Review by: Brian Clair

Let me start out by saying that Descent 2: The Infinite Abyss is not a “new” game. It’s the same Descent 2 you may have already played but packed with several new features. The Infinite Abyss contains: 12 new robot enemies, 2 new Bosses with their own intelligence and behavior patterns, 22 new levels to explore, a new “Hoard” multiplayer game, and a brand new redbook audio soundtrack with music from Type O Negative, Ogre (of Skinny Puppy) and more. All of these boils down to the fact that you’ve got 52 levels to explore and lots of psychotic robots to blow apart.

For those of you not yet familiar with Descent, allow me to give you a bit of background. You are a mercenary who has been hired by a large mining corporation. Guided by profit you signed a contract to exterminate some malfunctioning robot droids that have gone nuts on one of the company’s mining worlds. Having accomplished this (in Descent 1) you now return to your grateful employer to collect your check and take a long vacation. Unfortunately, they have other plans for you – which you quickly discover as they refit your ship with missiles and a warp drive. Citing some fine print in your contract you’ve been suckered into yet another expedition against the psychotic droids in a distant star system. Swearing under your breath you activate your new warp prototype and vanish to go make some scrap metal.

So, what else is new in the Infinite Abyss? The Descent 2 mission builder, level converter, and robot editor. The mission builder lets you design and use your own custom Descent 2 levels. The game comes with a somewhat lengthy mission builder manual also which explains everything in great detail so you shouldn’t have any trouble. You can easily create every element in the game for your own levels so I imagine this will only help facilitate all the Descent 2 level-builders out there (you know who you are). The level converter allows you to convert old, original Descent levels into the new Descent 2 format – imagine playing all of the new levels with all of the old ones! Lastly, the robot editor allows you to change the appearance of your adversaries with your own textures (I guess they may as well look pretty before you blow them up).