A massive, fun game that deserves much more attention than it got.
BAD: No storyline; campaign becomes too difficult and massive at end
The original Descent was one of the first games I played (along with Dark Forces). I was just 6 years old at the time. I had no idea a Descent 2 even existed until I heard about Descent 3. As soon as I started playing, I was hooked.
The Descent games have never been about storyline, so it was apparent from the outset that the storyline wouldn't be very inspired. Descent is about massive levels, intelligent AI, awesome weapons, and pure fun gameplay. Descent 3 has all of these. For the time, the AI was very intelligent, and the creative robots used are still fun to fight against. The levels are massive and creative, and a simple joy to explore. I will admit that the levels were too massive at some times, and the game was very hard. Towards the end of the game, I constantly got lost and killed (even with the built-in 3d map), but it was still fun to play. The weapons in the game are among the most awesome and fun-to-use weapons in any game, ever. The black shark missile is pure genius. The single player game also strays from the traditional find blue-yellow-red keys-destroy power plant formula, but there are still plenty of keys to find (although no power plants to destroy). I don't know if this was the formula in Descent 2 though....
For the time, the graphics were revolutionary, and even today they look okay. The sounds are amazing, with cool techno music, realistic and distinguished sounds, and weapons that feel just as powerful as they should. Once you're done with single player, which may take a long time, you can move on to multiplayer. Cheating is uncommon and, just as in single player, the levels are creative and fun to play in. This is one of the few games in which I got addicted to multiplayer.
Overall, this game is massive and hard. Although the storyline is uninspired and the game is very hard towards the end, overall the game is pure fun, with massive levels to explore, some of the most creative weapons and robots in any game, fairly intelligent AI, and a good multiplayer game to boot. If you enjoy 360 degree combat games, and if you can find this game somewhere, then by all means, buy it!