Home Gaming A look at the Descent reboot

A look at the Descent reboot

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Descent

Remember Descent? Yes, that now 20-year-old shooter that had you piloting a little spacecraft in a cavernous network of underground tunnels. It offered “six degrees of freedom,” took quite some time to get used to, and was pretty damned awesome – becoming quite a multiplayer favourite in the days of yore. There have been numerous attempts at a remake or reboot , but they’ve all ended up being stifled by rights holder Interplay. Not anymore. There’s a new one on the way, and it’s been given Interplay’s blessing.

It’s got an odd bit of pedigree to it too. It’s being made by a former member of Cloud Imperium Games – the folks behind Star Citizen.

Eric “Wingman” Peterson has formed Descendent Studios, hired staff, and is currently trying to pull $600,000 via kickstarter to finance development of the game. This is Descent Underground.

Petersen hopes to keep this reboot true to the series roots.

“The beauty of Descent was the fighting in the tunnels,” he said to Ars Technica. “But there’s a lot of things you can do to be true to the game type and bring it forward—that, more than anything, is what Descent needs.”

Why bring it back in the first place though?

“I’ve got two boys; one’s sixteen and one’s twelve. They’re both big gamers, but… they’ve never played a 6-DoF game. There’s like a pocket of games between ’93 to 2000 before consoles took over that had really innovative gameplay and they’re just being ignored,” he continued. “Being able to pry some of these things loose allows some of us to possibly reinvent them and imagine them bringing up today’s era with graphics and AAA gameplay.”

I’d play this.

Last Updated: March 19, 2015

19 Comments

  1. Blood Emperor Trevor

    March 19, 2015 at 15:34

    Their KS doesn’t seem to be doing as well as I thought it would. Think it’s suffering a bit because SP seems to be an afterthought.

    Reply

  2. Pariah

    March 19, 2015 at 15:44

    I’d play that too. Damn. I loved the Descent games. So damn much!

    Reply

  3. Kromas is drunk with power!

    March 19, 2015 at 15:45

    He may have left cloud imperium but I think he may have taken some assets with him. this feels like Star Citizen:Mini Tunnel Edition.

    Reply

  4. V@mp

    March 19, 2015 at 15:48

    Used to play the living crap out of the first one. Good times 🙂

    Reply

  5. Ranting Raptor

    March 19, 2015 at 15:54

    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    SQWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    DESCENT!!!!! DESCENT DESCENT DESCENT!!!!!

    *heavy breathing*

    *heavy panting*

    *freaks out*

    http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/038/a/4/3d_la_emoticon_by_thecospig-d3916o1.gif

    Reply

    • Blood Emperor Trevor

      March 19, 2015 at 15:57

      With OR support it’ll be a vomit comet for realsies.

      Reply

      • Ranting Raptor

        March 19, 2015 at 15:58

        !#$% VR for this. Give me my keyboard and let me SHOOT MINING BOTS!!!!!!!!!!!

        Reply

        • Grimthwacker

          March 19, 2015 at 16:47

          Hmmmmm…. using a “Space Pilot” (device used by CAD guys to navigate their 3D models) type of thingy would work awesome with this game.

          Reply

          • Ranting Raptor

            March 19, 2015 at 16:49

            *inappropriate purring sounds*

      • Skyblue

        March 19, 2015 at 21:08

        Lol, it was already a “vomit comet” in every iteration so yeah, wholly agreed.

        Reply

    • Pariah

      March 19, 2015 at 16:00

      7 lines?

      Reply

      • Ranting Raptor

        March 19, 2015 at 16:03

        7 lines, 7 freaking homing missiles, 7 freaking anything! I don’t care! I will 7 up for a chance to get my hands on a reboot like this!

        Reply

        • Pariah

          March 19, 2015 at 16:03

          *7 hands

          Reply

          • Ranting Raptor

            March 19, 2015 at 16:04

            When I play Descent my hands glide over the keyboard with a grace as if I have 7 hands. That’s for sure. This is MY game!

          • loftie

            March 20, 2015 at 09:30

            7 lines, Descent has 6 letters, 7+6=13. 13 is 10+3. Half life 2 is 10 years old, which leaves the 3. HL3 confirmed.

          • Ranting Raptor

            March 20, 2015 at 14:10

            YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  6. Sageville

    March 19, 2015 at 15:57

    Nostalgia Heartburn….

    Reply

  7. Xcalibersa

    March 20, 2015 at 06:54

    Still remember playing Decent 2 on my playstation and getting jealous when I saw Decent 3 on Cyberbet? for the pc.

    Reply

  8. DadGamer

    March 20, 2015 at 09:22

    OMG! I frikkin loved descent. I remember configuring my old joystick – used that as my left-hand controls instead of the WASD. Really worked well for the pitch and roll.
    I might just desert the Playstation and upgrade my ancient PC to play this.

    Reply

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