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By Thierry Nguyen
Page 1 of 8
Developer:
Outrage
Publisher:
Interplay/Tantrum
Release Date:
May 1999 |
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Play the Descent 3 demo and blast robots in winding tunnels and the great outdoors.
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IN YOUR FACE! You could get a bitmap of your own face included in Descent 3. Find out how.
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With the plethora of Quake clones out there, it's a bit surprising there aren't too many Descent clones. The only one of any real value is Acclaim's Forsaken, but overall, the other Descent clones are simply too bad to even remember. More than likely, that's a testament to the solid design of the first two Descent games. Outrage, one half of the original Parallax team that designed Descent I, isn't going to let Forsaken take the title of "3D vehicular action game of the moment" and is wrapping up Descent 3 for a May release.
Wait, who's Outrage, and what happened to Parallax? Well, a while back, the two creators of Parallax decided to split the company into two divisions, each with a different focus. The first is Volition Inc., which came out with the well-done space sim Descent: Freespace, and the second is Outrage, which concentrates on action and is the branch that's doing Descent 3.
Check out 3D models from the game here.
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In Descent 3, Outrage looks to both maintain the basic, fast-paced gameplay of the previous games and add a few fresh twists. The first two games came out before the 3D-acceleration craze, and while there were 3dfx ports of them, the only difference was cleaned-up textures. Work for Descent 3 started in 1996, using a modified version of the original Descent engine, but that was soon scrapped, and Outrage focused on creating a whole new engine to make the game look as good as its competitors.
Familiar scenes like this robot generator are given a new look thanks to the new engine.
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There will still be some key-hunting in Descent 3 but not as much as in the previous two games.
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We played a build of Descent 3 that showed off the first third of the game (five out of 15 levels). In this preview, we'll give you a close look at some of the enemies, levels, and wild new weapons that this installment will offer. We'll also show you what makes this sequel new and fresh compared with its predecessors.
Next: The back story
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