"Descent 3" was never one of my favorite games. I think it's safe to
say that - for the vast majority of gamers - it was never anyone's
favorite game. 6DOF shooters only enjoyed the briefest moments of
popularity, and by the time "Descent 3" was released in 1999, that era
had mostly passed. Still, even if it wasn't a FAVORITE game, it did
have its moments, and was notable enough that it deserves to be
remembered.
Fortunately, thanks to the source code recently being made open
source*, it has a better chance of not becoming one of the forgotten
games of the early 2000s.
Of course, it's only the source code and not the assets that have been
open sourced, so you'll still need to acquire those elsewhere**. But
with the source code being open-sourced, there's less chance the game
won't run on modern hardware... at least, as soon as fans start
cranking out source-ports.***
Like I've said, "Descent 3" never ranked very highly in my list of
'great games that must be played'. I mostly remember it for its
colored lighting effects, it's larger maps, the roundness of some of
its tunnels, and those massive AT-AT sized robots that featured in
some missions. But these were largely technical improvements, while
the gameplay itself remained as unsatisfying as ever. The way the
little robots bobbed and weaved made them frustratingly difficult to
hit -especially when firing from as unstable a weapon's platform as
the PyroGX spaceship - and while I could appreciate the challenge of
the gameplay, I never thought it very fun.
Still, I've a soft spot for late 90s/early 2000s era FPS games, so I'm
happy to see "Descent 3" given another chance to shine. And after
seeing what modders have done with "Doom" and "Quake" sourceports, I'm
intrigued to see if they'll do something similar with "Descent 3".
* available here, under the MIT license:
https://github.com/kevinbentley/Descent3** hey, whaddaya know; it's on GOG
https://www.gog.com/en/game/descent_3_expansion
Descent 3 Open Source