Descent
The most recommended of 4 space shooters
A faithful web port of the 1995 six-degrees-of-freedom shooter that people who played it as kids and teens still enjoy replaying, with the original feel intact.
A faithful web port of the 1995 six-degrees-of-freedom shooter that people who played it as kids and teens still enjoy replaying, with the original feel intact.
23 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 16
- criticize it
- 7
- approval share
- 70%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 16 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Faithful to the original game
“Impressively faithful, right down to weapons functioning incorrectly at a high framerate!”
Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “Descent, Ported to the Web” “Surprisingly faithful! Works great on Safari, latest Mac OS.”
Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “Descent, Ported to the Web” Strong nostalgia for the original
“the absolute foaming-at-the-mouth excitement we felt for Descent”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “Descent, Ported to the Web” “I absolutely LOVED this game when it first came out.”
Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “Descent, Ported to the Web” “One of the first PC games I ever played”
Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “Descent, Ported to the Web” - Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “Descent, Ported to the Web”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Audio stutters or is garbled
“this seems to stutter pretty badly with audio issues as well for me on Firefox on Linux”
Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “Descent, Ported to the Web” “Audio on Firefox on Linux is, sadly, very very garbled.”
Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “Descent, Ported to the Web” “the audio is extremely choppy”
Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “Descent, Ported to the Web” - Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “Descent, Ported to the Web”
Mouse controls feel wrong
“this version uses mouse up/down to do up/down, and that seems so wrong. Can't play it”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “Descent, Ported to the Web” “Looked all over for an option to flip the controls!”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “Descent, Ported to the Web”
Other space shooters people recommend
The three most recommended other space shooters, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DescentThis page | 16 | 7 | 70% | 3 | — | — |
| Spacedeck X | 9 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
| Overload | 7 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
| Descent 2 | 6 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
19 of the 24 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“The developers of Descent: Underground did not allow players to host their own Descent: Underground servers.”
“4 of us would play at lunch just about every day”
“the absolute foaming-at-the-mouth excitement we felt for Descent”
“this game was so next level at the time”
“the audio is clicking hard, had to mute it”
“the bottom text in the intro is getting cut off”
“Looked all over for an option to flip the controls!”
“it all just starting flowed so damn well”
“this version uses mouse up/down to do up/down, and that seems so wrong. Can't play it”
“works excellent on m2 max”
“the audio is extremely choppy”
“Surprisingly faithful! Works great on Safari, latest Mac OS.”
“I absolutely LOVED this game when it first came out.”
“One of the first PC games I ever played”
“Impressively faithful, right down to weapons functioning incorrectly at a high framerate!”
“I found that helped me enjoy the game more now that I'm older and less tolerant of 6DOF movement.”
“Audio on Firefox on Linux is, sadly, very very garbled.”
“this seems to stutter pretty badly with audio issues as well for me on Firefox on Linux”
“I swear there is an alternative universe where my soul is adrift in that space”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.