Nope, not Okami. This game remained an exclusive.

Good write-up, really nice banner too. Not played this one yet but I really must get around to it at some point (and the sequel).

Never heard that first song before; guess I didn't stick aorund for the credits!

#47 keeps sounding more and more interesting.

Exploring dark mining tunnels, hostile robots infected with an alien computer virus lurking behind each corner, on the search for the reactor to initiate self-destruction and then fleeing the mining asteroid in time before it blows up - that is the Descent experience. Alone the sound some robots made when they spotted you could bring up your blood pressure.

After Doom revolutionized the 3D games many games tried to push the envelope. Descent took a direction only few others took: a fully 3D-experience by setting it into space and allowing to move and turn in each direction. This was called six degrees of freedom.

This makes controlling a bit difficult, not because the controls are complicated, but because you have to get in a mindset of full movement freedom and the ability to keep track of your position. So the challenges aren't the enemy robots alone, finding the right path without getting lost is a challenge in itself. And extremely satisfying if you're able to pull it off.

This is demonstrated each level, as you have to find the exit after destroying the reactor which explodes after that. You have to reach the exit in time before the mine explodes and destroys you too. As navigating is a challenge, this meant I died quite a few times trying to find my way to the exit.

As you can go not only left and right, but also up and down, the level design can quite intricate. To support you, the game gives you a freely movable automap realized with wireframe models.

Other than the level-design and navigation challenge the game features more or less all that Doom had set as a precedent: destroy the enemies (in this case mining robot drones that were infected with a virus that made them rebel), finding keycards to open color-coded doors, collecting weapons, ammunition and items that float around. As an additional feature you can rescue the human staff, that is taken hostage by the robots, for extra points.

Back at the time the game devs were still using different ways to produce 3D environments, hardware acceleration was the unifying factor a while later. Descent does not use polygons placed somewhere in space, but instead uses Cuboids. The player is inside one Cuboid at all times and it's sides are either connected to other cuboids you can look into or are textured. This way  could also be handled that you were floating freely in space, games like Doom had an defined up-direction and had a floor and a ceiling, things Descent hasn't.

The way this was implemented lead to interesting possibilities. As cuboids are connected at the sides and not just placed in spaces, you could build levels that cureved in on itself. The official levels of the campaign didn't do that - but as Descent (like many games at the time) came with a level editor, a lot of user-made levels made use of that. That means you start in a room, leave through a tunnel that curves back into your original position, but this is a completely different room, placed at the same place the original room was.

The story is simple. In the future (the year 2169) companies have started mining on different celestial objects in the solar system. For this many mining robots are used. A virus overtakes these robots, so that they rebel against their human owners. You are the best material defender of your company and you are sent to end this danger.

To play it today, you can use Dosbox as usual to emulate DOS. That works as usual great as Dosbox can emulate pretty much everything on that platform. If you don't own the game, you can as so often rely on GOG, where it already packaged into a Dosbox-emulation. Also you can play for free in the browser on archive.org, emulated in Javascript. As usual with this browser emulation, your performance may have issues, depending on your system and your browser. There is also a project called DXX-Rebirth, which provides a modern engine for the Descent game files. I haven't tried it yet, but seemingly it improves resolution and uses modern graphic card features.

There are many user made levels for this game. Look here for a list with downloads.

As DXX Rebirth offers clearer visuals, I use a video from that project. The original game is the same, but with lower resolution.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ8IqaxBR6I

"Hmmpf, looks like I can get home early tonight"

You are correct, of course, One must Fall 2097 it is!

Golden Axe Warrior?

This brings back so many memories, especially those screenshots of the minimap, the rescuable humans, and that particular enemy type. 

Sorry I couldn't respond to the hint quickly enough. This is  my first visit in the last 24 hours or so and didn't expect to be mentioned. But since two other people quoted your post, first thing I saw when I jumped in this morning was three notifications, all of which were mentions by you, so I hurried here feeling like something might need my attention urgently.

Don't worry, I'm still going to do the write-ups on my top 10 favorite games! I'm just approaching the project at a comfy, relaxed pace since I kinda have all year. My plan is to post one separate entry for each game and link them all together in each post (going back to edit earlier entries with the links to newer ones as I go along, etc.). But I have thoughts to collect and distractions (like God of War: Ragnarok) to indulge. Should have more truly free time though this weekend, so I hope to get something posted then! Or maybe sooner, we'll see.

I remember getting that game with a graphics card or something like that. I had quite a bit of fun with it but MAN did I get lost! The ability to go up and down at will was definitely something unique at the time but I would lose my bearings constantly!

To my surprise no one guessed this one. Yeah, I played a bit of Deathloop via Gamepass and it is quite a convincing shooter. I am not too much into fast-paced action, but Deathloop actually offers a lot of different ways to be played: stealthy or guns blazing, climbing over roofs or tunnels below. My favorite play is to hack a turret, take it and throw it behind a corner in view of enemies. The game offers only a few levels, but they are intricately made and offer a lot of ways to access and progress. Also they slightly change over the "first day" are populated with different enemies or stuff changes.

The game has an interesting take on collecting weapons and items, as they all reset when the day is over, except you pay for them with residuum. Kinda cool to limit your arsenal that way while also give incentive to collect all that weird glitchy stuff.

It is also kinda trippy to see messages from your former selfs written into the level, even meeting yourself. Or see a bunch of Wenjies bickering with each other. This game is clearly designed to be fun, not only in gameplay but with not too serious setting with characters that are.. well colorful and a world that is taking itself not too seriously. For instance that closed snack thing, that said their food was so well loved, they run out before the loop started. Which is too stupid, because inside the loop they would never run out.

This game also has some light elements of detective work, although things get noted down as lead if they just come into my vision, even if I myself as player didn't notice them. I would wish that I was a bit more involved in that and play a more active part in noting down the leads. But checking your notes to plan your next target is also cool.

This game makes me more interested seeing some of Arkanes older work, especially Arx Fatalis and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. We'll see when I find time to play them. And if I can find them. Didn't look yet how difficult that is. Well, have a fun first day!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGTg-AmV9x4&ab_channel=BethesdaSoftworks

Yeah, navigation was a challenge in itself. But going up and down wasn't all, you could turn around each axis. I often entered a room and thought it was new, until I realized I am now upside down from when I last entered it.