Descent II

Descent II is a 1996 first-person shooter game developed by Parallax Software and first published for DOS by Interplay Productions. For the PlayStation, it is known as Descent Maximum. It is the second installment in the Descent video game series and the sequel to Descent. The base of the gameplay remaining the same, the player controls a spaceship from the pilot's perspective and must navigate extrasolar underground mines to locate and destroy their reactors and escape being caught in their self-destructions, while engaging and surviving infected robots, which will attempt to destroy the ship. Unlike other first-person shooters, its six-degrees-of-freedom scheme allows the player to move and rotate in any three-dimensional space and direction.

Descent II
Developer(s)Parallax Software
Interplay Productions (Mac OS)
R-Comp Interactive (Risc OS)
Publisher(s)Interplay Productions
Mac Play (Mac OS)
R-Comp Interactive (Risc OS)
Director(s)
  • Mike Kulas
  • Matt Toschlog
Producer(s)Rusty Buchert
Designer(s)
  • Jasen Whiteside
  • Mark Dinse
  • Che-Yuan Wang
Programmer(s)
  • Matt Toschlog
  • Mike Kulas
  • John Slagel
  • Jason Leighton
  • Che-Yuan Wang
Artist(s)
  • Adam Pletcher
  • Jasen Whiteside
  • Doug Brooks
Writer(s)Ryan Garcia
Composer(s)
  • Dan Wentz
  • Brian Luzietti
  • Larry Peacock
  • Leslie Spitzer
  • Jim Torres
  • Tim Wiles
Platform(s)
  • DOS
  • Mac OS
  • PlayStation
  • RISC OS
  • Windows
ReleaseMS-DOS
  • NA: March 13, 1996
  • EU: March 29, 1996
Mac OS
  • NA: August 1996
PlayStation
  • NA: May 15, 1997
  • EU: Mid-1997
RISC OS
  • WW: May 19, 2001
Genre(s)First-person shooter, shoot 'em up
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Descent II's development started as a project intended to expand the original using a compact disc's storage, which later became a standalone product. The game received very positive reviews from video game critics, who widely lauded the multiplayer mode and the inclusion of the Guide-Bot, a scouting robot that guides the player to their objectives. The PlayStation version's reception was rather mixed, with critics often disagreeing in their evaluations of its frame rate. A sequel, Descent 3, was released in 1999.

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