Descent: Maximum

Back in the mid 1990's I worked for a small engineering company, and for a time you could tell when it was 5pm without even looking at your watch. That was because the sound of keyboards being pounded began to echo through the engineering department. Myself and seven other engineers would start playing Descent right at 5 o'clock and continue to do so till late into the night. It was a great game.I never got around to playing the version for the original Playstation until years later when I had bought a Playstation 2 console. Just recently I purchased one of the new Playstation 3 slim consoles, and I was under the impression that the PS3's could not play Playstation 1 or 2 games. But a couple weeks ago I was reading a thread in the Amazon Video Game customer discussion forum and someone there mentioned that you could in fact play PS 1 games in a PS 3. I tried playing the original PS1 Silent Hill game and it worked! Finding that out I went and browsed the used video games here on Amazon looking for some old classics to buy. Descent Maximum was the first one I ordered. Got it in about a week later and have been playing it since.The game play is as I remember it - with the exception you're playing against the game itself and not other people. Being an old PS1 game, playing it on one of today's 42" television leaves a lot to desire - the graphics are really blocky on a screen that size (still playable though). So I ended up moving my PS3 and connecting it to a smaller 24" monitor, which suited the low-res video resolution better.Descent Maximum is very similar to the PC Descent II game - you have similar tunnel systems, weapons, and the addition of the guidebot to lead you to objects and locations. Like the PC game, you can rotate your ship 360° in any direction (which at the time made some people a bit queasy). There are six worlds to play, each with six levels (36 total). Blowing up the reactor on the first level when I played this PS1 disc for the first time brought back memories.There are a lot of fun old games like this out there - I'm glad to find out that I can still play them and will be looking for more.

Descent Maximum is a challenging and fun first person space combat game from the 90s. You blast your way through a labyrinth of mines that are plagued by killer robots. After defeating the boss of the level, you begin a countdown to make it to the exit before it all self-destructs.For anyone who appreciates an older game that presents a challenge, definitely check this one out.

This was my favorite computer game as a kid (Decent 1 & 2) and it is awesome on the PS1 as well!

Off an on I've been keeping my fingers crossed hoping that Interplay would release a collection of the Descent games for modern consoles. There was nothing overly special about the Descent versus the really interactive first person shooters; but it was a really nice change of pace from Doom,Wolfenstein 3D,Rise of The Triad,or Blood: Spill Some to name a few. It was a pretty interesting concept controlling this spaceship through all kinds of underground environments so you could things could get a little topsy turvy from the players perspective. Great light sourcing effects effects thought on Descent Maximum: you could shoot a laser and see the beam of light cast on the surfaces it passes until it hit a solid surface....good use of detail for a game made in 1997.Great sound effects too and there's was nothing cheesy about them, musical score was interesting. Industrial music was primarily the genre style for Descent Maximum along with part of Type O Negative's 'Haunted' and I can't remember the other track but it was by Skinny Puppy. The overall concept of the game was pretty specific...-Find your way around the level-Key Cards to Collect to gain farther access-Rescue Hostages-Destroy Enemies-Blow Up a Generator and get out before the countdown-Pick up missiles and upgrade to varying kinds of gunsFlares and Guide Bot:You do have an unlimited number of flares to shoot so you can find your way around in the dark...sometimes there are deep areas where you'll really need them. The goal oriented guide bot is switchable between on/off and you basically follow it to help progress around the level to complete your tasks, it's a little on the fast side so if you get lost it will come back for you. Using the Guide-Bot is a tad on the lazy side but you can 'program it' to perform tasks like finding a hostage or a shield power-up...you have a literal robot at your disposal.Guns:Laser (upgradeable to Level 4)Super Laser (Levels 5 and 6)Quad LaserVulcan CannonGauss CannonSpreadfire CannonPlasma CannonFusion CannonHelix CannonPhoenix CannonOmega CannonMissiles:Concussion MissilesHoming MissilesProximity MissilesSmart MissilesMega MissilesFlash MissilesGuided MissilesSmart MinesMercury MissilesEarth Shaker MissilesFar too much arsenal to go into detail but you've got a pretty good selection to go on. Why write a review on a pretty old PlayStation game? Good question. Don't get me wrong I like the Sony PlayStation 3 but supposedly when it came out you could play PS1,PS2, and of course the PS3 games on it...I was very bummed when it didn't have this capability and I valued that proclaimed benefit more than playing online with a friend. The PlayStation series has been around for almost twenty years and I thought Sony was building the concept of a game system that upgraded but would never become obsolete...a more logical reason to hold on to your older games.Anyways I bought a PlayStation 2 and kind of went rogue on the PS3-I just haven't played this game so long and Descent Maximum was one of my favorites so it's nice to able to enjoy it along with the PS1 and PS2 games I hung on to. Descent was just a name that really stuck in your head among the 90's games especially among PC gamers which the series was mostly driven towards. Recommending the game I'd say if you still have a PS2 or come back to it and like FPS style games Descent Maximum is a different flavor altogether but ever since I've played the first Descent...been a big fan of the series since then.5-stars and highly recommended!