Descent II - Level 1, Hotshot
0Sorry for the tinty sound. For whatever reason, the sound plays great in my headphones when I play this game on my laptop, but Fraps wrecks the sound when I record. When I get my sound fixed on my main box, I'll try to record another video.
So, Descent II. The confident 1996 sequel to the 1995 Descent. It's like Doom, and Quake, but in a mine with robots. Secret doors, keys, enemy robots. Find the reactor, destroy it, and get out before the whole place blows.
There is something to be said for a tight set of maps saturated with enemies and environments with a personality. Open world games are fine and all, but a well composed experience that keeps you constrained to exactly what you are meant to experience can be entertaining, too. Kicking it old school. These were the games we loved.
The game starts out simple enough, with levels that have a welcoming feel with just enough complexity to invite exploration, and secret alcoves to reward it. Later, the levels increase in complexity to the point of being delightfully menacing (after you've cleared all the enemies and grab that key, watch out for the claw robot that suddenly rushes out at you from a nearby secret alcove), along with introducing new enemies to add to the challenge. It's a worthwhile game to play through once, then again to gauge how your increased skills interact with playing it a second time.
Descent 2 is available at gog.com for $10.
I'm playing it here on the d2x-rebirth shell, so I can play in full HD and hardware acceleration. Awesome. Using a joystick with keyboard.
I'd really like to see this in VR - if I ever get really ambitious, I could get the source code for d2x-rebirth and render a video for Google Cardboard. That would be something. Of course I'd have to attempt shadowing and wonder if it would be too distracting. I could always attempt my own little project, too.
If you want the see a player that really knows what he's doing, check out the longplay. Links below.
Descent 2 at GOG.com: https://www.gog.com/game/descent_2
D2x-rebirth: https://www.dxx-rebirth.com/
Descent 2 Longplay video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed_78HTkRbQ
Other Videos By Craig Yack
Other Statistics
Descent II Statistics For Craig Yack
Currently, Craig Yack has 3,706 views for Descent II across 2 videos. Less than an hour worth of Descent II videos were uploaded to his channel, making up less than 0.03% of the total overall content on Craig Yack's YouTube channel.