Oh man, your first experience with first-person gaming was literally being dropped in the ocean. Descent was a fantastic game but not one I would recommend, if it can be helped, being someone's first experience with the genre.
My first Descent experience was on PlayStation. I picked up a PlayStation when Twisted Metal 2 released and the Electronic's Boutique store I bought it from, I was a regular there, gave me a copy of Descent for free. I played Descent a lot more than I did TM2 because it was so new to me.
My first experience with first-person shooters was Killing Time on 3DO though - loved that game, grabbed it in a heartbeat at a yardsale for PC only to be disappointed that it was different than the 3DO version, by a lot.