We all remember Descent, a game that quite simply changed the face of 3D gaming, 360 degrees of gaming action. Descent 2 brought much of the same as the original in the technology department, but Descent 3 looks nothing like it's little brothers. Descent attempted to show us the ways of high-tech, futuristic warfare, but technology at the time limited it. Descent 3 now has 3D cards and super fast processors to work with to show you what futuristic warfare looks like (or what we all assume it to be).

Recently the Descent 3 demo was released, and if it is any indication of what the full version will be like, this game will blow you away. If you want a taste of this game, head over to AVault where you can pick up this 28MB piece of gold. Now let me introduce you to this game.

What's the Gameplay gonna be like?

Unlike the two original Descent's which used cubes to represent space inside a level, Descent 3 (D3) uses a new engine which is based on the same principles of 3D modeling software such as 3DS Max and Lightwave. The engine is basically a room-based, polygonal engine. This is unsimilar to brush-based games like Quake which are constructive solid geometry engines.

Not only will the traditional indoor levels be present in D3, but so will outdoor-based levels. There is a whole different portion of the engine dedicated to the outdoor areas and wildlife will be present such as birds and trees. However, unlike some Flight Simulators where you can literally fly for days in the same direction, Descent 3 will have an invisible dome outside. This dome won't be small, it will be large and it's purpose is to probably keep frame rates up and help some people from getting lost. The sides of the dome will be met with things such as canyon walls to give outdoor areas a more realistic effect.

Everything in the game, with the exception of your ship and the powerups (for gameplay reasons), is affected by gravity. For example, if you fire a rocket straight up, the flames will spill to the ground in a realistic way, and eventually rockets will run out of juice and come crashing to the ground. Your ship isn't affected by gravity which is not only good but realistic. It's good because limitations of gravity would ruin dog fights (you know how boring dog fights can get in a flight sim sometimes) and it's realistic because hey, these are futuristic ships and why should gravity affect them in the slightest way?

Control can be done anyway you want. Joystick, Keyboard (yuck), or the Mouse. D3 will support basically any DirectX supporting joystick that can be set up in control panel. Mouse support is and will be there. Mouse is my favorite way to play in most games, especially first person shooters, but in a game like D3 I prefer a Joystick usually.

Multiplayer has not been forgotten and the option to have multiple ships in a game sounds awesome. Although since some ships are more powerful than others limitations must be made, and according to Outrage, they will be made. Server admin's have the option to disable or enable most of the options in the game. Balance will be there according to Outrage, and in games with multiple kinds of ships, one will never have the advantage. Netplay and IPX games will be supported in D3.

Next- Graphics & Sound