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Prepare for Descent
8 months ago
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looks like no-one seam to get the humour with my last journal entry.. oh well ^_^ I felt like it so why not..
But now for something quite different..
If you are around in the 90s for gaming, you should know the great Descent. Classed as the first 3D 360 FPS, it's a space ship combat game where you are one of PTMC's Material Defenders, a group of hired Mercenary. PTMC (oringally the Post Terran Minerals Company, but later renamed Post Terran Mining Company") has a number of mines throughout the solar system, but the mining mechs have been infected by an Alien Virus and they are appear to be heading towards Earth. In the first game, your goal is to trigger a meltdown in each mine by destorying there central reactor. This will destory any robot left and clean the alien infection. However, there are Hostages so you should see about saving them if you can.
In the Second game, It carries on from the end of the first (mostly) as they have lost contact with their mines outside of the Solar System and you are sent to deal with them too. Afterwhich.. things happen which lead to the third game.. the third is a bit weird.. it's not bad, though personally I think some of the mech designs aren't as good but that's kinda to do with the fact you are not in the mines anymore, but dealing with the PTMC itself.. it has more 'plot' as instead of just opening and ending movies, there is a story which goes from level to level. Though I think there are some bits which are.. odd story wise..
There was also a great series of 3 novels based on the games, a few changes from the games but pretty faithful and work really well. As well as a couple of expansions for the games. After the third, some issues happened which basically means we aren't gonna be getting any more. One company has the rights to the name and wanted to use it for stuff that is completely unrelated, while others have the rights for the gameplay style and stuff.. Then they made Overload, a great (though bloody hard in the later levels) game which while it isn't descent, has references and is in all but name and plot (it deals with a very similar plot taking place after wards, where a guy is taking over a colony product and it's mines on Saturn and it's moons.
Now, I could do a break down of the Descent Plot and the... issues with the third game (it's not bad by a long shot, but there are weird major plot points which aren't dealt with.. like the unseen aliens disappear from the story completely) but instead, I'm gonna say about some of the .. mm.. most annoying Mechs from the first two games. by Most annoying I don't mean that they are bad, or really hard to deal with, but bots which you really wanna take out as soon as you can cause they can really annoy you. (if I did just the hardest, it might be just the 6 Descent 2 bosses really but that's not what this is)..
1) Diamond Claw, Second Generation
This is a pretty weirdly named Descent II mech. You see, in Decent, you had the Medium Lifter. This was a PTMC maintenance mech with 2 large Diamond plated swingarms. The Virus has modified some mechs, but with this one it's mostly just how it acts. Despite being a maintenance robot, it was designed to burrow through porous rock in the mines, but now will attack anything in sight. This will move with a fair speed towards you and start slicing. They also come in Cloaked versions which are even more of a pain to deal with (but clocked mechs often drop cloaking powerups so yay. right now.. it was kinda nicknamed 'Diamond Claws' but never officially. In Descent II, there is this upgraded version. technically, it's smaller (the first was said to be 5 meters, this one is 3).. Why it's officially called 'Diamond Claw, Second Generation' is unknown as it should be Medium Lifter, Second Generation.. but it's not classed as a maintenance or lifter bot, it's a Standard Drilling Robot. Now it comes with 4 Diamond infused Swingarms, plus a energy pulse, designed for drilling hardest rock walls. This is a basic homing plasma shot. While it doesn't shot it alot, it shots it enough to make this very annoying. Like the original, it also comes in Cloaked versions.
2) Lou Guard
Another D2 mech, the Lou Guard was designed as a Mine entrance protector and boy, does it do the job. While it's pretty slow moving, it's basically an upgraded version of the 'Red' version of D1's Medium Hulk which was modified by the alien virus to fire homing missiles. Lou Guards are pretty comparable but smaller, making it harder to hit.
3) Class 1 Driller
From Descent, the Class 1 driller was a prototype unit designed for tunnelling through semi-molten rock. Armed with a Uranium Mass Driver (high speed Vulcan Cannon, this are a real pain. They are fast moving, and shoot with good arm and not a laser or missile attack, so you can't really dodge. They are also fairly small and often come in pairs. Oh, and can come in cloaked.
4) 'Purple' Hulk
A purely alien designed mech, The purple hulk is based on the design which the aliens used for the first 'boss' robot from level 7. It's smaller and in-game wise, I would say based on the Hulk line. While the original boss fires Smart Missiles (ouch) these ones are armed with Fusion Cannons. Two of them. They can take a fair bit to wipe out their armour . As the Fusion shots can take out 60 units of your shield (which defaults to 100, but can go up to 200), it's not good to take many hits from this.. problem is worse when there is a construction web (purple web like vines which the aliens have created to manufacturer new mechs in) which is producing these.
5) Bandit
KILL IT! KILL IT! KILL IT!
While this D2 bot doesn't appear to have any weapons (claims to have a 'flash defensive system', the Bandit was designed as trash collector, meant to pick up rubble and move it out of the way in no time. As a result, it's fast.. very fast. However, it's new programming means it loves to sneak up on you and nick your weapons. It's pretty small, and very fast. On top of which, it flitters around and takes alot of damage. Luckily, there is only about 1 per level But it's really something to take out as soon as possible. When you are fighting against a horde of mechs only to find out your best gear has just been stolen.
Y'know what, as I like that kind of thing and there doesn't seam to be alot of places around and non that really go into the story of Descent, I think I'll do that for another post.
Posted using PostyBirb
But now for something quite different..
If you are around in the 90s for gaming, you should know the great Descent. Classed as the first 3D 360 FPS, it's a space ship combat game where you are one of PTMC's Material Defenders, a group of hired Mercenary. PTMC (oringally the Post Terran Minerals Company, but later renamed Post Terran Mining Company") has a number of mines throughout the solar system, but the mining mechs have been infected by an Alien Virus and they are appear to be heading towards Earth. In the first game, your goal is to trigger a meltdown in each mine by destorying there central reactor. This will destory any robot left and clean the alien infection. However, there are Hostages so you should see about saving them if you can.
In the Second game, It carries on from the end of the first (mostly) as they have lost contact with their mines outside of the Solar System and you are sent to deal with them too. Afterwhich.. things happen which lead to the third game.. the third is a bit weird.. it's not bad, though personally I think some of the mech designs aren't as good but that's kinda to do with the fact you are not in the mines anymore, but dealing with the PTMC itself.. it has more 'plot' as instead of just opening and ending movies, there is a story which goes from level to level. Though I think there are some bits which are.. odd story wise..
There was also a great series of 3 novels based on the games, a few changes from the games but pretty faithful and work really well. As well as a couple of expansions for the games. After the third, some issues happened which basically means we aren't gonna be getting any more. One company has the rights to the name and wanted to use it for stuff that is completely unrelated, while others have the rights for the gameplay style and stuff.. Then they made Overload, a great (though bloody hard in the later levels) game which while it isn't descent, has references and is in all but name and plot (it deals with a very similar plot taking place after wards, where a guy is taking over a colony product and it's mines on Saturn and it's moons.
Now, I could do a break down of the Descent Plot and the... issues with the third game (it's not bad by a long shot, but there are weird major plot points which aren't dealt with.. like the unseen aliens disappear from the story completely) but instead, I'm gonna say about some of the .. mm.. most annoying Mechs from the first two games. by Most annoying I don't mean that they are bad, or really hard to deal with, but bots which you really wanna take out as soon as you can cause they can really annoy you. (if I did just the hardest, it might be just the 6 Descent 2 bosses really but that's not what this is)..
1) Diamond Claw, Second Generation
This is a pretty weirdly named Descent II mech. You see, in Decent, you had the Medium Lifter. This was a PTMC maintenance mech with 2 large Diamond plated swingarms. The Virus has modified some mechs, but with this one it's mostly just how it acts. Despite being a maintenance robot, it was designed to burrow through porous rock in the mines, but now will attack anything in sight. This will move with a fair speed towards you and start slicing. They also come in Cloaked versions which are even more of a pain to deal with (but clocked mechs often drop cloaking powerups so yay. right now.. it was kinda nicknamed 'Diamond Claws' but never officially. In Descent II, there is this upgraded version. technically, it's smaller (the first was said to be 5 meters, this one is 3).. Why it's officially called 'Diamond Claw, Second Generation' is unknown as it should be Medium Lifter, Second Generation.. but it's not classed as a maintenance or lifter bot, it's a Standard Drilling Robot. Now it comes with 4 Diamond infused Swingarms, plus a energy pulse, designed for drilling hardest rock walls. This is a basic homing plasma shot. While it doesn't shot it alot, it shots it enough to make this very annoying. Like the original, it also comes in Cloaked versions.
2) Lou Guard
Another D2 mech, the Lou Guard was designed as a Mine entrance protector and boy, does it do the job. While it's pretty slow moving, it's basically an upgraded version of the 'Red' version of D1's Medium Hulk which was modified by the alien virus to fire homing missiles. Lou Guards are pretty comparable but smaller, making it harder to hit.
3) Class 1 Driller
From Descent, the Class 1 driller was a prototype unit designed for tunnelling through semi-molten rock. Armed with a Uranium Mass Driver (high speed Vulcan Cannon, this are a real pain. They are fast moving, and shoot with good arm and not a laser or missile attack, so you can't really dodge. They are also fairly small and often come in pairs. Oh, and can come in cloaked.
4) 'Purple' Hulk
A purely alien designed mech, The purple hulk is based on the design which the aliens used for the first 'boss' robot from level 7. It's smaller and in-game wise, I would say based on the Hulk line. While the original boss fires Smart Missiles (ouch) these ones are armed with Fusion Cannons. Two of them. They can take a fair bit to wipe out their armour . As the Fusion shots can take out 60 units of your shield (which defaults to 100, but can go up to 200), it's not good to take many hits from this.. problem is worse when there is a construction web (purple web like vines which the aliens have created to manufacturer new mechs in) which is producing these.
5) Bandit
KILL IT! KILL IT! KILL IT!
While this D2 bot doesn't appear to have any weapons (claims to have a 'flash defensive system', the Bandit was designed as trash collector, meant to pick up rubble and move it out of the way in no time. As a result, it's fast.. very fast. However, it's new programming means it loves to sneak up on you and nick your weapons. It's pretty small, and very fast. On top of which, it flitters around and takes alot of damage. Luckily, there is only about 1 per level But it's really something to take out as soon as possible. When you are fighting against a horde of mechs only to find out your best gear has just been stolen.
Y'know what, as I like that kind of thing and there doesn't seam to be alot of places around and non that really go into the story of Descent, I think I'll do that for another post.
Posted using PostyBirb
