Luckily for the squeamish, Descent changes all that. Your mission is to rescue hostages, destroy a power reactor, and get out of the mine before it explodes. You hurtle through shafts, shoot robot drones, and replenish your supplies. As you maneuver your fighter craft through the mine, it bobs slightly as if on a cushion of air. You actually feel as if you are floating gravity-free.
Sounds come from all directions, making for a realistic experience.
As your skills improve, the mining robots learn to outwit you, adjusting strategies based on your movements. To test Descent's multiplayer features, I enlisted volunteers to play a network game on four Power Macs connected over Ethernet. The test players included expert gamers as well as novices who had never touched a joystick. Each player remarked on how unaware they were of their physical surroundings while playing. We all agreed that Descent sets a new standard for player immersion.