A Thinking Man's Descent: Defiance

ZDNet and GameSpot offer an exclusive demo of the upcoming Avalon Hill title - Defiance.

What does this mean to you? You get to play the game before anyone else, and you can visit ZDNet's LaunchPad area to talk to Avalon Hill's Mark Hall and Bill Levay, Logicware's Lars Brubaker, and ZDNet Editors about the game.

As a Descent fan, I've been waiting for a good Descent clone or a new Descent. The folks at Avalon Hill felt the same way. The good thing is, it isn't Descent. No more dizzying six degrees of freedom - the developers of the exclusive demo decided to keep the wheels moving on the ground. To get over obstacles, the player must use some powerful thrusters that only last a few seconds.

The storyline starts the player in training mode, and as he completes the training mission and is about to head home, trouble strikes as cyborganic monsters attack the base. To complete the levels, the player have various tasks to accomplish, like going to special points and getting verbal cues, collecting data, and rescuing personnel from becoming monster chow. Rather then just trying to destroy anything that turns the corner, completing the tasks becomes more challenging as flying manta rays and many of their friends dig into the player's skull.

On the technical side: the game sports Direct3D and DirectX extensions for sound, input, and multiplayer protocol. The game supports popular Intel MMX extensions, rendition support, and 3Dfx support. Maximum resolution for the game is 1024x768, and it looks great even without a 3D card. Up to eight networked players can deathmatch once the full version of the game is released in October.

So if you're looking for a first-person shooter that you haven't already seen, played, and finished, have a look at the Defiance demo.

Minimum system requirements for running the game:

Windows 95100MHz Pentium or better16MB RAM2X CD-ROM 30MB of hard-disk spaceSound cardMouse or joystick