One of the first PC games I ever played was the original Descent during the summer of 1995. The first installment in Interplay’s first-person 3D spaceship shooter, it certainly wasn’t the first space-themed FPS – heck, it wasn’t the first FPS that allowed you to take control of a spaceship as X-Wing released a few years before – but it certainly felt fast. Tasking players with searching in an underground asteroid mining facility in a 360-degree environment, it was hard to tell which way was up, down, left, right, and which way you need to go and where you have already been.
Find a few keys to exit the level to progress to the next: Sounds easy enough, right? It isn’t. Killer robots are aiming to destroy your spaceship, and it is up to you to destroy them, save hostages, and of course, avoid flying into hot lava in order to save the day. Even today, Descent’s 360-degree fast-flying gameplay is enough to make you sick (I know someone that played the game in the late ‘90’s and threw up all over their monitor and keyboard), or maybe not.
Should you go out and buy Descent for a cool $3.49 on Steam? It isn’t going to blow you away like it did myself back in 1995, but it is a nice trip down gaming memory lane. And for $3.49? It’s hard to pass up. If you’re bored and want to see what cutting-edge gaming looked like in 1995, spend a few bucks and buy Descent: you may be glad you did!