Descent I, II & III

Like many kids in the ’80s, I grew up with the early video game consoles like Atari and Sega. However, it wasn’t until 1995, when I got my first PC at home, that video games began to take on a more personal meaning—one of adventure and freedom. I gravitated toward FPS (first-person shooter) games like Duke Nukem 3D and Doom, but if there was one game that truly captivated me, it was the Descent saga and its three episodes.

The game’s storyline revolves around a small spacecraft hunting down virus-infected robots in abandoned mines across the solar system. The ship’s mission is to destroy the mine and move on to the next before being taken down by rogue robots spiraling out of control. The plot echoes Blade Runner, where the hunter must eliminate other replicants only to discover that he too is one—condemned to die. In Descent, the spacecraft is ultimately informed that it cannot return to Earth, as it too is the last remaining infected robot—the final one—since all others have been destroyed.

After that experience, video games lost their appeal for me. I’ve heard plenty about excellent titles with similarly complex storylines, but I remain loyal to the sense of solitude, strategy, adventure, and freedom that Descent gave me in the ’90s.