History VideoGame / Descent

* NoNameGiven: There is an enemy type encountered late in game which has no official name but are usually called "fusion hulks" or [[BossInMooksClothing "mini-bosses"]]. They [[PaletteSwap look just like the level 7 boss except they are a pale purple color]] and have fusion cannons rather than smart missles.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/descent-box_1851.jpg]]

* LastLousyPoint: In Descent 3 level 13 one of the mission objectives is to kill all 32 infected stormtroopers. The level is quite big, and there are a bunch of other "regular" stormtroopers, and the only way to tell if one is infected is to destroy it and see if the counter goes down. As such, its possible you may complete everything else and have destroyed all the other robots but still have a couple stormtroopers left you just can't find, and if they got bugged and fell through a wall or something you'll [[UnwinnableByMistake have no choice but to restart or cheat.]]

* ArtisticLicenseAstronomy:
** The third game has some issues with this. In the final level, Dravis flees the Shiva space station in Earth orbit as the battle begins and holes up in his Stronghold on Venus. The Material Defender pursues him and deals with him there. Within minutes of the virus going down, the CED blasts Shiva into a debris field, yet the MD is right there with them to help with the cleanup. In ''Mercenary'', a colony is identified to be on Mars, but ''Jupiter'' is clearly visible in the sky, and quite close by.
** In all three games the levels set on Mars are usually LethalLavaLand type places. Mars only has about 50 volcanoes on the entire planet, and is on average a lot colder than Earth due to being much further away from the sun.

* EasyLevelTrick: There is a small grate next to the yellow door in ''Descent 2'', Level 7. If you peek through it, you'll see a control panel hidden behind it. Hit it with a flare, and the wall next to you disappears to reveal a bypass tunnel around the yellow door. The hostages and the red key to the reactor chamber are both in this area, so you can pick them up and head straight for the reactor to skip two-thirds of the level.

* EasyLevelTrick: There is a small grate next to the yellow door in ''Descent 2'', Level 7. If you peek through it, you'll see a control panel hidden behind it. Hit it with a flare, and the wall next to the door disappears and reveals a tunnel bypassing the door. The hostages and the red key to the reactor room are in that area, and the path to the exit from the reactor is a straight tunnel to the other side of the reactor chamber. The two-thirds of the level containing the blue and yellow keys are completely skippable.

* InfinityMinusOneSword: The Laser, Super Laser and Plasma Cannon in all three games.
* InformedFlaw: The Pyro-GL the player flies in the third game is supposed to be an older model Pyro, compared to the brand-new Pyro-GX seen in the earlier games. In gameplay terms, the two ships are near-identical, except that the GL has a dedicated storage bay for the Guide-Bot, and has a fancier cockpit, making it appear ''newer'' than its successor.

** While passing through the hangars mentioned below in ''Descent 3: Mercenary'', Level 3, you might notice that each hanger has a control room overlooking the docking platform. You'll be able to access those control rooms later on. From there, you can use the switches to torture the poor robots guarding the hangar by decompressing the hangar, whacking them with Bay 2's crane, crushing them using Bay 3's magnetic lifts, and burning them alive with Bay 2's flame purge function. And no, this has nothing at all to do with any of your objectives.
** Later on in that same level, you fly through the barracks. Each bunk in that area comes furnished with a docking station (the equivalent to a bed, since the crew is all robots) and a shower stall closed off behind breakable glass. A few of these bunks will have a "crewmate" droid in the shower. There is nothing stopping you from reenacting the shower scene from ''Psycho'' using your Mass Driver, although do be warned; the bunks on the lower level belong to Black Stormtroopers, who ''also'' carry Mass Drivers.

* ViolationOfCommonSense: In order to access the first secret area in ''Mercenary'' Level 3, [[spoiler:you need to get sucked out to space (i.e. kill yourself) via the secondary bay door of any hangar]].

The development of an official prequel/reboot, originally known as ''Descent: Underground'', was put on hold due to financial and legal disputes between its publishers, Little Orbit, and its developers, Descendent Studios.

The development of an official prequel/reboot was put on hold due to financial and legal disputes between its publishers, Little Orbit, and its developers, Descendent Studios.

An official prequel/reboot, ''Descent: Underground'' was in development by [[http://descendentstudios.com/ Descendent Studios]], with the multiplayer component formerly in open beta on Steam Early Access. A single player campaign was also in the works, the plot of which the devs have been very quiet about. It has since been cancelled.

An official prequel/reboot, ''Descent: Underground'' is in development by [[http://descendentstudios.com/ Descendent Studios]], with the multiplayer component in open beta on Steam Early Access. A single player campaign is also in the works, the plot of which the devs have been very quiet about. A SpiritualSuccessor by the original developers, titled ''{{VideoGame/Overload}}'', has also been released on Steam and GOG.

** The Difficulty Spikes are a little harder to pinpoint in the second game, partly because the enemy [=AI=] improves throughout. With the expansion of AI varieties, even the {{Mooks}} introduced in Zeta Aquilae can be a lot tougher to deal with once you face the much faster, more evasive ones set to "Sniper" mode in Baloris Prime or the Omega System.

* DifficultySpike: The first game had several: level 5 to level 6, level 11 to level 12, and level 21 to level 22 were especially bad.

* WakeUpCallBoss: In ''Descent I'', the Fusion Hulk that appears at the end of Level 7. It's specifically designed to punish the 'hide in the tunnel and take potshots' strategy you've probably been using up to that point - it fires [[MacrossMissileMassacre up to 4 homing missiles that explode in a cloud of homing plasma bursts]], and if you're in the tunnel, you're going to eat ''every single plasma burst'' for probably over 100 damage even on Trainee difficulty. You are absolutely going to have to learn how to fly, strafe and shoot at the same time to beat this thing. Even then, you have to clear the Class 1 Drillers and Red Hulks while dodging his fusion missiles. Once it's just you and the Fusion Hulk, the best strategy is to fly a single direction around the central spire, and when you see the Fusion Hulk, shoot at it a bunch of times ''while accelerating towards it'' and strafe up (down if it's close to the ceiling) to avoid the homing missiles.

* WakeUpCallBoss: The first boss of ''Descent I'' is very tricky, appearing only a quarter of the way into the game. It fires off [[MacrossMissileMassacre Macross Smart Missile Massacres]] while the strongest weapons you have up to that point are the Spreadfire Cannon and Homing Missiles, which only do moderate damage. As long as you can use the central spire to your advantage and properly dodge, you should survive, but less maneuverable players will die here a lot.
** The strongest weapon you have at that point is the ''level-4 Quad Laser''. Fire away!

** ''Descent 3'' averts these tropes by making the [[InfinityMinusOneSword Plasma Cannon]] available from as early as Level 4 of the main singleplayer campaign, but otherwise plays thm straight by making the Fusion and Omega Cannons, as well as the Mega and Black Shark Missiles, first available only after the player has completed the first half of the singleplayer campaign. On the other hand, the ''Mercenary'' singleplayer campaign averts these trope entirely for all weapons save the Black Shark Missile.

* FrickinLaserBeams: Your starting weapon, upgradable by several levels in the first two games, each of which increases damage and changes the lasers' color.

* {{Hitscan}}: The Mass Driver and the Omega Cannon, though the last one is more of a short-range sustained beam. The Vulcan/Gauss/Vauss Cannons and Mercury Missiles aren't quite hitscan, but are much faster than most of the other weapons in the game. Other EnergyWeapons in this game employ the same physics as FrickinLaserBeams, which is part of why KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter.

''Descent'' is a [[FirstPersonShooter First Person]] [[strike:Shooter]] Corridor [[SimulationGame Space Sim]] game series first developed by Creator/InterplayEntertainment and Parallax Software. The player controls the small, maneuverable, but heavily armed Pyro-GX SpaceFighter and navigates confined networks of mines on various planets, destroying hovering [[KillerRobot mining-robots-gone-mad]] and rescuing hostages for points along the way in your mission to destroy all the mines. Yeah. That'll teach 'em.

* AlwaysAccurateAttack: The Omega Cannon in the third game is not only {{Hitscan}}, but basically always hits anything in range as long as you are pointing in its general direction, it's only weakness being it's rather short ArbitraryMaximumRange and high energy consumption.

* AdaptationalVillainy: In the first two games the PTMC is basically just a MegaCorp, and Dravis is given [[FlatCharacter basically no characterization]], being a BadBoss at worst. In Descent 3 they are straight up villains, with Dravis being the BigBad who is behind the virus infecting the robots (which also retroactively makes me EvilAllAlong.)

** In all three games the levels set on Mars are usually LethalLavaLand type places. Mars only has about 50 volcanoes on the entire planet, and is on average a lot colder than Earth due to be further away.
* ArtisticLicensePhysics: The mega missles in the games have a massive kickback that pushes your craft back several feet when fired. In reality, even a really big rocket/missle won't have any recoil, as the launcher basically just ignites the rear end of the missile, from which it flies out of the launcher under its own propulsion.

* CatastrophicCountdown: When you shoot the reactor in any of the mines, a voice announces a Self Destruct Sequence, and you have between 30 and 60 seconds (depending on difficulty) to get to the exit before the entire complex goes nuclear, while the screen shakes, lights flash, and sirens roar.

* NoFairCheating: Using a cheat code will permanently set your score to 0, with "Cheater!" appearing thereafter every time you destroy a robot in the place of a point value in the first two games. Using codes from the first game in the second often backfired as well, for example by setting your shields to 1. In ''Descent 3'', attempting to use cheats from either the first or second game will set ''both'' energy and shields to 001. There is even a "cheat" code that does 210 shield damage to the player.

* OutrunTheFireball: the ending CutScene of every level in the first two games, whether in-movie or rendered. Regardless of how much time you have left when your ship crosses the exit gate, it's AlwaysClose.

** In ''Descent II'', found via a hidden CoolGate in a given level, the secret levels end when either you've destroyed the reactor and escaped or you die once. [[PermanentlyMissableContent Either way, you're bounced back into the level you entered the secret one from and you can't get back in on that playthrough.]]

* SoundOfNoDamage: All ineffective attacks make a distinctive metallic noise upon impact, whether the target is your ship while [[InvincibilityPowerUp invulnerable]], a LockedDoor impervious to weapons fire or a ''Descent II'' boss robot being hit with a weapon it's immune to.

* ThreateningShark: The third game has the sharc robots, which are [[FlyingSeafoodSpecial flying purple shark robots]], which usually come in schools or at least duos, with the penultimate level being ''packed'' with them. The [[WaveMotionGun omega cannon]] is usually the best thing to deal with them, as while it has a rather short ArbitraryMaximumRange, they only attack by biting and have no ranged weapons.

* UnrealisticBlackHole: The "black shark" missle from Descent 3 creates what's implied to be a tiny black hole that sucks everything near by. Anything touching the singularity takes massive damage and is held in place until the effect ends. While it's very powerful and able to [[OneHitPolyKill clear a whole room if used right]], its also ''very'' easy to [[HoistByHisOwnPetard get sucked in by mistake,]] as the "suck radius" is so big.

** In mission 11 of Descent 3, you are sent to rescue a pilot (who is [[NoNameGiven never given a name]]), if you succede, you and the pilot head towards the exit shaft (where the doors require two people to open), only to find it was all a trap and get thrown in the [[DeathCourse PTMC Proving Grounds]]. What happened to the poor pilot isn't detailed, although it's [[ThrownOutTheAirlock pretty easy to guess.]]