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Excellent for fans; good for newbies.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: November 10, 1999
Author: Amazon User

D3 is a worthy successor to the first two in the series and certainly takes it to the next level. If you enjoyed the originals, you'll certainly enjoy D3. Newbies are in for a bit of a learning curve, but it's worth trying out

Best Game Ever

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 13
Date: November 19, 1999
Author: Amazon User

I have played descent 1 and 2, unreal, unreal tournament, quake2, quake3a. this one blows them all away. First off, the descent series offers full 3d movement, allowing complex movement and intense dogfighting like situations. Secondly, the descent series has always had the best netcode, so multiplayer support is very solid and easy to use. if you like multiplayer action, you will love this game! it has many different types of multiplayer games, from a soccer type game(called monsterball), to a highly strategic game(called entropy). The graphics are incredible, the single player is very involving. the only draw back is the type of machine you need to use. I would suggest at least a 400mgz machine with eigher a voodoo3 or a tnt2 card, oh and a high quality joystick with an eight way hat switch.

Descent 3

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 13 / 14
Date: December 06, 1999
Author: Amazon User

Descent 3 is Interplay's follow-up to the highly acclaimed Descent franchise. You are once again cast in the role of the Material Defender. This time, however, your mission is one of retribution as you battle virally-infected robots across 17 levels (15 normal plus 2 secret). You must prove that the head of the PTMC intentionally contaminated the company's robots with an alien virus. After your rescue in the stunning opening cutscene you learn that the PTMC went so far to modify the virus as well.

You will fly a total of three ships in this sequel, including the old PyroGL. Weapons run the gamut from the standard concussion missile to the all-powerful Black Shark. New energy weapons such as the Microwave Cannon add a new twist to decimating enemies and standbys such as the Fusion Cannon and Plasma Cannon make a return. The graphics are breath-taking and the sound is nothing short of immersive.

Descent 3 requires a 200MHz Pentium processor with a 4MB 3D accelerator card that supports Direct3D, Glide, or OpenGL. I recommend a Pentium II or III class machine to get the most enjoyment out the game. Certain details can be turned off to get an acceptible framerate on lower-end machines but it detracts from the overall experience.

If you're a Descent fan or a newbie Descent 3 is a nice to get acquainted with the wonderful world of PC gaming.

Blow's all away

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 29, 1999
Author: Amazon User

The game is the best end to the Descent saga.It combines the best 3-d graphics with real world enviroments,and if you read the trilogy of books you should be able to understand the game perfectly.The new weapons are merciless,and the 2 new ships provide different types of piloting skills/requirements.The addition of openspace combat combined with the in mine battle experience as opposed to the in mine in D1 and D2,gives you a better chance to explore the D3 universe.

Decent3

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: January 07, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Still my number 1 since days of old...Mercenary gets even better with large mayhem battles and nasty Droids.If I start to breath slow-tense breaths--it's a good game! Better buy the cheat book or your a loser!

Greatest Game Ever Made

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: January 28, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This is by far the BEST darn game I have played. Great game play and some killer graphics that go way beyond anything you can find. The internet play is great and neraly lag free due to the optimized code. This game did the best job of going way beyond the first two games. The Material Defender just got upgraded, and it is worth every penny to buy this great game.

Three Times A Charm!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 14
Date: April 05, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I have played Descent since it first appeared; and in a time when everyone else was content to produce first-person view games where your opponents were little more than second-rate scaled bitmaps, Descent gave the player an opportunity to combat real three dimensional foes in all three dimensions. Plus the foes-insane robots driven mad by an alien virus, moved like nothing else, and seemed intelligent. There was nothing else like it on the market, yet somehow it missed the vein, and people flocked to games like Doom & Doom II. When Descent II appeared in 1996, I thought for sure that the game would take off, but it didn't happen. However, it wasn't about to stop me from enjoying a terrific game. Now we have arrived to this place and once again Interplay has unleashed a new Descent, and one that takes full advantage of 3D cards and more powerful computers.

Descent III also features a new game engine, known as Fusion, that enables the player to move from the familiar mines of the Post Terran Mining Corporation out to the planet's surface and surrounding environments. I guess this is hard to do in this sort of game. Additionally, they have improved the AI, and it really shows in the way the robots behave, and there is a significant increase danger to your ship in combat. The robots are all new and feature more polygons and detailed texture mapping than every before. Additionally, 3D acceleration is probably the best I have ever seen in any game. Descent 3 uses more dynamic light effects than any game I have ever seen. In fact, it is so graphically intensive, it is one of the reasons why I upgraded my 200 mhz to an Athlon 700. The demo ran fine on my old system, but when I bought the full version, even when I turned off all of the special effects, it barely ran. I would recommend at least PII 300, as does Interplay.

D3 provides much of the same kind of game play as its other incarnations, it's just better. I have friends who cannot play the game because they get disoriented too easily when working in the three dimensions of the mines. However, if you're like me, you get a certain thrill from the constant direction changes as you blast away at nasty robots with impunity. D3 offers a new spread of weapons including Frag Missiles that burst apart in a shower of mini-projectiles; Impact Mortar, which create very large localized explosions and heaps of damage; the Vauss cannon, which is an updated variant of my favorite Gauss cannon. Gone are the Earth Shaker missiles, replaced now with the Black Shark, a singularity weapon which turns hunting `bots into a skeet shoot. Basically, there are enough weapons to make your average NRA lobbyist drool with envy.

Of course, none of this means a tinker's cuss if it's no fun to play, right? Well, get ready `cause you're going down...again!

The pace of the game is much faster than the original, thanks mostly due to the quicker response and aggressiveness of the robots. It is here you will see the improved AI in action, because the robots WILL come after you, will work in teams, they do not cluster together to make mass-kills easier, and at higher skill settings, they most certainly WILL take you apart. The rush is incredible when you're fighting like mad in the early levels just to stay alive! The napalm-equipped bots are ferocious and stick to you like their weapons do. The robot generator areas-the one's that replicate new attack bots, keeps churning them out as fast as you can shoot them down. The game can be relentless at times, which is what a player wants.

Now, as for the story, you play the Material Defender, PTMC's itinerant mercenary from the previous two games and who went MIA at the end of D2 thanks to a defective jump drive. After you are rescued by a rebel faction on Mars who wants to expose PTMC and their evil CEO Dravis, as being responsible for the alien virus spreading to PTMC's robots and facilities. It becomes all-out battle against PTMC who, like all rich corporations, have their own squadrons of Pyro GX fighters, and start coming after you! See, and you thought big companies just didn't care about the little people anymore.

The only place where D3 suffers is the in-game music. It's boring, lifeless and worse, it sounds like the music we listened to in computer games a decade ago. That is also not to say D2's Skinny Puppy or Type O Negative was any better, I guess because it was an industrial setting (a mine) they assumed that we'd want to hear industrial music. Wrong! (And I like industrial). I found myself turning the music off and reaching for a Star Wars soundtrack to plop in my CD player to accompany the game. Beyond that I have little to complain about. This is a top notch game as far as game play, visuals and sound effects are concerned. It's got a break neck pace at times, while at others it's slow-paced which can get really creepy until the first robot jumps you and you wet your undies in shock.

The Descent series have always been my favorite first person shooter (along with Jedi Knight), and D3 does not disappoint in any way. The visuals and FMV cut scenes are stunning and the sound is excellent. I highly recommend for anyone so equipped with Environment Audio on their sound card to use the full four speaker set up, because D3 was produced and recorded in Dolby Surround, and it just adds so much to the experience. You'll also need a death machine of a system to run it.

The Best of the Series - Without a Doubt

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: June 16, 2000
Author: Amazon User

With Descent 3 you are getting a high impact, heart pounding shoot-em up with great graphics, gameplay, and a thriving multiplayer community.

First to the graphics, which if your system can handle it are amazing. Hate to use that word, since it's so overused, but it truly is. A real high definition, true to life 3D environment which will keep you asking, "Why is the bathroom so far away?"

For the gameplay it's second to none. A quick tip if your buying this game, buy a nice joystick along with it, if you don't have one already. This game was made for a joystick, and without it, it takes away from the game significantly. More buttons the better.

Before I begin to talk about the multi-player option, the single player game consists of 15 large levels, with of course increasing difficulty. So to the AI has gotten smarter this time around, and will ocassionaly double-back on you for that surprise attack. Also to, there a lot better at deeking your shots which was something the last two Descents lacked.

But now onto the multi-player game, which this game was really made for. In multi-player which is easy to logon onto via Outrages own network PXO you can pick to play deathmatch, cooperative, capture the flag, and monsterball. This is just four of the nine varriations. A word to the wise however, good luck trying to play with a 56.6 modem, the lag will be tremendous. You must have cable, or ADSL for true multi-playing action.

But alas, all games seem to have a downside, and for this one it's the sound. Although the explosions, and laser fire sounds are realistic, the soundtrack however gets rather annoying. But, it's only a minor drawback.

So in summary this game is made for a true shoot-em up fan with a High-End computer, a fast Internet connection, and of course a nice Joystick.

Pro: Excelent Graphics, Great Gameplay, In-Depth Single Player Missions, Thriving Multi-Player Community.

Con: The Soundtrack is rather Poor.

Requirements: Pentium-200, 32 MB RAM, 4X CD-ROM, 3D Accelerator w/ 4MB, mouse, sound board, 3-D accelerator, Windows 95; Windows 98

The BEST Multiplayer Game I have ever played

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: October 06, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This game is really fun with multiplayer. It is so reallistic that it made my mom have motion sickness. I've only had this game for 1 or 2 months now, but I can tell that in all likelyness, I will never play a better game. Aftr raving about this game so much, you might think that there's nothing bad about this game. You are wrong. Though multiplayer may be fabulous, single player sucks really badly. The storyline is boring, the missions are too difficult and long, and the robots are idiots. But other than multiplayer, it is a great game.

MY FAVORITE

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 25, 2000
Author: Amazon User

First off, if you don't enjoy multiplayer, then this game isn't for you. I have never played the single player version of the game because once I played multiplayer I couldn't get away. This game is freakin addicting and one hell of a ride. Levels are constantly being made for multiplayer, which never makes the game old or boring. By this I mean that people who actually play descent can work on building new levels to play in for everyone around the world. If you like dogfighting with all sorts of missiles, exploding bombs(impact mortars), and a wide variety of guns to fire with on your ship, then this game is for you. Buy this game now... and play descent with thousands of poeple around the world. You won't regret it. I promise!

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