Descent 3 Mercenary

Play devil's advocate in the newest chapter in the Descent epic. Does this classic gaming series have the legs to bring home the cheers one more time?

Most first-person shooters are best played with the standard mouse and keyboard duo. But Descent pilots have always brandished control setups that, for all their complexity, essentially demand a joystick on top of a strong sense of balance. For this reason, gameplay resembles a strangely inseparable mixture of euphoria and frustration. And the latest episode in the saga, Descent Mercenary, has plenty of both.

Descent 3's engine is still gorgeous and multiplayer weapon balance is perfect. For this reason, it shouldn't be shocking that Mercenary treads cautiously. Testament to Outrage Entertainment's methodical attention to detail, no new weapons have been added and only a conservative number of new enemy robots make entrance. What's to be found is mostly more of the same.

But that's not a bad thing at all. Gameplay is still refreshingly entertaining. Pitting you on the other side of the struggle, you'll act as the executive arm of Dravis, propagating the virus which previous games squared you against. This evil business extends over seven new single player scenarios. That's almost half the allotment of the original, but it's still not very long, about 10 hours is what you can expect.

The levels are a hit or miss compilation. The first three are unimaginative space station crawls, but the remaining - with the exception of an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink finale - place you in more creative situations. Among the standouts: an alien hive mission where you'll need to toast an overpowering queen, and a Trojan-horse escort mission where a lethal prototype robot will aid you.

One high-speed escape will have the player pilot their ship through a fiery pyrotechnic display hinting of the days when Descent contained such sequences as cinematic movies. Such nostalgia can even be found in the music, which at times covers familiar chords from Descent 1. Altogether the staccato synth tunes seem a more conducive match this time around.

Weighing in a bit larger than the previous levels, this tour of duty is a bit more resource hungry. Mercenary's biggest flaw is the guidebot AI, which is now essentially a crutch to solve the "what do I do now?" factor. And yet it still flies in zig-zags at the most inopportune times.

Multiplayer has always been a different beast altogether. Only four slapstick arenas come along out of the box from Outrage, but a handful of small player-designed maps are also to be found. More importantly, a fourth ship, the Black Pryo fighter, makes its multiplayer debut. The added advantages of this ship (higher plasma cannon fire rate, dual missile firing) will be a great asset on tight levels, and a significant disadvantage for those without the expansion pack.

This ultimatum is all it will take for some Parallax Online contestants to fork out the admission price. And if you happen to be a patient single player aficionado, there are some gems to be discovered in this newest campaign if you can sift through the chaff and bear the idiocy of the guidebot.

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