Descent 3 Mercenary

Welcome to the dark side.

As you recall, our hero was last seen fighting virus-infected robots bent on the destruction of all of humankind. We found out that his original bosses had decided to terminate his existence, and had sabotaged his spacecraft. But he was far from finished. Retrieved, reborn, given another chance to combat evil - all that was inherent in Descent 3.

Well, welcome to a new day, a new mission, a new destiny. Interplay has devised a mission pack that breathes new life into the phraseology. Descent 3 Mercenary isn’t merely about adding new playing levels, it is about adding a new perspective to an already wonderful gaming experience.

In Mercenary, you aren’t the good guy anymore. You are simply what the title implies - a mercenary, fighting on behalf of the highest bidder, in this case, the bad guy. Your job is to fulfill his plans for domination. Foiled once, but his folly is in your hands. Throw in puzzles and traps, and you have an entire new experience.

Yes, Descent 3 has new life, a new interactive game board, and some nifty little surprises along the way.

This add-on is welcomed because it takes the original concept, twists it a little, and adds to the program.

Yes, you will need the original program to play this. Yes, you must reconfigure your system a tad, but when you do - what an incredible experience. You are no longer playing for the good guys. Forget that you were rescued from a starship about to plunge into the sun. You are now the leader of a group of mercenaries known as the Black Pyros, carrying out the orders of Dravis, the individual bent on your destruction from the original program.

But don’t stop there. Throw in seven new campaigns, a fresh environment, new multiplayer levels and levels designed by game fans and you have an addition that is fresh, innovative and a lot of fun. You can even create your own levels with the editor supplied.

Descent 3 had several bugs which can be fixed with downloads (which is a warning to those that enjoyed the original program but felt that something was wrong). But Mercenary expands on the storyline and gives you an entirely new perspective.

All the original features are included. The profanity filter is intact. The graphics have been upgraded slightly, providing map boards that sing with personality, color and stunningly new features.

Still, you are ultimately faced with a shooter-style game that challenges intuition, brains and reflexes.

Hats off to Interplay for forging a mission pack that is fresh, and, for the most part, innovative. Mercenary takes the game to a new level, without detracting from the original. Sure, we are still talking about a mission pack here, but what a mission pack.

Being on the side of evil can be fun, especially if you are flying a high-tech machine with a no-holds-barred attitude. After all, if you are truly bad, you don’t care if you don’t succeed, you just don’t want the ‘goody-two-shoes’ to survive.

Installation: 3. At 300 megabytes, for a mission pack, this is a long and boring install.

Gameplay: 9. Still well-rendered, and with several additions that make this a wonderful ride.

Graphics: 9. Not much has changed here - it still is wonderful graphically, and the added bonuses make this a nice add-on to the game.

Sound: 8. Yep, still solid.

Concept: 8. Adding player-inspired levels is a nice twist.

Difficulty: 9. Still a tough game to play, in spite of the new additions.

Value: 9. A wonderful mission pack, truly original in concept, and skillfully designed.

Overall: 7.9