this game. It would be simply fantastic done by the right people.
 
zoobaby said:
Definately good memories of the Descent seriers. I wish it would come back.

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Descent 1 and 2 were awesome. Descent III was a little dissapointing. Descent Freespace 1 and 2 were badass.
 
Yes, yes, Descent was amazing, including Freespace. I miss it.

the stb velocity was a first generation tnt product, good stuff ;D
 
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