In my previous post about the Castle Wolfenstein movie news I mention the classic game Descent and how there was some news regarding the game – well here you go.

For those of you unfamiliar with the video game Descent was an incredibly unique game for its time as it allowed you to move and orient in any direction, or as the original game developers called it: six degrees of freedom (6DOF), but like many games of its time Descent suffered through a couple of sequels only to end up pretty well being forgotten about.

Well maybe not for indie developer and game fan “Madmax1998″ as announced that he is in the process of taking the game through a reboot and bringing into the modern world of graphics and power using the Unreal Engine 3. This is from Madmax1998′s page for the rebooted game:

The idea is to recreate the original, classic six-degrees-of-freedom game Descent with modern technology; in this case Unreal Engine 3 in the popular form of the Unreal Development Kit (UDK). It allows great flexibility with whatever 3D game you want to make, and although programming a 6DOF game with it is challenging, this is how far I came in a few weeks:

- complete 6DOF movement with proper acceleration on every axis and double/triple chording - weapon system basics for primary and secondary weapons that can be fired simultaneously – laser and ball fire projectiles - basic robot AI, currently tailored to the Class 1 and 2 Drone - spawn points for easy placement of robots in a map

The following features are on the table for the full game:

- a retelling of the original story – remakes of the original levels, with an emphasis on a thriller/horror atmosphere – remodeled and animated original robots with advanced AI – all the weapons from Descent with potential new ones mixed in – high-detail Pyro-GX ship model with 3D cockpit view – more diverse gameplay, but with a strong focus on the basics that made Descent great

He has even posted a video highlighting the work so far and I gotta say that if he actually pulls this off I will be first in line to grab a copy.

via Ars Technica