I remember playing an old Shareware version of Descent years and years ago. At the time, I hadn't played many games of the sort (save for a bit of Doom here or there), and I remember being floored by the concept of being free from gravity. As time went on, I purchased the full version of Descent, its sequel, and the tragically under-appreciated Descent 3. Since then, my attention has turned to other more modern games, but once the GOG.com beta opened, I figured exercising my nostalgia was a worthwhile investment. Boy, was it ever. It's stunning how I can return to a thirteen-year-old game and still be shocked at the experience it provides. It certainly shows its age--it's not really that pleasant to look at--but I'm struck by how much I missed having six degrees of freedom. No other game that I've played in recent memory feels so liberating. In video games anymore, we're tethered to the ground and pushed through linear hallways to get where we're going. Being able to fly anywhere, running circles around my enemies while the air fills with lasers and missiles is nothing short of a breath of fresh air. If you didn't grow up with this game like I did, or even if you have and you've just forgotten about it, you owe it to yourself to play it. I guarantee that you will not experience anything else like it.