Gameplay

Moving around

The game starts you off in a tutorial mode meant to acclimate you to what Descent is like. It helps if you've played Quake style games before but Descent is an entirely new experience because of the ability to move in any direction. The best players are the ones who break out of the paradigm and learn that "up" and "down" have no real meaning in this game. Adding that extra dimension also creates more opportunities to get nauseated. Doing all that rolling and pitching almost made me woozy but my experience from earlier Descent games helped me get more comfortable quickly.

Right side up

and upside down, makes no diff

One thing you're definitely going to want to turn off right away is auto leveling. It's on by default so that newbies always get their ship turned to the nearest 90 degree angle to the room, but it gets really annoying very quickly. The auto leveling is a detriment to your overall control so don't quit playing in frustration over that - just turn it off after you're used to things!

Returning fire to a turret

Before plasma cannon

Blowing up stuff

As far as shooting is concerned it's pretty intuitive. Some guns take energy and sap it slowly away, like the laser, the fusion, the plasma, etc. Other gun types have ammunition that you need to pick up such as the Vauss gun, the Napalm guns, and the Mass driver. There's a reticle in front of you and different notches on the reticle correspond to different gun types and where they will hit approximately. It's not all complicated like X-Wing Alliance where you can set how far out your laser beams will meet. Missiles will shoot alternately from left and right so pay attention to the missile part of the reticle - that circle will be lit up to tell you where the next rocket is coming from. As you kill enemies they'll give off yellow sparkles to give you more energy or blue spheres to recharge your shields.

After plasma cannon!

Tunnels can cause claustrophobia