DescentBB

I'm going with the vulcan driller's scream, which practically used to give me nightmares, and still makes me uneasy. Runner up goes to the green platform bot, which sounds like some hellspawn.

The hairs on the back of my neck go up when the thief bot, 'hums'. Both me and my brother agree no other game has that effect on us.

the growl from those napalm-shooting red RAS bots. damn those those things are aggressive

The driller's shriek, the green platformer's gurgling hellspawn growl, and Plasma Driller's weirdo voice.

The voices in D1 were awesome TBH.

I think the creepiest one was the fox attack bot from D2, but the coolest robot voice was the green spider.

The weird thing about the fox and the green spider is the Fox howls and the Green Spider shrieks, even though, actual foxes don't howl and actual spiders don't shriek

anywho, The thief's hum, the Fox's unnecessary howl, the Fusion Hulk's roar-esque or growl-esque sound, The Driller's scream, and I can't think of any others' sound effects that sounds creepy.

The noise a diamond claw makes in D2 is a little creepy, especially if you are in a dark level and it comes from behind you.

The Super Hulk's ticking

Absolutely, the driller's shriek. With the other ones, you hear them, and have time to at least attempt a dodge... <shiver>

Foil wrote:Absolutely, the driller's shriek. With the other ones, you hear them, and have time to at least attempt a dodge... <shiver>

I have to concur on this. But, when I first played D1, EVERY bot I heard for the first time freaked me out. The super hulks particularly gave me the willies for the longest time.

That's one thing that D3 was really lacking. Epic creepiness from the bots. The sounds went a long way in defining what each bot's personality and type was. I miss that. Just another example that excellent foley is just as important as eyecandy.

I remember the sound from the cloaked class 1 driller; it sound similar to the Sidearm modula from D2. That creeped me out in my early years of SP.

The advanced lifter (4-armed red bot) from D1 was creepy, especially when playing on a version that had the bug where music wouldn't play past level 7. You're moving around in the dark silence and you hear this sort of humming or ruffling sound, and you realize this 4 swing-arm freak of a bot is behind you and about to scratch at your shields.

Duper wrote:

Foil wrote:Absolutely, the driller's shriek. With the other ones, you hear them, and have time to at least attempt a dodge... <shiver>

I have to concur on this. But, when I first played D1, EVERY bot I heard for the first time freaked me out. The super hulks particularly gave me the willies for the longest time.

That's one thing that D3 was really lacking. Epic creepiness from the bots. The sounds went a long way in defining what each bot's personality and type was. I miss that. Just another example that excellent foley is just as important as eyecandy.

In the original version of D1, it was next to impossible to dodge homing missles in an open room (it's BEYOND easy now). So when I heard the super hulk ticking, you knew you were about to be in for a tough fight.

Duper wrote:

Foil wrote: That's one thing that D3 was really lacking. Epic creepiness from the bots.

Dunno about you but the growl from those red flame-shooting RAS gyro's in D3 always manages to freak me out

Yeah, you hear some warbled robotic voice say \"BURN!\"

Also one of the level Bosses, that says “Coward”.

Which one?

I don't know if this counts, but the first time I played through D3 that darn train in the tunnels was pretty danged scary.

AlphaDoG wrote:I don't know if this counts, but the first time I played through D3 that darn train in the tunnels was pretty danged scary.

I thought it was some crazy bug the first time that happened.

Super hulk sound made me feel uneasy at times. Not so much in descent 1 but in descent 2 vertigo. I couldn't tell if it was the super hulk or the robot that fired homing flash missiles.

None of the bot sounds have ever seriously freaked me out, but the squeal from those vulcan drillers make me say, \"crap, where is it?!\"

The D2 Lv 16 boss is pretty spooky because when you are looking out ftom that hole that opens up into the boss room, younwill hear it coming from the left...then the right...then freaking in front of you!!!
D2 Lv 24's boss actually says \"Can't hide in here.\"

Speaking of Vertigo, the Maximum Amplified Xenophobe (MAX) was one freak out bot, both in looks and in behavior; I'm not sure about its sound, though.

Sapphire Wolf wrote:The weird thing about the fox and the green spider is the Fox howls and the Green Spider shrieks, even though, actual foxes don't howl and actual spiders don't shriek.

Fox attack bots and green spiders don't really look like foxes or spiders, though. I think FOX is more likely an acronym for something, and I think the green spider got its name because it seems based on the same idea as the spider from D1.

Did I mention? What the Fusion Hulk says is very, very reminescent of the Polish phrase \"ja stwierdzę\", which means \"I will ascertain\". I'm a native speaker, so it occurred to me almost instantaneously.

I thought it might be saying \"Gleegsnagzip\", the word that makes the world explode in the Demented Cartoon Movie. j/k but it would certainly fit .

BTW - The Fox attact bot actually sounds a lot like an arctic fox's \"caw\", if you slowed it down.

Oh, and btw I think that the robot sound best at instilling long-lasting terror is the perpetual ticking of the D1 bosses. Daaamn, when I was a kid I used to hide in that level 7 red door entry corridor, afraid to even stick my nose into the main chamber. And when I did... BOOM. Smart missile death.

I think I'll play me some Level 7 again, just to savor the fear.

The robot sound that was the best at instilling a sense of "I MUST KILL THIS THING NOW!" was the Driller in D1. I really wish they would have put the right sound in the 22KHz sound effects file for D2. It just sounds cheesy in Vertigo.

Now, the sound that makes me the most paranoid is by far the D2 Thief sound. If I hear that and I cant see the thief, I start to freak out because NOBODY steals my ★■◆●. Whenever I'm screwing around in cheat mode in D2, the first thing I do in every level is load up an Earthshaker and nail the thief. The little fucker can steal your god mode for fucks sake!

In D3 the only bot that really instills a sense of fear is the napalm gyro, and his sound effect is kind of bland, but straightforward.

In D3 Mercenary they added another bot worthy of fear: the Mass Driver Stormtrooper. I literally have no idea what sound those make tho as I would always take them out from as far a distance as possible with my own Mass Driver. If they make the same sound as the other storm troopers tho, not really a terrifying or memorable sound at all.

The Thief's sound effect still does a great job of freaking me out, especially since it's not something that stands out all that much unless it's close to dead silent otherwise. Hearing that sound effect on other robots in Descent 2 (namely the mini-reactor and the Medium Lifter) has really thrown off my game in custom missions in the past, too.

The Class 1 Driller is really up there as an effective sound, but since I mostly played on lower skill levels as a kid, I honestly was always freaked out a lot more by the Super Hulk at the time. That low-pitched hum/ticking noise was just the perfect signal for impending doom, beaten only by the bosses' nightmare-inducing engine ticks.



Special mention also goes to the Bulk Destroyer, but it's only because of custom missions so I guess it only half-counts. Never was that afraid of it as a kid, but thanks to "The Enemy Within," I've come to associate it more with the Fusion/Mega-toting Warlord and freak out upon hearing it even in "Counterstrike." XD;; But I suppose that's better than the reverse effect of hearing the Green Spider and thinking of the Mantid...

The Bulk Destroyer is not terrifying. At all.

In fact I consider it a B class threat while the original Vulcan Driller is a class AAA threat.

Super Hulk is a class AAAA threat in D1 and Class AA threat in D2, because of the changes in homers between D1 and D2. Lou Guard by comparison is only class A.

Yay rank inflation!

Honestly, I know the Bulk Destroyer itself isn't terrifying. But like I said, the only reason I ever freak out when I hear one is because I now associate the sound more with the Warlord from TEW. So when I hear that sound now, it's the Warlord that springs to mind and my instinct is to spin around looking for a Fusion/Mega Missile attack. XP


I'd add the Boarshead to the list, but its weapons pretty much drown out its sound effect so it's not as effective. Among Descent 2's bosses, Red Fatty and the Alien 1 Boss have pretty creepy sounds as well, but it's a little strange to me considering they're not the most powerful boss robots.

Honestly I dont think I even know what sound the Boarshead makes. And I rank it an A class threat, only because they mostly appear in cramped areas where their smart missiles can do actual damage.

And the Fire and Alien 2 Bosses make the scariest sounds for me as far as D2 Bosses go. But the most terrifying boss is the level 16 boss.

Seriously, Flash missiles should not be able to turn your screen THAT white. Just a serious design oversight when they designed flash missiles.

Ow... eyes... watering...
Ow... ship... exploding...

Avder wrote:The robot sound that was the best at instilling a sense of "I MUST KILL THIS THING NOW!" was the Driller in D1. I really wish they would have put the right sound in the 22KHz sound effects file for D2. It just sounds cheesy in Vertigo.

I have done some sound engineering on that file and came up with a version that doesn't increase in pitch and velocity in 44KHz. It's in the sound file ready for descent 1,5, and also contains all the custom robot sounds for the rest of D1 robots. All of them. And changed some shooting sounds too, like the class 1 drone and red spider's from laser to the rightful pulse rock cutter sound, which was somehow absent from descent 2. This came at the cost of replacing some of the multiplayer sounds, though.

I told you before, the pulse rock cutter sound is in D2. You can listen to it in DTX2 and it sounds significantly different from the lasers -- in game, with all the distractions the difference isn't as noticable as it is on lower quality but that's hardly the developers' fault.

Same goes for the Secondary Lifter, actually... her sound effect isn't significantly different except that the high quality makes parts of it noticable that weren't as noticable in D1. If you listen closely to it in D1 it still has all the parts of the sound effect that were in D2.

Alter-Fox wrote:I told you before, the pulse rock cutter sound is in D2. You can listen to it in DTX2 and it sounds significantly different from the lasers -- in game, with all the distractions the difference isn't as noticable as it is on lower quality but that's hardly the developers' fault.

Same goes for the Secondary Lifter, actually... her sound effect isn't significantly different except that the high quality makes parts of it noticable that weren't as noticable in D1. If you listen closely to it in D1 it still has all the parts of the sound effect that were in D2.

Well yeah, my bad. I wasn't really sure whether the file was in the D2 ham or not, anyway it wasn't allocated to the robots that should use it. So it had to be changed.

...anyway it wasn't allocated to the robots that should use it...

Really? Because I hear it all the time when I fight a Spider or a Class 1 drone in a D2 mission (like Vertigo or Lost Levels).

It just sounds wrong tho. Like an airy sort of sound, almost like a whistle, rather than an electronic pulsing sort of sound.

Truth is, Spiders make the same shooting sound as PIGs do.

Nope. Listen closely .
I noticed it first with the music on, but turning it off might help.
Or just turn on one of my remakes if you want to compromise.

I really wish they would have kept the D1 robots sounds and AI intact in D2. Thats always felt like a shortcoming of D2. They dont properly support all the robots we grew to love in D1.

D2X-XL reimplements the D1 sounds and AI but only in D1 missions.
Using D1 robot sounds and AI in D2 missions would be a cool feature to ask for, and I doubt it would be much work... Karx has stopped adding new features to the program (about time!); but I doubt he'd mind if someone else went into the source and added it, so long as they cleared it with him first.