A community-driven group of modders is taking on the task of recreating one of the most ground-breaking video games in the early 90s, Descent. Using the Unreal 3 engine, the creators are hoping to recreate the popular game under the name of Sol Contingency.
For those of you that might not recall, Descent was a DOS game that was released in 1994. It was ground-breaking in that it was one of the first games to feature “six degrees of freedom”. This meant that the player, in control of a spaceship in zero gravity, could move in absolutely any direction they pleased. What resulted was a creative first person-shooter game that was like DOOM on steroids. You often could not tell which way is “up” — moving sideways and flipping in every direction to shoot enemies and find exits.
The game was so popular that it spawned numerous expansion packs and two sequels. And now, a group of fans are working to recreate the same game with a more updated engine.
Creating the game under the name Sol Contingency, the modders are using the Unreal Development Kit from Epic’s Unreal Engine 3. The goal of this development is to come close to the same quality of gameplay that the original Descent games had — which the creators feel has not been recreated in any game since.
The game will be released in “episodes”, with the first set to release hopefully this year. A multiplayer preview, called “Proving Grounds” is scheduled to be released in the next month or so. In the meantime, check out their website for the latest updates and check out their teaser trailer below as well.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glZ9ysFlOks[/youtube]