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Review: DescenderReviewed By: Kirk Hiner Review Date: January 25, 2003 Review Computer: 867MHz G4, 640MB RAM, ATI RADEON 8500, and Mac OS X v10.2.3
A little while back, I reviewed a shareware game called MacPuyo 2. In the review, I pointed out that--although it's one of those "things falling down" games, comparisons to Tetris weren't exactly fair because the gameplay did vary a bit. Instead of stacking blocks, you had to join similarly colored freaky alien head things with creepy eyeballs. Descender, on the other hand, is very much a knock-off of Tetris. It looks, feels and plays just like Tetris, albeit considerably smoother. It differs pretty much in sound only. It doesn't sound like Tetris, though, if that's important to you. Here's the obligatory but probably not necessary, game description. Blocks of different shapes fall from the top of the screen. It's your job to stack them in nice, neat rows. You can spin the blocks and move them left and right, but you can't alter the blocks in any way. Once you've filled up an entire row, that row disappears. So, the trick is to remove entire rows before the falling blocks reach the top of the screen. Now, there's nothing new about Tetris clones. There's also nothing wrong with them. Obviously, for a game to last as long as Tetris and its children have, it has to be doing something right. So, when reviewing games such as this, I simply ask two questions: How well does it capture the original gameplay, and does it bring anything new to the mix?
Of course, along with the background image changes, the game speeds up as you advance. Again, this is standard in these types of games. The early levels serve pretty much only as a confidence builder because Descender gets harder pretty quickly. On one hand, it frustrates me that it speeds up so drastically. On the other hand, if it didn't get harder, I could end up playing it all night. If you're one of those types who's already very good at these kind of games, you don't have to suffer through ethe simple early levels before the game becomes challenging. You can start at varying difficulty levels, and you can even begin the screen partially filled with randomly placed blocks. Again, this is all just like Tetris. So, what's different? The first thing you'll notice is the music. If I recall, one of the first versions of Tetris I every played (clear back on the Mac SE) used midi files of classical music. Am I right, there? Tchaikovsky, perhaps? It would make sense. The music in Descender doesn't make sense. During gameplay, there's this surf-rock instrumental playing in the background...something like maybe The Ventures would've recorded. It's good music, and it's very well produced, but it just doesn't fit this game. It drives too hard to be background music. It's also out of place with the aforementioned background images. They're somewhat futuristic...sort of Roger Dean meats Fritz Lang. It's hard to imagine what those two could've produced together, but I'm certain it wouldn't have been set to surf music. Actually, the music from the marquee screen is a good example of the type of music that should be playing during games like this, I think.
Unlike in other two-player modes in games like this, you don't dump junk on your opponent. Instead, you steal blocks from him. A window between the combatants shows the next three blocks, which you can either grab by dropping your current piece before your opponent drops his or send to your opponent by waiting for him to drop first. Unfortunately, since the vs. mode starts at such a high speed, it's difficult to actually use this strategy. I found it daunting to keep track of my own blocks, let alone those of my opponents. It's too bad this mode can't be started at a slower speed. You also have the ability to add rows to your opponent's side. If you clear two rows before he drops his next piece, you'll send one row over to him. If you clear three rows, you'll send him two. Four rows, three. And so on. Oh, and get this; you can adjust the sensitivity of the keys! Now that's some hard core Tetris-clone playing! At only $12.00, Descender is worth the price. It's fun, you know. It's Tetris; simple, addictive gaming at its best. It could use some refinements, I think, but what game couldn't? I like the visuals and I like the gameplay. I like the music, too, although I'd like it better away from this game. The multiplayer mode is much more fun than I'd anticipated, but I'd like to see the developers slow it down a bit so the combatants can get deeper into the battle...work up some strategies, maybe. Undoubtedly, this won't be the last Tetris clone I review. So long as there's shareware, there'll be games like Descender. Right at this moment, however, Descender is more than enough to satisfy your Tetris jones.
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As for capturing gameplay, Descender does a fine job. The pieces move smoothly, and the familiar controls are there: move left and right, rotate left and right, and drop slowly or quickly. A preview box shows the next piece (I still can't get used to looking at that and planning ahead for it), and the background image changes as you progress. I know that doesn't sound like a big deal, but it does add a feeling of accomplishment to the game. Each time a new image appears (and most of them are really cool, I should add), you feel like you're getting somewhere.
The second thing you'll notice is the fairly original two-player game. It's not playable over a network--just two people using one keyboard--but it's done very well. It's set up somewhat like Mortal Kombat, actually, with one, two, or three rounds of battles initiated by that deep, "Fight!" we've all grown to know and ignore (again, the surf music doesn't do much to inspire one for battle).