Prepare for 1995's Descent! Children of DOOM Episode 5

It's 1995, and we're looking at Descent!
As always, you can support the show on Patreon:
/ errantsignal
Cited Sources:
archive.org/details/GDM_JuneJ...
www.pcgamer.com/volition-woul...

[@Ozymandias42]

These are probably the kindest words anyone has ever said about Tekwar

[@jabberw0k812]

I like that you have a kind of 'Meanwhile' segment at the end of each video, just to nod at titles beyond the focus of the video.

[@ErrantSignal]

Thanks! I stole it from the concept of the video; the Age of Heroes series up on the AV Club ( www.avclub.com/c/age-of-heroes ). They all end with little summaries of other superhero films than the one chosen for that year, and I always thought that was a cool bit of contextualization.

[@Medytacjusz]

@@ErrantSignal may I request listing all the mentioned games in the description, though? found myself looking for one title through the video.

[@summerlaverdure]

@@Medytacjusz there's a list at 21:58 of the video though

[@andrewboyko8304]

@@ErrantSignal I really like how all the meanwhile videos have been covered by people like civvie who are pretty open about why they were or in the case of tech war weren’t remembered.

[@Medytacjusz]

@@summerlaverdure oh, I tend to click away during "End transmission" so I didn't notice, my bad. It's still a bit more convenient to have them as text though, as that's one less click and would make them ctrl+cctrl+vable (haha, I just invented the most convenient word ever). Copypastable.

[@IAmEnormous]

Me, playing this as a 5 year old: "hee hee me shoot robots with lasers :)" Me, coming back to it as an adult: "If I wasn't illiterate when I first played this I would have been radicalized."

[@chrisbarbour1632]

At 10m10s: The turning speed of homing missiles is based on the FPS. When Descent originally came out, dodging homing missiles was relatively easy. I believe various ports attempt to address this.

[@dominiccasts]

That would explain why I didn't remember that issue from when I played Descent games more often, though that was mostly Descent 3 and I don't think that had the FPS dependence issue. Here I was thinking that maybe Chris needed to trichord (move along all 3 axes to get extra speed), but it seems kinda silly to require an obscure advanced movement technique to deal with enemies in the singleplayer campaign.

[@timothymclean]

As an aside, I'd like to inform people that you can make a link to a certain time in the video by just typing the timestamp with colons. For instance, 10:10 brings you to the point Chris is talking about.

[@electriceel3489]

I have been binge-rewatching your videos for the past few weeks again. After watching your stuff everything else feels loud and disorganized. Also because of you i discovered Inside, Night in the woods and many more awesome games that might have flown under the radar for me. Love your work!

[@jasonblalock4429]

14:40 YES. I absolutely adore "first generation" 3D accelerated games for their ridiculous over the top lighting - especially considering how those early 3D experiments would be followed by basically a decade of games colored entirely out of grays, browns, and reds.

[@Runningfromtheredqueen]

Descent? I loved Descent. It was a formative part of my childhood. Man, I remember it first coming out; I couldn't have been older than... ...My god, I'm old.

[@JosephDavies]

Same.

[@Medytacjusz]

I suggest paying a visit to your 70 yo relatives and spend less time on youth-dominated social media. You're going to feel young again :)

[@goopah]

I was 34 when Descent came out. At that time, I was an old gamer. Now, I'm an even older gamer. ;-/

[@Medytacjusz]

@@goopah i hope gaming makes you younger! In the brain and fingers at least (also you must feel pretty weird about all the 30 year olds pronouncing they are sooo ooold)

[@47ejecting2]

@@goopah I was 2 days old when Descent released. I'm curious what you think of the current gaming landscape. For my part, I'm somewhat tolerant of the "modern cinematic game" (ala RDR2), though I greatly prefer RPGs/imsims and boomer shooters.

[@captainstarlight3780]

I will say that Descent 2 kind of refines what Descent 1 was going for. Larger combat arenas, less guaranteed damage, can use prox bombs to break locks, afterburners, and all.

[@jasonmoyer]

And the damn Thief-Bot. Thankfully, the good source ports let you disable it.

[@cascaozymandius9911]

I literally shouted when I read descent in your title

[@Phourc]

Hah yeah how nostalgic - used to play that at my grandma's house as a kid.

[@japplek]

+1

[@CardfightVanja]

Been playing Jumping Flash and it's sequel lately and you're completely right at how surprisingly well they hold up. On paper, "tank controls first person platforming from 1995" sounds absolutely horrifying but in practice it's much easier to control than many games that have come since, I stop thinking about the controls almost immediately and it becomes wildly intuitive. Absolutely recommend trying these out

[@vvcq]

Considering Descent's successors, Overload really is very, very good. It's a crying shame it seems to have gone mostly unnoticed by the greater gaming public, so I'd encourage anyone who has even a bit of nostalgia for Descent to give it a go. It looks, sounds and plays great, and you can even play it in VR if you want. Although you probably shouldn't, for obvious reasons.

[@DrakenStark]

You may have just won me over. As someone who cannot get VR motion sickness, or at least gotten VR legs, I've been thirsty for some unapologetic desktop-esque VR games to play. Have you played Descent Underground by chance?

[@vvcq]

@@DrakenStark Perhaps you know more about the situation than I do, but I was under the impression that Descent Underground was pretty much cancelled. The development seems to be at least severely troubled, from what I can tell with a quick Google search. Anyway, I also don't get easily VR-sick. With Overload, though? Pretty rough on the stomach, with all of the degrees of freedom at your disposal.

[@DrakenStark]

@@vvcq Through another comment I'd only just learned of its cancelation. I still have it installed and in my library. Played it quite a bit before it was canned. Anyways, absolutely on board with checking out Overload! Challenge accepted! As is I play Aircar with a permanent aileron roll.

[@HappyFrogGamesLLC]

I've played Overload in VR, it's good but it does have some optimization problems here and there so you may need to run it at slightly lower settings than you might hope. By that I mean I encountered stutter on my computer with a 3080 in it at max settings, though in fairness for some reason that was related to controller rumble rather than say, the GPU, so I have no clue what's going on there... but yeah, be warned, you're gonna need to lower settings a bit to get good performance probably, but if you can stomach it it's really good. I will say that it being in a cockpit goes a long way in making me not get as motion sick as it could make me, but it's still definitely not gonna be something everyone can stomach, heh.

[@jasonblalock4429]

I'd also recommend one I came across a couple years ago called NeonXSZ. It's like a sort-of open-world Descent-meets-Pirates! set in a huge sprawling starbase, with an art style inspired by Tron and other "cyberspace" projects. It's a bit overwhelming at first because it throws a lot of stuff at you without much guidance, but it's fun if you get the hang of it.

[@SeamlessR]

The game that made me.

[@usernamenumber]

I hope I never forget the feeling of my young mind being absolutely blown to pieces the first time I saw the demo of this game running at a software store. I was so excited by it the manager went back and copied the demo onto floppies for me to take home. Descent was such a special game.

[@Jekyllstein_Gray]

3:12 with most innovations in games, there's a game that introduced the innovation, and another that popularized it.

[@timothymclean]

And usually some "missing links" in between that developed it.

[@dezeekat]

I love Descent!!! played it a lot in the 90's and still have Descent 1 and 2 installed on my pc

[@skydroid3141]

The creativity of ancient games is simply a joy to behold.

[@ShardtheWolf]

1995 is ancient? You're making me feel old.

[@skydroid3141]

@@ShardtheWolf "the future is now old man"

[@skydroid3141]

Joking of course

[@Crocogator]

The level 1 music gets me EVERY time.

[@gladiatorscoops]

I played all of these except Marathon 1&2...not too sure how i missed them. But as a very young teenager I remember enjoying getting lost in Descent, loving the gore of ROTT and the thought of being able to play an open world in Tek Wars despite its jankyness and struggling to get it to run on my 486. This video totally takes me back! Great stuff!

[@Acoha7]

This Children of DOOM series is brilliant. Keep it up I’m loving it!

[@the_elder_gamer]

I've been watching your content for a long time now and it's been such a pleasure to see you go from strength to strength and chart the development of your ideas and attitudes. To my mind, your writing has never been sharper or your observations more insightful. You don't get bogged down by big ideas and instead focus on the stuff that matters, the things that are interesting and unique. You're humble and sincere and that is appreciated on a platform that tends towards anything but. Thank you; you are appreciated. I look forward to more. Wishing you all the very best in 2021.

[@ahandsomefridge]

Still remains in my top 10 best game OSTs ever. Or at least the top 20.

[@Cybolic]

Descent 2 definitely deserves a shout-out as well, with Brian Luzietti and Mark Morgan (both of Fallout fame), Ogre from Skinny Puppy and even Type O Negative on the soundtrack. That's one that really could use a re-release as the versions and track-listings got somewhat muddled between the PC, Mac (CD-Audio) and Vertigo series releases.

[@DrakenStark]

There's also Descent Underground, which even has VR support.

[@ANeMzero]

Underground was pulled from stores before it left early access due to legal issues. It never released it's single player campaign and last I checked the multiplayer servers were inoperable. It's not really worth talking about given it was never finished, can't be bought and isn't really playable. As modern successors go Overload is probably a better choice to talk about (and has VR support.) Even 2013s Retrovirus would probably be a better use of time than Underground.

[@DrakenStark]

@@ANeMzero Oh my. I head no idea it got pulled. This explains a lot unfortunately. Glad to hear of another successor though and I'll absolutely be checking it out!

[@yoshimitsu5537]

Overload is awesome! It was made by the actual developers of Descent (and some new faces) with heavy involvement from the Descent community. Since launch in 2018 it has been modded with a huge number of enhancements and fixes by that community and there are already 100s of user-made maps for single and multiplayer.

[@dominiccasts]

@@yoshimitsu5537 Is there any kind of multiplayer community? I checked out the server list a while ago, found nothing, but knowing the Descent community I expect something got modded that makes the in-game serverlist irrelevant compared to some successor to Vortex or descent.cx.

[@glilimith]

I have memories of being a little kid and sitting by my dad's desk watching him play descent for hours. He still talks about how cool it was to feel like he was in ender's game, rewiring his brain to see space in whatever orientation was most convenient at the time.

[@Sporbb]

A note on the homing missiles being so hard to avoid: IIRC, a quirk of the difficulty system in Descent is that the homing missiles are EASIER to dodge on HIGHER difficulty settings, because enemy projectile speed is increased and that prevents their homing missiles from making sharp turns.

[@AleK0451]

this is true but it's still stupidly hard to avoid them without enough space to just joust the rocket so it loses its lock on you

[@dominiccasts]

Interesting note, but if he's getting 15 shields per pickup, that sounds like he's playing on Ace (i.e. second-highest), unless the shield pickup numbers being difficulty-level-dependent was something added into the sequels. EDIT: Looking downthread it seems my numbers are off, and 15 shields per pickup is Rookie (second-lowest) in Descent 1.

[@AleK0451]

@@dominiccasts ace difficulty would give you 9 shields

[@dominiccasts]

@@AleK0451 Yeah, I noted that in my edit, though now I'm vaguely curious if that changed in 2 or 3, since I remember playing MP in 3 with all servers on Insane and getting 12 shields per pickup, which was important since they generally only came from fraging other players.

[@AleK0451]

@@dominiccasts it was the same in 2, no idea about 3, i never got that game to work properly

[@RaptorShadow]

I'd also point out Hellbender from 1996. It's a sequel to Fury3 that kind of split the difference between the Terminal Velocity/Fury3 arcade flight sim and the tunnel-scouring Descent gameplay.

[@eggsbox]

THIS was the comment i was scrolling down for. I still play Hellbender's multiplayer with my friends on the rarest of occasions. It's an absolute bastard to get working, but well worth the effort.

[@RaptorShadow]

@@eggsbox Holy crap! The fact that anyone does that is mindblowing!

[@Athenor]

Descent was an incredibly influential game for me. I first saw it at a friend from church's house - the friend that was about 2-3 years older than me and had the coolest computer I had ever seen. I begged to play it, and eventually my dad let me use his computer to do so. I was 13-14 at the time. But then there was Descent 2, with its black and white box and all this talk of 3d video cards. I would spend as much time as I could playing that. It was also my first online game, playing deathmatches using Kali and later Kahn to simulate LANs. I got to join a small guild called the Pyro Pilot's Guild, which introduced me to IRC and EFNet. I got a Sidewinder 3D Pro so I could rotate, strafe with the thumbstick, turn, and accelerate/decelerate all at the same time. I remember trying to wrap my mind around the community's custom mapmaking tools for the game - which were WAY different than making WADs. I remember wanting to play Descent 3 so badly, but it just could not run properly on any computer we had. This was the game that ushered in my online existence. While I often cite Homeworld as my favorite game, my nostalgia goggles for this are VERY rose tinted. Even small things, like the boot screen that proudly declared "THIS IS NOT QUAKE," are burned into my memory. I think I still mispronounce Tycho Brahe thanks to this game. Oh, and then there was that whole Freespace game that Volition made after Parralax split up into two companies. You know, that one they called "Descent: Freespace" because another game had been called Freespace, and otherwise they shared pretty much nothing in common beyond the developer? Yeah... :)

[@BDtetra]

Ah one of my favorite childhood games!

[@reginaldbarclay1637]

Is Daikatana going to be covered here? It's one of those games that feels almost legendary to young gamers like me. I've heard plenty of things about how bad it is, but sometimes it feels like it's coming from third or fourth hand accounts.

[@MadMac5]

I don't know if it will be THE game mentioned for 2000, since there were quite a few good/influential games that year. 2000 gave us a trinity of great games using the Quake III engine, Voyager: Elite Force, Heavy Metal: FAKK 2, and American McGee's Alice. No One Lives Forever also squeaked in before the end of the year with a November release date, and it's well worth talking about in this series. Finally, we can't ignore a little game called Deus Ex, although that was an immersive sim, so is it really eligible for this series?

[@timothymclean]

@@MadMac5 Early immersive sims feel like a branch off of Doom's family tree, and there's obviously plenty of overlap between sims and FPSs (like Bioshock or Deus Ex: Human Revolution). It sounds like he's not covering immersive sims in his series (I remember one of the "Also in this year" segments mentioning that he was saving a game for a hypothetical series about immersive sims), but if he _did_ cover early immersive sims I wouldn't question it.

[@AlphaEnt2]

Perhaps it will be mentioned at the end of the video?

[@AdjustableSquelch]

So back in those days, all young, working for a tech company. mostly used to stay past 5 working on our own stuff or playing games. Descent in 8 person multiplayer was amazing. none of this circular strafing, more pop out attack and retreat and lure people into traps. we'd also do 4v4 with each team on conference calls talking to each other in the days before discord :) . We all played mouse + keyboard and didnt have a problem. I was bloody amazing in multiplayer :) It was the obsession before we got Command & Conquer and that took over our lives ...

[@avex13]

I played Descent 2 a while ago with mouse + keyboard, and it works like charm.

[@Medytacjusz]

​@@avex13 some people love sticks so much that they can't fathom enjoying similar games without them. Can't count how many games I have enjoyed with k+m that were supposedly only playable with gamepad or joystick. I also suck with gamepads and joysticks lol because I'm not used to them, so I think I feel pretty similarly about those controllers as others do about k+m. Also that might be a bit niche but I do like learning new and unusual control schemes. These days when I pick up a game and 90% of inputs are exactly the same as the game before with like 1/2 things that work maybe slightly differently, it's a bit boring to me. It's all already in your muscle memory and you don't even think about it. Back in the day you pick up a game and you have absolutely no idea what's going on, and figuring that out was an achievement in itself, like a puzzle. And you might learn unique moves that work just in that one game. Exercises your finger and brain muscles (well, nerves) a bit.

[@dertseha]

Jumping into the comments at this one is good as any of this series. It is definitely a trip down memory lane for me as well, covering several of the games I enjoyed in my teens too. Bringing up context is very good and fitting, as it's the frame of reference to compare to best; They are products of their time. Thank you!

[@FalconPaladin]

A guy in my neighborhood who ran a computer shop out of his home showed me Descent when it came out. My first time playing it, he had networked us both into the same map, and when he blew up the core, I was so confused, then I blew up. Got me hooked. Mind blowing concept back in 95. Also loved Terminal Velocity and Rise of the Triad. Good times for me, thanks for the video.

[@BCPK]

aw dang, no Hexen coverage :(

[@ErrantSignal]

I realized after cutting the video that I had left it out, and I *do* regret that (Hexen rules, and has some interesting differences with Heretic given its class selection stuff), but also... this series is going to have to start making cuts to what games get highlighted going forward anyways (by the late 90's there's simply way, *way* too many FPS games for me to get a few seconds of footage and say something about each and every one of them). So it's an omission I do regret, but it's also a reality I'm gonna have to start facing with this show pretty soon, unfortunately.

[@SimonBuchanNz]

... damn, do I need to reinstall that game now?

[@Medytacjusz]

Indeed. still the question is: was Hexen less important than Tekwars and the 3d platformer thing? Which I'm glad you've mentioned regardless. Especially Tekwars, I like checking weird old clunky not-succesful-but-genuinely-trying experiments. I think I already heard about it somewhere.

[@Artersa]

@@Medytacjusz check out Civvie11, who has a video on Tekwars. He’s one of my favorite high brow video palette cleanser (not to say his videos are for idiots, but they are inherently comedic and always discuss the wonderful jank of FPS)

[@ZT1ST]

@@Medytacjusz To be fair, I hadn't heard of Hexen until I saw these comments - and my first thought is "Hexen: More ID Software" - Jumping Flash is a game I didn't know about until this video mentioned it, and the 3D platforming part of it feels like it'll be important coming up - especially if we're going to move away from 6DOF games, and focus on Duke Nukem 3D and Quake - the latter known for the Rocket Jump trick. With Rocket Jumps, platform jumping is more important in this upcoming context.

[@yoshimitsu5537]

Thanks for making this video. It's a great breakdown of the game and its context within the mid 90s FOS space. Descent was first ever game at age 7. I loved it so much that I still play it, especially Descent 2. Overload, made by the same people, is even better. It's great to see 6dof getting so much love recently!

[@LycoLoco]

I don't know how I found this but that wasn't *anything* like what I was expecting. You cover so much content and in such good detail! I've gotta go back and watch the first 4 episodes now and can't wait to see #6.

[@Stormvogel262]

This game is the reason that I still play inverted.

[@Robert399]

How's the insane asylum?

[@charksey]

It's all about how you think about controlling the camera. Are you moving the focus (cursor, ball in front of the camera) or are you moving the boat rudder (a handle behind the camera, the ship having to rotate). Me too.

[@GraemeGunn]

Playing this game "inverted" is a nightmare. The only time you're supposed to play a game with inverted camera controls is when you're playing with a joystick. If you play all your games with a joystick, then, sure, play inverted, but if you're using a keyboard and mouse, it's best to not use your mouse as an analogue for a joystick.

[@Stormvogel262]

@@GraemeGunn Who plays with keyboard and mouse in 2021 anyway? Joystick / controller ftw.

[@jimmy21584]

Hah. I was wondering where I picked that up from.

[@MadMac5]

Thankfully, Descent II solved a few of the issues that the first game suffered from a year later in 1996. It added a Guidebot to help navigate through the levels, increased the diversity of the texture art, brought in some new enemies that had different behaviours other than "shoot the player," and best of all added an energy converter that helped address the "Whoops I took unavoidable damage" problem by letting you convert gun energy (which could be refilled in each level) to shield energy. The soundtrack was pretty awesome too, and it added a 640x480 resolution within the game options for people who had fast Pentium computers (the original could only do high-res modes with no cockpit and from a command line option).

[@mrsnippysnoopa8300]

i never realised this game had this level of storytelling. suddenly the whole 'acceptable losses' part made a lot more senses.

[@COlimar788]

I love this series! Thanks for making it, it's really interesting!

[@Zickzag]

Amazing video as always!

[@stefangonzo]

Man, this takes me back. Mouse support was game changing.

[@fusobotic]

Got second hand anxiety and nausea watching those escape sequences, still remember those getting my heartrate up as a kid.

[@timvanarsdel]

TOTALLY. Nothing like blowing the reactor and making a break for the exit, only to make a wrong turn and *PANIC INTENSIFIES.* This game had me making dry runs, rehearsing exit routes 'til I had the circuit down. It's probably why achieving this familiarity is what lends to Descent being so fondly remembered by many. (plus that soundtrack!)

[@TheWaffleFactory]

Descent 3 is still one of my fave games. I got so emerald in the spooky underground mazes, getting stalked by the smarter robot ai. Music would also evolve the more you progressed the mission in a level. Would love a proper rerelease of that trilogy.

[@MrCabbidge]

I love this series. I was 7 years old in 1995 and I was lucky enough to get my hands on some of these games like Doom and Fury "Cubed". It's great to see how these games fitted into a much bigger picture that I could only see the edges of when I was a kid.

[@shkeni]

I love this series. Thanks Chris!

[@LetsReadSFF]

Descent was the game that opened me up to the possibilities of game scores, not to mention all those crazy cheat codes.

[@evad997]

Thanks! ive been waiting for Civvie to cover this one. + yes collision damage

[@lukemacri6557]

This was awesome. I'm surprised everspace didn't get a mention as having Descent DNA. I'd love to see an episode like this about mech piloting games- Mechwarrior, shattered steel, ect.

[@morcova]

13:38 This whole bit talking about the other games.... so much nostalgia, I played Descent back then, but Freespace and the Terminal Velocity is where I spent most of my time. Freespace was insanely good and I'd love to see a revamp or a new one.

[@RTDragonCommando]

One interesting detail I think you missed was that your weapons fire originates from roughly where it should on the actual model of your ship. This is important because it lets you do interesting things like flip over and peek corners with the bottom of your ship, presenting your primary weapons first so you can engage sooner than if you have to wait for your whole ship to clear the obstruction. Also, if you pay attention to the crosshair it lights up to show you which side your missiles are going to fire from, which also lets you engage with them sooner by orienting your ship to present that side first.

[@LSOP-]

I played this game SO MUCH as a kid. Loved it. great vid.

[@arturbb]

Another excellent video, really can't wait for the next entry.

[@anarquirains2829]

Just what I needed, I've been playing Warframe as Titania lately and really missing descent for it

[@Estuways]

lol that's a niche connection but I get it

[@dadahound]

Oh, hey thanks for including Jumping Flash! Discovered it last year when i bought a PS Mini from a clearance sale. One of the few games on that wretched box that positively suprised me.

[@FS_Scott]

I was so happy with how overload turned out

[@Paperlanty]

I've enjoyed all your videos, but I really like this series' presentation and topic even though I'm not really an FPS/Doom player. It's super interesting and I like this look at the progression and what's going on in the year outside the main game. Good stuff!

[@assert_justice3783]

Such an incredible game. There is so much unrealized potential for the subgenre. Stealth? Puzzles? A physics system? Hell survival mechanics? It's a game that is at once totally of its time and arguably one that PC gaming was not ready for. A lot of people my age and younger haven't even heard of it.

[@bulldog300]

These videos are awesome!

[@southernweasel5959]

You make such quality content brother, and it seems like you're improving every single video. Recently went back and watched some of your first videos as well - the half life one, the deus ex videos; and you've always tried to go for real quality analysis and it's such a joy to watch. I think I appreciate games as a medium and art more for watching your videos over the years. Thanks for doing the thankless work of making really awesome stuff without just following the fads, trends, and algorithms.

[@washaa]

The original textures are actually included in the Aleph One release of Marathon 2. Go to Prefrences > Environment to disable the gaudy HD textures. For another sideline of the 6DOF games, Strike Vector was a sadly underplayed and now forgotten title released this decade.

[@brunobarbosa3471]

Loving this series!

[@NicolasAlexanderOtto]

I always thought of Descent as something like Terminal Velocity within a confined space. And I love that someone actually still cares about these games. I loved Descent, TV and Forsaken. :-D

[@ohotis]

[@SticktheFigure]

I'm so unbelievably excited for this video. I was born in '95 so I don't have a ton of memories playing the game, but I absolutely loved watching my dad play Descent. I think it was my second favorite to watch after Quake. Post-watch Edit: Yo holy shit! I love Jumping Flash! Never expected to see it pop up in this video. And you better believe I'm looking very much forward to the next video.

[@diegowushu]

I'm sad to this day that we never got a Freespace 3.

[@0v_x0]

Yet. You mean "yet." Time isn't over... must be strong...

[@Cybolic]

Oddly enough, Descent was the big hit in my area at the time (along with Warcraft 2), so much so that I didn't even know anyone playing Doom until years later; Descent was where it was at in 1995-1996. I'd like to pretend that it was the fabled European tendency to prefer depth over spectacle, but I'm pretty sure it was just because there wasn't any blood for parents to get upset over in Descent. Also, asking for a fancy flight-sim for Christmas is a much easier sell then a fancy demon-shooting-sim.

[@zaxbit]

I am adoring these, looking forward to more!

[@KALAIII1]

conk and bowl tortyure

[@TapDat52K]

*C L A P P I N G*

[@BlueLightningSky]

21:44 that's some good editing

[@Jekyllstein_Gray]

I've never actually played Descent (I actually haven't played most of these games, partly because they came out before I was born), so I thought it was weird when you said it'd be the next in the series. It just didn't seem similar enough to draw such a specific comparison. What a fool I was.

[@mduckernz]

I played SO MUCH of this back in the day. It was totally unavailable where I lived so I found a US citizen on the internet willing to buy it in a store and send it to me, lol Made many custom levels and so forth too. The editors were pretty good!

[@heavymetalirishman]

20:26 He says "Gum and Nuts" but it's clearly labeled "Nuts and Gum"; Boy I hope somebody got fired for that blunder.

[@StevenSeagull123]

The music in Terminal Velocity was f... awesome

[@HDePasquale]

Descent was my favorite PC game when i was a kid and still to this day i enjoy playing it. So, obviously I welcomed Overload with wide open arms.

[@acn1580]

Descent was the first computer game my family bought and was a huge part of my childhood. I never get tired of hearing people talk about it.

[@julien2983]

Awesome, I was just playing Descent yesterday!

[@Thehotdogman]

Descent flipping classic. Great episode as always!

[@phaze2010]

Great to see Descent reviewed. In my high school computer lab, we'd play huge multiplayer games of it for hours. It was all about finding the best weapon on the map and then desperately holding off everybody else as they'd respawn and zerg swarm you.

[@FinalDragoon]

Descent was part of my childhood and gave me a huge appreciation for the niche genre that is 6DOF. I still remember the days watching my father and helping him navigate the 3D maps to work through each level.

[@addama]

I put so many hours into Descent as a child, and then Jumping Flash 2 on my playstation as a teenager. I haven't thought about either game in so long.

[@luckygreentiger]

Watching the Descent gameplay is making me nauseous... it didn't bother me when I was younger, but being older now it messes with me.

[@nurbsivonsirup1416]

Funny how I got motion sickness from the bit where you talked about Dark Forces, but not from the Descent part.

[@ghoulofmetal]

i remember owning a demo for it, always felt nostalgic about it, and i played it with a keyboard.

[@GmodPlusWoW]

Holy shit. ...NOW we know why that woman exploded! Civvie was so confused at why the pedestrians sometimes exploded in TekWar, but turns out they were suicide bomber androids all along! Also, a square-off between Duke 3D and Quake for '96? Sounds tasty to me!

[@apteropith]

i have a lot of nostalgia for this series

[@ZoidbergForPresident]

Great series! :)

[@GameCubits]

You NEED to talk about Quarantine! An amazing child of doom which totally sidestepped the genre comparisons, and had a spectacular(ly Australian) CD soundtrack! Probably my favourite game at the time, it's incredibly sad how forgotten it has become. Build engine does open-world, post-apocalyptic, S&M, car combat in a taxi simulator.

[@MiningStar]

Do you know Offpeak/Tales from Offpeak-City/The Norwood Suite? They seem like narrative-driven world exploration games really up your alley.

[@ErrantSignal]

I really love that series, Tales from Off-peak City in particular warms my heart

[@keyserv2]

25 years ago or so I made it to demi-god in Descent 2's multiplayer on a mouse and keyboard. It needed a lot of key binds. Ahh, the good old days.

[@jurgenronaaz4695]

William Shatner's Tekwar, made by Capstone Software: The Pinnacle Of Entertainment Software. Every single Civvie fan who ever sees this video will have FLASHBACKS during that part.

[@jasonblalock4429]

Capstone was the PC equivalent to LJN. Just seeing their logo on a game was a very bad sign. Hell, I think their aggregate output may have been even worse than LJN. A few of LJN's games were pretty decent; but I can't think of a single good Capstone release.

[@robbiealixsantos]

I remember playing descent a bunch of times on the PCs on display at compusa and office depot

[@Maurrokh]

Descent 2 was the first 3D game I played ever. I love it so much, I love the soundtrack, I love the aesthetic, I'm getting giddy just thinking about it. I kinda put off watching this video because I feel so overwhelmed by all the feelings, omg.

[@artsaganza8742]

hi great video, i just wanted to say thanks for all the great videos you've done over the years. i especially liked the 0451 series about deus ex, bioshock, etc etc, you helped inspire me to do similar things with my channel. thanks alot. do you think you'll do a series similar to that again?

[@xD-lt1mq]

Welcome back and happy new year. You too KZbin

[@DWOBoyleMusic]

Thanks for mentioning Jumping Flash. I played it a few years ago and was surprised with how well a non-analog FPS PS1 launch game still felt good to play. The 2nd one is also pretty good but it suffers from a bit too many instant death traps in its level design.

[@Sentay0]

Descent 2 was my first game and I will always remember how ahead of the times this series was.

[@NestanSvensk]

The idea that the camera should automatically look down when you jump is also kind of what made Metroid Prime work, so it would be cool to know if there was a direct influence or just the result of solving the same problem.

[@omfgacceptmyname]

a bit non-sequitur to post this on a video about Descent, but your mention of dark forces reminded me of JK's later sequels. jedi outcast & jedi academy had the best lightsaber combat of any star wars video game (as well as excellent movement and control). there were glitches & tactics like 'stalling', 'poking', and 'wiggling' that took it to a level even beyond the core mechanics. wish i still had the old No Limits clan highlight video! but it is long gone now.

[@richmcgee434]

I am somewhat embarrassed to admit my first experience with Descent wasn't until I ran into the Freespace games - but I liked them enough to go back and try their ancestors, which I've never regretted. Good stuff.

[@ask5118]

i love this series

[@Plarzay]

Cool to see Decent getting a mention, I have very distinct memories of it from my childhood even though I must have been only 7-8 years old and the game about that too.

[@JerkyTreats]

I remember TekWar. Haven't thought about it it decades. That game was a mess, but I was awed by its scope and ambition. Early 90s really was the wild west of what gaming could be