Tag: Action Games

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From the archive: this review first ran on the Mac Gaming Alliance (MGA), the Mac games site that lived here on DimensionZ in the late 1990s. It was published August 1999 and is reproduced as originally written, with the original screenshots (click to enlarge). More in the Mac Gaming Alliance archive.

Publisher	Activision, Ported by Logicware
Tested on	B&W G3 400Mhz w/128 mb RAM
Gameplay	4 / 5 apples
Graphics & Sound	4 / 5 apples
Interface	4 / 5 apples
Difficulty	4 / 5 apples
Bugs	4 / 5 apples
Overall	4 / 5 apples
Reviewed by	Marty Dodge

Quake II came out at a rather sad time for Logicware; their buddies at ID had just released Quake3test and damn if it wasn’t released for the Mac FIRST! You would think amidst all the hype and gloating of Q3test, QII would have gotten lost in the shuffle, especially for those only interested in the multiplayer aspect of QII.

To be honest, I thought QII was too little too late when it first came out for the Mac, having come out over 6 months after its PC version. It seemed to me that Q2 was blinded like many games by the tour de force that is Q3test. That was before I discovered the pleasures of GameRanger beta (soon to be shareware,) a nifty little piece of software that allows online players to find other Mac gamers to battle with from all over the world. Then in a bit of luck for old Logicware, ID messed up its test releases for Q3 and delayed the Mac version (but not the PC or Linux) for almost a week. Suddenly denied of my Q3test fix, and then unable to get to Beta 1.08 working for another week, QII began to look at lot more interesting. I suspect that I was not the only feeling this way.

Believe me, once you play QII online, you will find it pretty damn near addictive. With its larger variety of maps, from Capture The Flag to Action Quake II (both of which work on the Mac), it takes a lot to get bored with QII. Q3test still only has three maps, and now is even worse for high pingers, due to some network coding changes. QII however has some of the best network coding I have ever seen. It runs smoothly and is playable at all but the highest of ping rates. You might not win but with a bit of skill, it is possible to get in the upper third of the rankings, and very possible to have a hell of a lot of fun in CTF.

But wait, some may say, how about the solo play? Well as you would expect from a Quake game, the solo play is not much to write home about. For one thing, despite my setting my game video settings to max, it was too dark to see anything. The plot is Quake-like: pretty non-existent. The baddies are nasty looking alien creatures with all sorts of cybernetic enhancements. The most impressive are the diabolical Tank and Tank Commander. Some of the movement for the monsters is a big ungainly and nowhere near as graceful as say the aliens in Unreal. The AI falls short of that in Unreal, and the levels are just not that exciting. In short, if you are looking for satisfying solo play, other than basic practice with the weapons for Internet play, consider purchasing Unreal or Klingon Honor Guard instead. Graphically QII does not hold a candle to Unreal or KHG or even Dark Vengeance. There is one bonus from the its non-intensive graphic engine; the fact that requirements for QII are way below that of any of the games listed above, Q2 is not a RAM pig like Unreal and runs quite smoothly at 60 Megs of RAM dedicated to it as compared to base 96 for Unreal.

QII requires OpenGL and a 3D card in order to be seen in its full glory. On the box it states that this is limited to Rage 128 only, however you can download the latest Mesa Drivers to play it with your Voodoo card. The game also requires OS8.1 (for 3D accelerated play, 7.5.3 for non-accelerated software mode), at least a 603e PPC, 4x CD-ROM drive, virtual memory and 48 Megs of minimum RAM to run. Logicware have produced a good port, that while having a PC-ish feel, is still user friendly enough for a Mac user. Moreover this port is very stable both in solo and Internet play.

I would highly recommend this game to anyone interested in high speed, adrenaline filled on-line or LAN based Deathmatch play, but for anyone looking for solo thrills, look elsewhere.

Find a copy

Quake II has been out of print for years, but used copies of the original Mac release still turn up, and some classics have been re-released for modern systems. Search for Quake II on Amazon.

Ratings use the MGA’s original 1–5 apple scale. Prices, system requirements and web links in this review are from the time it was written.

This post has affiliate links. If you buy through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more.

From the archive: this review first ran on the Mac Gaming Alliance (MGA), the Mac games site that lived here on DimensionZ in the late 1990s. It was published around late 1998 and is reproduced as originally written, with the original screenshots (click to enlarge). More in the Mac Gaming Alliance archive.

Publisher	Electronic Arts
Tested on	PowerMac 8600/300 w/ Power3D (Voodoo1 4mb)
Gameplay	5 / 5 apples
Graphics & Sound	5 / 5 apples
Interface	5 / 5 apples
Difficulty	5 / 5 apples
Bugs	5 / 5 apples
Overall	5 / 5 apples
Reviewed by	Jonathan Dreyer

Future Cop is when of those rare simultaneous releases for both Mac and PC. The reason being that it is a hybrid CD. I for one am very glad that the Mac version of Future Cop found it’s way onto the CD. Future Cop is one of the best games I have played in a very long time. You see the scores above, that’s not a mistake, Future Cop is the first title I have ever reviewed to score perfect on our ratings system. We’ll have to come up with some sort of award for it.

From the Future Cop box: In the 21st Century, gangs have taken over L.A. Mutant crooks packin’ thermo nukes, bio-agents, and other bad mojo are laying siege to the City of Angels. Hit the streets in a revolutionary hovercraft, walker, and all purpose justice dispenser. With ceramite armor, the latest plasma technology, and an awesome array of high-tech weapons, it’s like playing “good cop/bad cop” only without the good cop.

Gameplay

Future Cop is your standard above 3rd person perspective shoot’em up with some interesting twists that make for exciting gameplay. The coolest part of the gameplay I found to be the ability to change from a mech-like walker to a hovercraft and back. There are some situations where you have no choice but to only use one or the other (such as the hovercraft over water), but in most cases you can use the form of vehicle you feel most comfortable with. With either vehicle you have access to three different weapons out of a total of 15. One “Gun” weapon (such as a mini-gun or flamethrower), one “Heavy” weapon (such as missiles), and one “Special” weapon (such as mortars). Each of these weapons also has special weapon upgrades that you will find throughout the game.

Future Cop is really 2 games in one. Crime War and Precinct Assault. Crime War is really your standard shoot’em up setting, you go through 8 stages in L.A., each stage with it’s own bosses, sub-bosses, and puzzles to go through. 8 stages may not seem like a lot, but the stages are very long and no two look the same. In Crime War you can fight alone, or through split-screen, you and a friend can work cooperatively. Precinct Assault is a rather unique concept. Two teams go at it in a battle to invade each other’s bases. During the battle, each side can create automated weaponry (such as tanks and helicopters) and fight for control of the limited number of strategically placed turrets. You can play Precinct Assault with two players, or alone against the “Sky Captain”, an artificial intelligence.

Multiplayer is support in Future Cop as I already stated through split screen play, and also by Appletalk and TCP/IP. While network games are playable over a LAN, TCP/IP games require both players to have high speed Internet connection (sorry modem users).

Graphics and Sound

Future Cop supports 3D accelerators using 3Dfx or Rage chipsets. Although Future Cop also supports software rendering, I found the software mode (although it looks almost as good as 3D accelerated mode) to be a bit slow and chunky. With my Power3D card the graphics in Future Cop look marvelous, the enemies, and especially the smoke effects are very well done. But the best looking effects were the explosions. Future Cop is one of the few titles, if not the only title, that supports 800 by 600 resolution with the 4 megabyte Power3D card. Future Cop should look just as stunning if not more so on an iMac.

The ambient background music seemed to have struck just the right chord in me. I found the music to have the perfect balance of not leaving an empty void, without becoming totally annoying. On the sound effects side of the coin, I began to grow a little impatient with the sounds of crying civilians, maybe that was EA’s idea, make the civilians so annoying you have to kill them?

Interface/Difficulty

Future Cop has a nice mac friendly interface complete with all the standard dialogue boxes.

There are the three standard difficulty levels in FC, Easy, Medium, and Hard. The differences between the difficulty levels are very hard to notice without really trying to find them. In other words, on first glance all the difficulty levels seemed the same to me.

Bugs

I found Future Cop to be bug free.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Future Cop is one of the best games I’ve played in a long time. It’s definitely one of the best games of 98, if not the best! It’s low system requirements (compared to other recent 3D fare) and excellent price (19.95 at most outlets, I’ve seem it as low as 14.99 in some stores) make Future Cop a very attractive title. I strongly reccomend this game.

More Info

Minimum System Requirements

120 MHz or faster PowerMac
24 mb RAM

Recommended System

180 MHz or faster PowerMac
32 mb RAM
3D hardware acceleration

More information is avaliable at the official Future Cop web site at http://www.FutureCop.com/

Find a copy

Future Cop: L.A.P.D. has been out of print for years, but used copies of the original Mac release still turn up, and some classics have been re-released for modern systems. Search for Future Cop: L.A.P.D. on Amazon.

Ratings use the MGA’s original 1–5 apple scale. Prices, system requirements and web links in this review are from the time it was written.

This post has affiliate links. If you buy through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more.

From the archive: this review first ran on the Mac Gaming Alliance (MGA), the Mac games site that lived here on DimensionZ in the late 1990s. It was published September 1998 and is reproduced as originally written, with the original screenshots (click to enlarge). More in the Mac Gaming Alliance archive.

Publisher	MacSoft
Tested on	Powermac G3 233 96 RAM
Gameplay	4.5 / 5 apples
Graphics & Sound	5 / 5 apples
Interface	5 / 5 apples
Difficulty	4 / 5 apples
Bugs	3 / 5 apples
Overall	4 / 5 apples
Reviewed by	Marty Dodge

Unreal, it came out on the PC months ago, set the PC world afire. Now it is out on the Mac, will it do the same? Easy this, of course it will, Unreal is simply the best 1st person shooter ever to appear on any platform. Sure it has some faults. This is the first and only game I have ever made a point to explore everything possible on my first time through. Even without a 3D card the game is stunning, absolutely stunning. It is the best looking game ever.

(Click on Picture to Expand)

Gameplay

The gameplay is linear and gets fairly repetitive after a while. Kill and hunt for buttons/levers/switches, but then again every game of this type basically boils down to these elements. The AI for the monsters is the best I have seen, they run around, hide and retreat when being pummelled in a one on one. Some of are even bright enough to engage in pretty impressive ambushes and pincer movements. The weaponry on the other hand, looks good but is a bit underpowered. Unreal has a candidate for most useless weapon in a game, the ASMD. Never depend on it, it is pretty useless. There also no, huge nasty weapon, pocket nuke variety. The RezorJack and the Eightball are the most useful and my favourites.

Unreal seems to me to have more replay value that most games of this ilk. There is suppose to be a Marathon TC for it soon, so the engine will be going for a long time methinks. Another reason that the game will be played over and over again is the fly cheat, this function allows you to fly around the level and see it in all its finery. Well worth it.

I am unable to play multiplayer because of a rubbish internet connection and few people I know have computers able to handle the monster that is Unreal.

(Click on Picture to Expand)

Graphics and Sound/Interface/Difficulty

Well there is not much one can say about either, other than wow. Nothing I have ever seen in any genre of game comes close to this. Nothing. There are places where things bleed into each other but that is rare. The music and visuals combine for an amazing ambience with is really apt to drag you in and leave you there. The interface is incredibly good and allows an amazing amount of feedback. While the mouse/keyboard combination is tricky to get used to, once it is mastered it provides incredible game play. Unreal will be a major time suck, even as a solo game.

The game is not hard to play once you master the controls and know what to look for. The lighting even on the brightest of settings can be hard to deal with at first. Underwater and dark areas are also hard on the eyes. The biggest frustration is jumping up on ledges and the like. One has to perfectly aligned is some cases, this can be a tad annoying. The fly function solves this when you get really bogged down. A two button mouse or joystick would help when it comes to secondary fire, which is control on the keyboard. I have actually been too lazy to find a better more suitable key.

Bugs

There are a few annoying ones. Two of the levels I have played, so far, have areas where loading/saving causes the game to crash. Oddly enough this is only an isolated problem. There is some lagging in some of the more crowded rooms as well. This still occurs despite the fact that I am giving the game 96 RAM to run with.

(Click on Picture to Expand)

Conclusion

Unreal is, well, unreal. It is an amazing game that has no competitors on the Mac. Its big problem is the fact that it requires so much powerful hardware. You cannot play this game is an reasonable fashion on anything less than a G3 with more than 96 RAM. The requirements are almost obscene. Saying that, Mark Adams and company have done a cracking job with this port. It was done quickly and well.

So basically if you really want to enjoy this game here is what you do: 1. Buy a G3 2. Get as much RAM as you can afford (96+) 3. Get a 3d Card 4. Get a cable modem or a ISDN line 5. get some rich friends who can get all of the above as well.

Find a copy

Unreal has been out of print for years, but used copies of the original Mac release still turn up, and some classics have been re-released for modern systems. Search for Unreal on Amazon.

Ratings use the MGA’s original 1–5 apple scale. Prices, system requirements and web links in this review are from the time it was written.

This post has affiliate links. If you buy through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more.

From the archive: this review first ran on the Mac Gaming Alliance (MGA), the Mac games site that lived here on DimensionZ in the late 1990s. It was published March 1998 and is reproduced as originally written. More in the Mac Gaming Alliance archive.

Publisher	Macsoft
Tested on	Performa 5260/100 Mhz
Gameplay	5 / 5 apples
Graphics & Sound	3 / 5 apples
Interface	4 / 5 apples
Difficulty	5 / 5 apples
Bugs	4 / 5 apples
Overall	4 / 5 apples
Reviewed by	Jonathan Dreyer

You are DukeNukem, ready to kick some alien butts! Aliens have invaded LA and it’s up to you to wipem out!

Gameplay

I really enjoyed the gameplay of Duke. There’s 4 different episodes each with 7 to 11 levels and different plots. I think the best feature of this game is the interaction with Duke’s environment. Opening doors, shooting holes in the wall, blowing up toilets and garbage cans, riding subway trains, and handing money to the exotic dancers (making them strip) are just some of the cool things you can do with Duke you can also relieve yourself in the toilet. It’s a standard 3D shootem up game, you use the arrow keys to move around, fire, crouch, jump, use items such as a Jetpak or steroids. In each level there are many different guns and aliens to pick up and wipe out. I think the best part of Duke is the sound effects, the sounds are great this has the best sound effects of any Shootem up game I’ve played. But where Duke excels in sound it lacks in graphics, Duke was a straight Mac port which means the graphics weren’t redone like LucasArts did for DarkForces and therefor the graphics in Duke look very blocky.

Interface, Difficulty, and Reliability

Lion did a good job of porting Duke, all the options have Mac dialogue boxes unlike Doom. Changing the controls, sound, and difficulty is very very simple.

I found Duke Nukem refreshingly challenging compared to Doom and DarkForces, if you had trouble finishing Dark Forces or Doom then this isn’t the game for you.

You can play Duke Nukem an infinite amount of times using 3rd party maps and/or playing multiplayer games. It’s very fun playing multiplayer games knowing you’re playing against a real person.

Conclusion

In conclusion Duke Nukem 3D is a very good game. I would recommend buying it unless, you don’t buy that many games and have a high end PPC Mac in which case I would say wait for MacQuake.

Find a copy

Duke Nukem 3D has been out of print for years, but used copies of the original Mac release still turn up, and some classics have been re-released for modern systems. Search for Duke Nukem 3D on Amazon.

Ratings use the MGA’s original 1–5 apple scale. Prices, system requirements and web links in this review are from the time it was written.

This post has affiliate links. If you buy through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more.

From the archive: this review first ran on the Mac Gaming Alliance (MGA), the Mac games site that lived here on DimensionZ in the late 1990s. It was published March 1998 and is reproduced as originally written. More in the Mac Gaming Alliance archive.

Publisher	Macsoft
Tested on	PowerMac 6500/250
Gameplay	5 / 5 apples
Graphics & Sound	5 / 5 apples
Interface	5 / 5 apples
Difficulty	4 / 5 apples
Bugs	5 / 5 apples
Overall	5 / 5 apples
Reviewed by	J. Driver

Duke it out in D.C. is an add-on pack created for Duke Nukem 3D. In this expansion pack, you visit important government buildings, historical monuments, museums, and utilities, while tracking down the kidnapped President.

Gameplay

This is an expansion pack for Duke Nukem, so the interface is the same. Gameplay is very fast in this pack, if you have a Power Macintosh. You can go places where the average person in Washington D.C. could not go: in the Oval Office, the FBI lab, the sewer system, and even climb Lincoln’s statue! The most visually amazing level, to me, was the one of the Metro system, Washington D.C.’s subway system. There were abandoned stations, train crashes, extra trains, graffiti, and everything that you would expect out of a big subway system. If you were disappointed with the original subway level in Duke Nukem, then get this pack! Subways, of course, are not everything. My second favorite level was of the Smithsonian! The first time I played that level, I thought it was a total digitized version of that museum! The virtual museum had an art gallery, collections called “Humans in Space”, “The Living Ocean”, and “The Lost Worlds”, many elevators, information desks, vending machines, restrooms, fountains, and more! The only things it were missing were restaurants and gift shops. Overall, it was the best game I ever played!

Screenshots:
Screenshot #1
Screenshot #2
Screenshot #3

Graphics and Sound

There are many new graphics in Duke it out in D.C.: signs of federal buildings, a new brick texture for sewers, textures for the subways, and many more! While there were no new sounds, the textures and levels make up for the loss.

Interface:
There is no new interface in this pack. There were, however, some new graphics in the startup screen.

Difficulty

The levels, while being very large, also supply a good number of enemies. I did feel, however, that weapons could have been more evenly distributed.

Conclusion

Duke it out in D.C. was well worth the wait for a Macintosh version! You actually felt like you were in Washington D.C.! I would highly recommend this expansion pack for anyone interested in America’s capital!

Find a copy

Duke it out in D.C. has been out of print for years, but used copies of the original Mac release still turn up, and some classics have been re-released for modern systems. Search for Duke it out in D.C. on Amazon.

Ratings use the MGA’s original 1–5 apple scale. Prices, system requirements and web links in this review are from the time it was written.

This post has affiliate links. If you buy through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more.

From the archive: this review first ran on the Mac Gaming Alliance (MGA), the Mac games site that lived here on DimensionZ in the late 1990s. It was published January 1998 and is reproduced as originally written. More in the Mac Gaming Alliance archive.

Publisher	MacSoft
Tested on	PowerMac w/Power3D
Gameplay	5 / 5 apples
Graphics & Sound	5 / 5 apples
Interface	5 / 5 apples
Difficulty	4 / 5 apples
Bugs	3 / 5 apples
Overall	5 / 5 apples
Reviewed by	David Leinbach

X-Men: Ravages of the Apocalypse is the prefect add-on to Quake, it adds what Quake lacks, a PLOT! This is a TOTAL conversion for Quake, that means that everything is new, all-new weapons, sound effects, music, and enemies

Gameplay

As I mentioned, this game has a plot, a rather complex one at that. The Evil Apocalypse has cloned the X-Men into his own personal army for world domination. Where do you come into this? Magneto, while no friend of the X-Men, created you, an advanced cyborg to thwart Apocalypse’s evil plans. As a cyborg, your forearms morph into 7 all-new advanced weapons to be used against the sinister X-Clones. There are 12 different X-Men will be fighting, Archangel, Beast, Bishop, Cannonball, Cyclops, Gambit, Iceman, Phoenix, Psylocke, Rogue, Storm, and Wolverine. Of course all the X-Clones have their powerful mutant powers to use against you, i.e. when fighting Wolverine make sure that he is REALLY dead, otherwise his mutant healing factor will bring him back to surprise you.

There are 18 levels in Ravages, each one is unique with it’s own puzzles and setting. There’s a real plot to follow and goals to achieve in every level.

Without a doubt, multiplayer X-Men is WAY better than plain old multiplayer Quake. In Multiplayer X-Men you can play any of the 12 X-Men and use their unique mutant powers. You can have multiplayer games with players just using their mutant powers and no guns to find out which X-Man/Woman is really the most powerful.

Screen shots

320 by 240 Pixel Doubled

640 by 480

3Dfx Enhanced

Graphics & Sound

Coming into this, I had very high standards for the graphics in this game. I can honestly say that this surpassed even my highest expectations. In pixel doubled mode, the graphics were blocky but, in regular 640 by 480, the graphics were wonderful. The real beauty is in the 3Dfx accelerated edition, what can I say except “Absolutely Beautiful!”. For your own comparison, check out my screen shots to the left, they’re all of the same scene in the different resolutions.

The music on the X-Men CD is perfect for the game, it adds just the right amount of atmosphere in. For me, the game just doesn’t seem right without this music. Sound effects for all the weapons are majestic, I’ve been reading the X-Men comics for about 4 years and the sounds in this game were just as I had always imagined them.

Interface
To play X-Men: Ravages of the Apocalypse, you launch a front-end application from which you can start a new game, start a multiplayer game, load an old game, view a cool comic-book style animated intro, and even enter in some extra “command-line parameters”. This is the first official product by the powerhouse mac porting company, Westlake Interactive, programmers from Westlake are responsible for such great Mac ports as Duke Nukem 3D, and Shadow Warrior so they knew what they were doing.

Difficulty

I have no qualms about the difficulty of X-Men, in fact I found it to be just the right balance of difficulty, a much better balance than Duke Nukem or even Normal Quake.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I found X-Men: Ravages of the Apocalypse to be the perfect add-on to Quake, I think that every Quake player out there should rush and get a copy of this! This one of the very few games that if I had a chance to remake it it, I would NOT change a thing! This is a must buy! I can not recommend this enough…

Find a copy

X-Men: Ravages of the Apocalypse has been out of print for years, but used copies of the original Mac release still turn up, and some classics have been re-released for modern systems. Search for X-Men: Ravages of the Apocalypse on Amazon.

Ratings use the MGA’s original 1–5 apple scale. Prices, system requirements and web links in this review are from the time it was written.

This post has affiliate links. If you buy through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more.

From the archive: this review first ran on the Mac Gaming Alliance (MGA), the Mac games site that lived here on DimensionZ in the late 1990s. It was published around 1998 and is reproduced as originally written. More in the Mac Gaming Alliance archive.

Publisher	MacSoft
Tested on	PowerMac 6500 and Performa 575
Gameplay	4 / 5 apples
Graphics & Sound	4 / 5 apples
Interface	4 / 5 apples
Difficulty	5 / 5 apples
Bugs	4 / 5 apples
Overall	4.5 / 5 apples
Reviewed by	J. Driver

Damage Incorporated is a three-dimensional Macintosh game in which you are a Marine sergeant who commands up to four other Marines in six different scenarios. Your goal is ultimately to track down a powerful militia leader and terminate him.

Gameplay

Damage Incorporated is based on the Marathon 2 engine, with some improvements. You can run, jump, duck, and swim through thirty levels. You have ten weapons to choose from. You can also open doors, either mechanical or swinging, some requiring key cards to open. In addition to killing enemies, you may also have to rescue hostages, which talk (assuming you have v. 1.1.) You can also have a game on a LocalTalk network or equivalent. There is, however, no TCP/IP or modem play. Choose your squadmates carefully! If you bring the wrong ones, you could really be asking for trouble, unless you do not mind if they occasionally go TRAITOR or BERSERK. Overall, gameplay is very intense and easy to play, even on a slow machine. One word of advice: get the updated version, v.1.1. It allows hostages to talk, text to appear, and fixes many bugs.

Graphics and Sound

All the textures in Damage Incorporated were either hand-painted or created on Macintosh computers, resulting in a beautiful environment. In addition, levels contain sounds related to the level?s location. And when enemies die, you know when they do. There were a few problems related to sounds not appearing (specifically mission briefings when starting certain levels.) Also, when you are looking at a wall or column, and it is slanted, the texture may look strange.

Interface

Damage Incorporated allows you to use a keyboard or mouse, primarily. It also allows you to change settings very easily. When you bring your map on screen, you can even use your mouse to command your teammates to go to a specific location on the map! This is probably the best feature of the game! Unfortunately, there is no crosshair, something every Build engine-based game has today.

Difficulty

Like the interface, Damage Incorporated also allows you to change the difficulty level, ranging from ?Grenada Landing? to ?War in Vietnam.? This allows both beginners and well-seasoned players to have a great time. And, again, choose your squadmates carefully, because if one of them goes TRAITOR or BERSERK, watch out! This is also on of the game?s best features!

Conclusion

Unlike most games, Damage Incorporated gives what they really want: mass carnage in a great environment. Like in real life, you men can become mentally wounded in combat. Unfortunately, I think it very slightly gives the public an untrue image of the Marine Corps. They are not ?mindless killers? and are the best military unit in the world (in my opinion.)

Find a copy

Damage Incorporated has been out of print for years, but used copies of the original Mac release still turn up, and some classics have been re-released for modern systems. Search for Damage Incorporated on Amazon.

Ratings use the MGA’s original 1–5 apple scale. Prices, system requirements and web links in this review are from the time it was written.

This post has affiliate links. If you buy through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more.

From the archive: this review first ran on the Mac Gaming Alliance (MGA), the Mac games site that lived here on DimensionZ in the late 1990s. It was published around 1998 and is reproduced as originally written. More in the Mac Gaming Alliance archive.

Publisher	id Software (Raven/Lion)
Tested on	Macintosh Quadra 605 (25MHz 68LC040)
Gameplay	4 / 5 apples
Graphics & Sound	5 / 5 apples
Interface	4 / 5 apples
Difficulty	5 / 5 apples
Bugs	5 / 5 apples
Overall	5 / 5 apples
Reviewed by	Jon Ostenson

Hexen is the sequel to the popular PC game Heretic (never released for the Mac). Hexen builds on the DOOM gaming engine, but instead of placing you in the role of space marine, you are launched into a fantasy realm populated with evil creatures after your blood. There’s a nice background story to go along the game in the manual, but it all boils down to you against the vile forces of evil. You’ve got to hack and slash your way to a triumphant end. Before your quest begins, though, you’ll need to decide what character to assume: Fighter, Cleric, or Mage. Each class, naturally, has advantages; the fighter is exceptional at heavy-hitting hand-to-hand combat; the mage does much better at long range attacks, but does less damage than the fighter; the cleric is somewhere in between the other two. Choose your class well, as you may not change during the game and it will influence new weapons that you’ll receive along the way. Once you’ve set up your character, you’re ready to enter the fantastical world of Hexen.

Gameplay & Interface

Hexen does build on the DOOM engine, offering 3D graphics and textures, and interesting weapons and creatures. But Hexen does a lot more than DOOM ever could. Forget the linear, level-by-level progression of DOOM; in Hexen you will travel the same realms time and time again, searching for the solutions to the game’s puzzles. Switches you pull in one area (or “level”) will influence things in another level, possibly helping to solve a puzzle. And the puzzles feature a special programmable scripting system that allowed Raven level designers to introduce more complex puzzles. Because of its non-linear storyline, challenging puzzles, and excellent implementation of textures and superb level design, Hexen has an undeniable feel. As you play, you really feel that you’re in a castle, or a cathedral, or wherever you’re supposed to be. Little effects, like dead blowing leaves, lightning flashes, fog, and other atmospheric effects add a lot to the game’s overall feel.
There is nothing difficult about Hexen’s interface; in fact, if you’ve played DOOM or any other similar first-person games, you’ll have no problem. If you don’t like the default keyboard layout, it’s easily changed; a mouse is also supported for movement. Hexen also has a simple and effective way of dealing with the inventory objects that you’ll gather as you move towards the game’s end.

Graphics & Sound
I’ve already mentioned Hexen’s nice ambient effects. The game’s textures, too, are realistic and well-designed; even at low graphic detail they are superb. One of the best things about Hexen’s graphics is that they don’t seem to slow down gameplay, even on a 68040 processor. I found gameplay to be quite smooth, in spite of the realistic level of detail.
Hexen has a nice accompanying soundtrack with haunting music that adds a lot to the play. Again, as with the graphics, playing the background music doesn’t seem to slow the game’s speed much at all. Every blow dealt by your weapon elicits some nice sound effects, and the ambient sounds (mostly from evil beasts) now and then are very effective, too.

Difficulty & Replayability
Even on the easiest level, Hexen is a challenging game, but there are plenty of healing potions along the way to ensure that you can make it through the levels. As you increase the difficulty, you’ll face more monsters in each area and find fewer healing potions and spell mana. The level design for Hexen is excellent, though, and things are well-balanced in accordance with the difficulty level setting.
Since Hexen allows you to choose one of the character classes, you could play Hexen three times over, trying to master the nuances of each fighting class. That would most likely get tiring, though, pretty quickly. Fortunately, like many first-person games out there, Hexen supports custom maps (WADs). Many of these WAD files are available over the internet. Hexen also supports a pretty reliable (although not bulletproof) system for network play against other human opponents–definitely something to check out.

Conclusion
Hexen, in short, is a great game. I’m very impressed with it’s flexible gameplay and challenging, non-linear puzzles. And its speed (even on the ‘040) is an added bonus. You’ll not see many first-person shoot-em-up games that are so thoughtfully and excellently planned out and executed.

Find a copy

Hexen has been out of print for years, but used copies of the original Mac release still turn up, and some classics have been re-released for modern systems. Search for Hexen on Amazon.

Ratings use the MGA’s original 1–5 apple scale. Prices, system requirements and web links in this review are from the time it was written.

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From the archive: this review first ran on the Mac Gaming Alliance (MGA), the Mac games site that lived here on DimensionZ in the late 1990s. It was published around 1998 and is reproduced as originally written. More in the Mac Gaming Alliance archive.

Publisher	MacSoft
Tested on	Power Macintosh 6100/66
Gameplay	5 / 5 apples
Graphics & Sound	5 / 5 apples
Interface	5 / 5 apples
Difficulty	3 / 5 apples
Bugs	3 / 5 apples
Overall	4 / 5 apples
Reviewed by	Jon Ostenson

You, an ex-Secret Service agent, are called one night by a close friend, Cathryn Mayfield, a U.S. Senator. She tells you about some mysterious goings-on in her office building and asks you to come. When you arrive, you find her brutally murdered, and the building where she worked crawling with suspicious and hostile men. Finding her murderers and exposing their vile plan will thrust you headlong into a world of political intrigue, backstabbing, and mystery.

Gameplay & Interface
While Prime Target employs Bungie’s Marathon engine to provide a 3D first-person shoot-em-up, this game has evolved into something different. Prime Target is meant to be as much a murder mystery as it is a kill fest (although there’s enough killing in this game to satisfy anybody). While, as in other games of this like, you will gather new weapons and ammo along the way, you’ll also pick up clues (mainly in the form of emails and memos) that truly will guide you through your exploration and will ultimately lead you to the game’s resolution. I felt this to be an interesting twist to this genre, and liked it quite a bit. MacSoft has created a pretty interesting plot that seems disturbingly similar to many thrown at us from the page’s of today’s newspapers, but if you’re not interested in it you can still complete the game using simple, brute force.

Prime Target takes place in Washington, D.C., and MacSoft has done a wonderful job of working popular historical buildings into the game. You’ll fight through the Senate office buildings, the Capitol, various National Musems, and even the subways and tunnels between buildings. Because of MacSoft’s attention to realism and detail in designing the maps to accurately portray these famous buildings, you won’t find the same types of puzzles in this game as you would in a Marathon or Doom game; there are no rising platforms or hidden switches here (in fact, you won’t even have to find any secret doors to solve this game, even though they do exist). To compensate for this, Prime Target has the mystery and clues already mentioned, but that alone wouldn’t be enough to replace challenging puzzles–there’s much more to this game. The level layout is such that you really feel a realistic sense of place, and that adds a lot more than you might think. In addition, MacSoft has cunningly placed enemies so that ambushes are a constant threat. There are also some very wide-open areas in these buildings that can make you just as nervous and wary as the crowded exhibition halls of a musem; it’s hard to find a place to hide from hostile fire when you standing in the middle of a rotunda.

Prime Target also features a non-linear game play; just because you finish scouring the Senate office buildings, for example, doesn’t mean you’ll come back for more later. In fact, in order to complete the game you’ll have to traverse a few levels more than once. Progression from level to levle (or building to building) takes place via an old standby–access cards. You’ll usually need at least two access cards to move on to the next level, and there’s plenty of badguys to slaughter along the way. On at least one occasion, though, I thought for sure that the level designers had made a critical mistake in placing these access cards that was preventing me from finishing the game. All I needed, though, was a bit of creative thinking (you’ll understand what I mean when you get there).

The interface is almost exactly like Bungie’s, except that you are allowed to crouch and jump in Prime Target. The on-screen stats are also different and take a bit of getting used to (I was never sure which figure represented my health and which my armor), but it isn’t difficult.

Difficulty & Replayability
I played Prime Target all the way through on the “Fish in a Barrel” difficulty level (the easiest–yeah, I know, but I had to finish it quickly!). Prime Target, like the Marathon games, offers various levels of difficulty, and easiest isn’t necessarily all that easy. There are some pretty tough thugs in this game, and it’ll take a lot of time and experimentation to figure out how to go about eliminating the worst of them. For the most part, the levels were pretty straightforward and not difficult to solve. There are a few areas, though, where you’re required to use some ingenuity to move beyond what appears to be a stopping point. It didn’t take me as long to finish Prime Target as it did the first Marathon game, but I was just as addicted and obsessed with finishing it.

Prime Target allows for network play and includes some network maps (an Ethernet network is recommended). MacSoft even has a net-only version of the game that’s freely downloadable from their web site. All you need is one registered, full-version CD to gather a network game. But those of you without access to an Ethernet network are pretty much out of luck. And, unfortunately, there’s no map editor or anything like that available for Prime Target, so there won’t be any other solo levels out there to play. And as far as replaying the game on different skill levels goes, I’m not sure that it would hold that much for the player that’s already been through the gauntlet of levels.

Graphics & Sound
Prime Target’s graphics are very nice. The textures used to depict the building’s are realistic and believable. It’s a pretty neat feeling to step into the room where the House meets and slaughter a few badguys, then push the congressmen’s chairs all over the place. Even the museums include realistic textures that, although they do repeat themselves, add a lot to the feel of the game.

Usually I turn the soundtrack off on games, since it becomes annoying after a while. Prime Target was the exception, though; this soundtrack sounds straight off a movie, and playing it while your cruising through the tunnels linking buildings makes you feel like you really are in a movie.

Bugs
This was a dissapointing area of the game for me. First of all, if you play Prime Target, make sure you’ve updated the game to version 1.2 (updaters are available from MacSoft’s web site); you won’t get far at all in the game without this update. Even so, there were a few areas where textures were not completely erased, and my movements left ugly trails that usually then crashed my machine (there’s one area like this right towards the very end of the game!). There was also one point in particular where, no matter what I tried, I couldn’t go in a certain direction without crashing. I’ve emailed MacSoft’s techinical support about these bugs but have received no answer. Nonetheless, the game can still be completed despite these bugs, although it does detract a bit from gameplay.

Conclusion
All things considered, Prime Target is an excellent game. MacSoft has made some much-needed improvements to Bungie’s engine that make this an enjoyable game to play. The attention to detail and realism evident in the game is also wonderful, and truly adds a lot to gameplay. Unfortunately, once you play the game I think you’ll find that’s about all there is to it. That one play, though, is definitely worth it.

Find a copy

Prime Target has been out of print for years, but used copies of the original Mac release still turn up, and some classics have been re-released for modern systems. Search for Prime Target on Amazon.

Ratings use the MGA’s original 1–5 apple scale. Prices, system requirements and web links in this review are from the time it was written.