The Descent Review
Price: $0.99
Version Reviewed: 1.05.02
Device Reviewed On: iPad mini (Retina)
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Taking full advantage of the Unity3D graphics engine, The Descent presents itself as an effortlessly-designed FPS that will take players on a wonderfully visual journey of discovery and adventure as they aim to uncover the mysteries behind life. With ancient artifacts and age-old mythical legends as its base, one assumes the role of father and avid historical explorer John, who is in search of his lost daughter, Liza.
Having found the cave where the ancients put the “Book of the Dead” to rest long ago, Liza soon realizes that dark forces are surrounding her. The disappearance of her boyfriend, Steven, pushes Liza to enroll the investigative services of her father as fears soon begin to rise over her own personal safety.
Controlling John's actions requires two points of touch. Players use the left of the screen and a joystick-style direction button to physically move while tapping and dragging anywhere on the right will move the camera's position, allowing them to see upwards and downwards. Trust me, players are going to want to use both of these to see the visually atmospheric settings that The Descent offers in all their glory. Dedicated buttons to the right can be used to both fire, and jump. There's also the option to swap out the dynamic joystick for touch pad control if preferred.
Overall, I found The Descent to be not only visually exciting, but actually enjoyable to play. That's important in a heavily-saturated genre such as RPGs. The only real points of improvement would be the 'fill' sounds bundled when switching level. These appeared to cut-out too suddenly, rather than gracefully fade out - and some arguably awry grammar. Regardless, The Descent is certainly worthy of its purposefully ambiguous name.