Descent – Alpha Download

Descent, being created by Klarice, is an ultra creepy horror title that distills jump-scare horror down to it’s purest form as you descend ever downwards into it’s nightmarish stairwell.

In Descent you play as a person meant to represent yourself. Waking up in a cold, dark and dimly lit area completely surrounded by brick walls. With only one possible direction to head, and no signs or level markers around to indicate where you are, you decide to traverse the extremely dark and narrow corridors to hopefully find a glimmer of hope or a slither of light leading to your salvation. As claustrophobia sets in and gleaming red eyes start to stare into your very soul from the darkness before you you’ll soon realise that escaping this linear hell is nigh impossible.

Although the Descent doesn’t look particularly flash and may make some people turn their heads and look the other way, the looping music will lure you in with its ominous sound. As this loop continues to play as you traverse the never-ending tunnel it will slowly tear at you, making you feel truly alone and isolated creating a superb immersive experience that some horror games of this day an age tend to lack. The amount of darkened corridors in Descent really make you feel as though the walls are closing in around, making this part of the level design absolute key to the games suspenseful nature. This suspense keeps you clutching your mouse from the moment the music begins to resonate through your ears, leaving your defences down for what’s to come next.

Those who aren’t keen on jump scare horror games should give Descent a wide birth, as it essentially takes the jump scare formula and distils it down to it’s most streamlined form – there’s no story and the gameplay is fairly simple, but you can cut the tension with a knife. It’s also still very early in development, so we expect more to be added in the future, but for those that enjoy a good jump scare, Descent will have your heart racing from the moment you start your walk down, until you finally meet with your grim fate.

Download the Descent Alpha Here (Windows only)