aka: Descent III, Descent³: La saga continue ..., Descent³: The Saga Continues..., Descent³: die Saga wird fortgesetzt
Moby ID: 1051
- Overview
- Credits
- Reviews
- Covers
- Screenshots
- Videos
- Promos
- Trivia
- Specs
- Releases
- Patches
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- Contribute
- Released
- June 18, 1999 on Windows
- Credits
- 183 people
- Releases by Date (by platform)
-
- 1999 (Windows)
- 1999 (Macintosh)
- 2000 (Linux)
- Publishers
-
- Interplay Entertainment Corp.
- Imagineer Co., Ltd.
- Graphsim Entertainment Inc.
- Developers
-
- Outrage Entertainment, Inc.
- Moby Score
-
8.0
#2,126 of 26.1K - Critics
- 85% (37)
- Players
- (47)
- Review Ranking
-
- #91 on Macintosh
- #439 on Windows
- Collected By
- 157 players
- Genre
- Action
- Perspective
- 1st-person
- Gameplay
- Shooter
- Interface
- Direct control
- Vehicular
- Flight / aviation
- Setting
- Sci-fi / futuristic
Windows Specs
- ESRB Rating
- Teen
- Business Model
- Commercial
- Media Type
- CD-ROM, Download
- Input Devices Supported/Optional
- Keyboard, Mouse, Other Input Devices
- Multiplayer Options
- Internet, LAN, Modem, Null-modem cable
- Number of Offline Players
- 1 Player
- Number of Online Players
- 2-16 Players [ view all 43 specs ]
Buy on Windows
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Add-on (official)
- Descent³: Mercenary (1999)
Included in
- Descent: Venture Pack (2001)
- Descent³ / Descent³: Mercenary (1999)
Description official descriptions
The third installment of the famous 3d shooter Descent. Hop in your Pyro-GX, dive at high speed into the mines and blast hordes of robots without mercy!
Descent³ features the same 360 degrees, three axis action that the players of Descent and Descent II have come to love, but this time the game has far improved 3D graphics, more diversified objectives, more lethal weapons, and 3 different ships you can pilot.
And for the first time in the Descent series, you can actually fly out of the mines and explore outdoor areas.
Descent³ was also designed with multiplayer play in mind, and features a lot of mutiplayer game modes: the classic deathmatch, teamplay, capture the flag, monsterball (a kind of soccer with giant balls) and entropy.
Spellings
- Descent 3 - Alternative spelling
- ディセント3 - Japanese spelling
- 天旋地转3 - Simplified Chinese spelling
- 디센트3 - Korean spelling
Groups +
- Descent series
- Games with officially released source code
- Genre: Six degrees of freedom
- Middleware: SDL
- Setting: Venus
- White Label releases
Screenshots
Promos
Videos
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Credits (Windows version)
183 People (83 developers, 100 thanks) · View all
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| Production |
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| Artwork / Design |
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Reviews
Critics
Average score: 85% (based on 37 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 47 ratings with 4 reviews)
May be the best game out there
The Good
This game is great because it has more detail, and graphics. Like in all Descent games, you can fly up and down, left, and right, all over, and with games like Doom, you're only on the floor.Descent 3 has better detail and graphics than the other two. This one is different than Descent 1 and 2, being that you will always have headlights, a guide bot and an afterburner! What else is different is that you have objectives, rather than find keys, and destroy a reactor or boss.
The Bad
When aiming down or at some angle, it will automatically auto level your ship within a few seconds if you're not moving the ship. So when firing at an angle, fire quickly, or slowly move the stick so it won't auto level.I guess this is good for beginners, but when your ready to fire a missile or a bomb, ESPECIALLY the "Black Shark", you'd hate to fire it when you're being auto leveled, close to a wall! OUCH!!!Also, this isn't really a bad thing, nor any problem with Descent, but some places are VERY COOL, that I don't want to fight any robots, but just cruise around and see what amazing things they came up with.
The Bottom Line
I think overall, it's a great game. You have some great music, great weapons, and very nice detail and amazing scenes.For beginners, you may feel ill from motion. Just take a break, and play a little at a time. Before you know it, you'll be flying in circles, driving very crazy and nutty, and not feel any motion illness.If you want a great game with cool action, and being able to move around freely, this is the game for you!!
Windows · by Jeremy Bailey (4) · 2002
Very nice installment in the Descent series, but not the best.
The Good
First of all the graphics in this game are top class! The lighting and the smoke effects are some of the best i have ever seen and the level design is also a fine piece of work. The sounds is fabulous. It has many of the same sounds from the other 2 prequels of Descent.
The Bad
It didnt have the same feeling as the other parts. This one doesn't give you that 'Deep below the surface" feeling and the controls are a little harder than the prequels.
The Bottom Line
This game is a must have if you loved the others. But still the others were better.
Windows · by Goteki45 (323) · 2001
Not just for mining anymore...
The Good
Descent 3 is the last game produced in the award-winning series by Parallax. The storyline continues form the first two games, and throws some spins on the backstory of the Descent world.
The Graphics in this game are extremely well done. Gone are the days of jagged rooms and blocky hallways. Arches, round tunnels and circular portholes are abundant in this game. Also, you are no longer confined to the interior of a mine or building. In almost every mission, you break the boundaries of the building, and soar outside in the terrain. And the transistion is flawlessly executed. The game gives you a real good feel of switching environments when you are flying around. The graphics engine is very smooth, and most of the cutscenes within the game are done with the in-game engine (with the exception of the introduction scene - a really nice work of CG in my opinion). The robots are very detailed, and some even have non-standard weapons (you'll love the napalm weapon), and the AI of the bots is pretty good, although I've only played the game on easy level. Environmental effects are abundant as well. For instance, when you fly out into the open and it's raining, water droplets splash on your "windshield". Electrical effects and fire are rendered very nicelyas well.
The sound in incredible as well. Explosions, alarms, ambient sounds, laser fire - all done in great stereo sound. And if you are lucky enough to have a nice sub-woofer system as well, it really enhances the gameplay.
The controls are so-so, depending on what you are used to. I like playing space sims with a joystick, but with Descent 3, you need to adapt a different style of flying. I use the classic WASD for forward, backward, and sliding left and right, while I use the joystick for pitch and yaw, but not rotation. For rotation, I usethe hat switch on the top of the joystick. But this setup works for me, and if you can find an easier one for yourself, go for it. Every control is completely customizable.
The gameplay is very cool. It's very much a combination of a twitch shooter like Quake 3 Arena, but has the grace and precision flying you'd need in games like X-Wing or Wing Commander.
Also, Parallax has released the incredibly powerful (and complex) Descent 3 Level Editor, which is downloadable at their website - www.descent3.com. If you ever wanted to design maps for the game, this is the tool to do it with.
The Bad
The only gripe i have with this game is the Extremely Steep system requirements for the game. I originally got this for my P3 1gz, and with 128MB of RAM the game was chugging. Real bad. After upgrading my RAM, the game still stutters occasionally, but it's a hell of a lot better than before. I don't know what theprogrammers were thinking, but the mininum they say is required to play is ridiculous. Make sure you have a fast machine and plenty of free RAM loaded BEFORE you start playing.
The Bottom Line
I'll say one thing - had I reveiwed this 2 months ago, before I got my RAM upgrade, I wouldn't have gived this a thumbs up at all. The steep system requirements alone can scare you from trying this game. But if you have the hardware available, by all means, pick up Descent 3. In fact, you can probably pick up Descent 3 and its expansion pack - Mercenary - for about $10-15 dollars at you local Wal-Mart or K-Mart. So if you got the hardware, it's worth the purchase, and it's a blast to play.
Windows · by Chris Martin (1154) · 2002
[ View all 4 player reviews ]
Trivia
Novels
There were several Descent³ novels, written by Peter Telep (who also wrote novelization of Space: Above and Beyond, and Wing Commander: The Movie, among others)
Source code
The game's source code, updated to the unreleased v1.5 patch, was released by Kevin Bentley, one of the game's programmers, on 16 April 2024.
Trailer
The 1st disc came with a trailer for the adventure game Star Trek: The Vulcan Fury, which was to have a script written by Trek author D.C. Fontana. The game used photorealistic renders of the cast of TOS. Interplay would eventually cancel this game.
Information also contributed byScott Monster
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Related Sites +
- Planet Descent
One of the biggest Descent sites around the internet - The Descent-Network
Site Description:"The Descent Network hosts the biggest websites for Descent-related information and download since mid of 97. Since mid of 1998 we are extending our web to cover all other games released or about-to-be released by Volition, Inc. and Outrage Entertainment. This URL, descent-network.com, is there to combine the sites and to serve as a gateway to the Descent Network sites, as well as offering shared resources."My Opionion:Its the largest collection of stuff for the Descent Series that I have ever seen, thousands of levels for Descent 1,2,3 and Freespace 1,2. Numerous contests going on, like level building contests and robot building contests. Also has a whole arsonal of Descent robot and level editing tools for download. If you like descent, you will LOVE this site.
Identifiers +
- MobyGames ID: 1051 [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Cochonou.
Macintosh added by Corn Popper.
Additional contributors: Trixter, Kasey Chang, Zaroba, jean-louis, CaesarZX, Patrick Bregger, Plok, trembyle, Zhuzha.
Game added March 15, 2000. Last modified November 24, 2024.
