I thought I'd seen pretty much all the angles as far as Doom-type games are concerned. There have been a lot of imitators since id Software first dropped the shareware version of Wolfenstein 3D on the unsuspecting gaming public. Yep, a LOT of imitators. A few of them have even had good original ideas that added a little to the gameplay. Still, I decided a while ago that all the major variants had been played out. Sure, the occasional good Doom clone may come along that can stand on its own with good graphics and interesting level design, but as far as adding anything significant to the genre I figured we'd all just have to wait for id to finish work on Quake.

	Sometimes I love being proved wrong.

	The game that showed me that there is a little more room for invention than I had bargained on is Descent from Interplay. Like the first installment of Doom, Descent is available in a shareware version to whet everybody's appetite for the commercial version (currently available direct from Interplay). This strategy was a big success for id, and it should prove to be a wise choice for Interplay as well. You won't need to play Descent for very long before you realize that you're hopelessly hooked. Descent is fully capable of turning you into a drooling raving maniac who considers food and sleep a waste of valuable playing time. And if you have a modem or access to a network, you'll find yourself happily infecting your friends and co-workers. Download it immediately, but don't say you weren't warned.

	In Descent, a mega-corporation's galactic mining system is being threatened by the very robots that once operated it. All the human miners have either been killed by the rebellious machines or imprisoned within the mine shafts. By now it should come as no surprise that you have been called upon to rectify this little wrinkle in the corporation's quarterly projections. You'll have to go in and rescue the surviving miners, all the while dealing with some of the most well-armed and foul-tempered mining robots a galactic bounty hunter has ever seen. Okay, so we're not talking about Gone With the Wind here, but when was the last time you got to blow up Scarlett O'Hara? Need I say more?

	So far this could be any one of the gaggle of tepid Doom clones wasting shelf space at your favorite software store, but when I said there was a catch I wasn't kidding. This time you don't go in on foot. To navigate the zero-gravity mines you'll be flying a small attack ship. Yes, I said FLYING. Interplay has taken an action flight game similar to Wing Commander and thrown it into a Doom-esque environment. If this sounds like a shameless and stupid attempt to cash in on two popular types of games, don't feel bad; I had the same impression when I heard about Descent. I walked into the game all but convinced that what I was about to undergo would be about as much fun as Operation Body Count 2: The POWs. Five minutes later I was cheerfully blasting renegade robots with both feet planted firmly in my mouth.

	Descent isn't as much a flight game as it is a Doom game with greatly enhanced control. It could have degenerated into a Wing Commander clone, but the levels themselves don't allow it. Open spaces are few and far between, with most of your flying being done in narrow mining tunnels that barely give you enough room to dodge enemy fire. What the flying engine does is allow true three-dimensional movement. In a zero-gravity environment "up" is a relative term; in Descent you can frequently find yourself zipping through a tunnel at high speed, turning left and right, and finally pulling straight back on the joystick to fly through a path in the ceiling. This enhancement also works for dodging enemy fire; some of the standard Doom tactics work here (like running to the center of a T intersection, listening for enemy fire, then backing up and waiting for your attackers to poke their heads around the corner), but you can dodge in 3D (by moving towards and enemy and up, for instance). Of course your enemies can also attack from any angle, and there's nothing that can compare to the panic you feel when you're being fired upon by an enemy you can't easily pinpoint.

	One of my first concerns was that with the flight engine Descent would be annoyingly complicated to control, but this is not so. A multitude of control options are included, but I strongly urge anyone with an interest in Descent to play with a CH Flightstick Pro. (The Thrustmaster FCS is also supported, but I experienced grave problems with the stick's hat switch.) The joystick handles the same way it would in a flight sim; thrust is easy to control by using the A and Z keys for forward and reverse thrust. The hat switch of the Flightstick Pro is used for sidestepping (Descent's version of Doom's ALT key strafing), which can move you up and down as well as left and right – an invaluable tool for dodging enemy fire. The trigger fires your primary weapon, and the first extra button fires your secondary (usually some type of missile); I program the other two buttons for a rear-view toggle and a "spin" button to keep myself from flying cockeyed. The controls are responsive and easily re-programmed, and the entire game has a first-class feel to it.

	My one complaint is that it's sometimes very hard to navigate in the 3D environment. The rotatable wireframe 3D automap is very good, but it's still possible to find yourself running around in circles trying to find a new area to explore. Careful exploration combined with frequent visits to the automap will give you all the navigational information you need, but it's still a pain in the neck sometimes. But even with this one minor grumble, Descent is a true landmark among shareware games, and it reigns supreme over 99% of the commercial titles as well. It's a unique adrenaline rush of a game, a title that no action fan should be without for a minute longer. Even in its shareware form Descent supports modem play and eight player network deathmatches, making it an ideal game to share with your friends. It's about a 2.5 meg ZIP file, and is worth the download expense ten times over. Don't procrastinate. Pick up Descent RIGHT NOW, and you'll never look at Doom in quite the same way again.