Stumbled upon this little gem over at Indiegames; Descent, a game about… going down. You’re a little blue man in a cave, who, for some reason, wants to get to the bottom of the cavern. I can see the appeal, but when you’ve got a crazed ghost telling you not to do it, is it really worth it? I decided to find out, and my impressions can be found lurking below.

Descent is a 2d platformer, and it seems deceptively easy to begin with; all you have to do is fall all the way to the bottom, really, while avoiding the few traps littered around. It’s when you get down there, however, that it all gets a little.. heated. It’s not a huge twist, but I’m not going to ruin it for you. All I’ll say is you need to pay close attention to the scenery on the way down.

What story there is here actually works quite well, with some ghost thing berating you on the way down in what seems akin to the tried and true Portal method. It’s no more than a harking though, and the tongue-in-cheek humour makes the descent a little more pleasant, even if fraught with danger. It might actually be worth listening to him at some moments.

The actual platforming elements are surprisingly sharp, with double jumps and wall grabs becoming essential later on. There were a few moments when it seemed to think my first jump was my second, but they ironed themselves out after a while. If it were to happen later on, though, it could become a problem.

You can grab the game here, and it’s website is here.