I'm interested purchasing a descent game after getting hooked on Freespace, and wanting to understand the roots of that series. The problem is that I don't know what the "better" game to purchase is - 1,2,or 3.

D1 and D2 both have open source updates that work with modern computers. All 3 still have multiplayer people but I think D3 is the most active.

These games are entirely separate from the Freespace series...although they're definitely games you should try!!

I'd suggest getting 1&2 first (They come together for $6). As said, they have sourceports, and fairly active multiplayer communities. Descent 3 changed gameplay a whole lot, and many Descent purists don't like it as much.

Personally I think the first game is the best one. While the second game adds a lot more weapons and robots and features, it also adds some really irritating stuff that I don't like at all (thief bots and single-use doors/panels come to mind) that somewhat tarnish the experience for me. Descent 3 adds even more features, but it seems... smaller. The first two games come together here, so I'd definitely go with those first. Not only are they (timeless) classics, you'll get many, many hours out of them. If you like them, you can get D3 later.

Maybe this is necro... but whatever, I'd say pick 'em all 3, it's pretty cheap to get them all and all 3 are excellent games, but in my opinion and that's just a personal opinion, I think that 3 is the better game, maybe because I'm more biased to anything circa late 90's (N64 era), but overall, it's a much more complex game than the 2 previous titles.

The first 2 games are more straight forward labyrinth shooting games that have more in common with the first two Doom titles and they are pretty much like Doom 1 & 2, regarding that the sequel is the same as the first game, but bigger.

But the third game has more complex objectives than simply "find X key to open X door", it has more variety of enemies, better graphics (except the few human models... yuck) and more varied objectives and scenarios.

All 3 are great, but I'd say that 3 is the better game overall.

Although D3 is newer, D1 and 2 really do feel timeless. I think it's because the old graphics was very abstract due to very low detail, but at the same time there was a very coherent artistic theme throughout the first two games. That means the games leave a lot of blanks in the representation, while you are given a style sheet and are free to fill in the blanks.

I feel the same towards the old Starwars games, too (X-Wing, TIE Fighter, Dark Forces).

Another important aspect, that I feel makes D1 and 2 better, is the AI. In my opinion the AI is smarter than in 3, which makes those games more challenging and fun. Especially in situations like D2 when many of the bots can move about in different rooms. Depending on how much "noise and action" you have caused, the bots could easily have moved far away from their assigned cube. Thus, there are much more ambush situations in the first 2 games compared to the 3rd one (which also gives you a lot more spatial freedom reducing the danger of such an attack).

Im playing the third now. very cool...
but descent 1 and 2 have more style in a lot of aspects, they look more mature games then the third

In High School I took a AutoCAD class, every day for the last 15-20 minutes of class i remember we played this game, that was 13 years ago. I long forgot about it until just the other day. I could not even remember the name. I'm trying D3 as I hoped it has better graphics that what I remember. I think we had D1. We would always play it in network mode as there was 6 of us, including our instructor who played as well! Since we had our own network, no one ever new what we were doing in class. I love old technology. I just wounder if 15 years from now I will like what is cool now?

You can still play D1/2 using the newer versions. D1/2x Rebirth has made it possible to play it even on Win 7.

D3 works without any issues really.

Check out www.descentbb.net for the longest running Forum for Descent.

Descent 3 didn´t change the gameplay very much. It´s the basic formula with some modernization. Of course nothing is perfect, for example the design of the robots are cooler in the Descent 1 than the in the third. But the game itself is great