DeepHour wrote:
Descent PS1 on a slimline PS2. Pretty difficult and a bit too repetitive for my taste. Afraid I'm a bit of a dinosaur, gaming-wise. Anyone know whether Descent 2 is any better?
Descent II is essentially like an expansion pack, with more weapons, more varied level textures, and different enemies and music, though the core gameplay is almost the same. The biggest change is that there's a guide bot present in every level, which can help guide you through and show you where the keys are located. It's useful if you get lost or stuck, but I find it makes the gameplay a bit too linear. Overall, I think it's a good game, and I played it a lot for a while, but I eventually got bored of it. Kris Asick's review sums it up pretty well:
http://www.pixelships.com/adg/ep0101.html
My recommendation is to grab the PC versions and play those instead of the Playstation releases. The Playstation port of Descent 1 has nice music, but it also has framerate issues, and the cutscenes don't really add much. The Descent II port, called Descent Maximum, simplifies a lot of the levels from what I've heard, and if it's anything like the Descent 1 port, it probably has framerate issues as well.
You can get the PC versions of Descent I and II bundled together for about $10 on gog.com.
http://www.gog.com/game/descent_1_descent_2