Part 1: Opening Demo and Level 01

Featured Music - Level 01 and Briefing

Wow! It's been a little more than a year since our first descent into madness began.

Descent II continues the material defender's mission to destroy the PTMC's mines that have fallen into the control of the mining robots that went berserk from the effects of an alien virus. The material defender's mercenary contract states that he can be retained for up to three days after his mission with PTMC, and they use this clause to force the material defender to sweep the mines outside of the solar system. The Pyro-GX is equipped with a warp core that enables quick transportation to the systems far away from the solar system. The first system, Zeta Aquilae, is the only system that is representative or a real location. So for now, we are here:



Zeta Aquilae is a triple star system 83 light-years away from Earth. The main star is a white main sequence star that is twice the size of the sun. Like the brightest star in Aquila, Altair, Zeta Aquilae rotates at a rate fast enough to significantly stretch out the center of the star, making it look more like an egg than a sphere.

The demo version of Descent II only featured the first three mines of the game and a different intro. The intro is like the one from Descent 1 and presented as a series of screens and text. Even all of the dialog is different. Take a look:



















Now, like the first game, Descent II provides descriptions of the robots that you will encounter in the mines. Unfortunately, there are no audio readings of any kind, so I am unable to provide those screens in the videos this time. But, I can still present screen shots of the robot descriptions. Here they are:



The Guide-Bot is a friendly robot that is imprisoned near the beginning of every mine. The Guide-Bot guides you through the mine to the access keys, reactor, and exit of the mine. Shift+F4 reveals a series of commands that you can give to the Guide-Bot. It is capable of finding power-ups, hostages, robots, and other things. You can also order the Guide-Bot to stay away from you if you want. If you wander off, the Guide-Bot will attempt to find you and will fire flares to get your attention. The flares do deal a small amount of damage, and it can be very annoying. It is possible to destroy the Guide-Bot by catching it in explosions. When it is destroyed, it leaves behind marker #11 that reads "RIP GUIDE-BOT."



PESTs are the equivalent to the class 1 drone from Descent 1. They are weak on their own, but dangerous in groups.



The ITD is a sentry robot that is able to open doors and moves at a very fast clip. It also fires a volley of shots that spread out and are very annoying. They are very weak and are usually destroyed if they run into you.



Likewise, the PIG is the parallel to the class 2 drone. PIGs sometimes unload a couple of ITDs upon destruction.



The dreaded thief-bot. This robot sneaks up on you and steals power-ups and then flees. It is able to fire flares to open doors, but it will never purposely attack you with them. Destroying the thief-bot within enough time will release all of the items that it stole from you and three shield and three energy power-ups. Be careful, because when this robot explodes, it will harm you if you are too close to it. Not all mines have a thief-bot. The best way to destroy a thief-bot is with flash missiles and the vulcan or gauss cannon. It is usually recommended to destroy them on sight.

And until then...