"Can't beat Half Life... but it's Multiplayer sure can!"

Macintosh's gaming industry has really started to catch up lately, with money being spent to port games from PC over to Mac in a month or less as opposed to two or three years ago when IF ANY games would get ported to Mac, us Mac users would have to wait a good 6 month to a YEAR. Age of Empires, a 1996 game, took THREE YEARS to be ported onto the Mac!

But gripes about that aside and onto the review.

Halo is a great shooter, definitely, not exactly the best storyline, but definitely the second or third best FPS out there. So I went out and paid a pretty price of $89 (keep in mind that any prices mentioned in this review are AUSTRALIAN dollars) to buy this game for my iMac.

So I got home and booted up my one year old iMac (that was already getting worn from too much use) and played to my hearts content. Keeping in mind that I have to deal with it's minimum graphics, using my pre-installed 32mb graphics card (and my type of iMac can't get upgraded), but it was definitely fun all the while.

Campaign: 6/10

I dunno, whether it's the crappy storyline or the feeling about it, I just didn't get that feeling you get when playing it on the Xbox, it's definitely nowhere NEAR as fun on campaign mode on the computer, but all the levels are there, all the weapons are there, hell, all the places etc. are there, including the Megg (Meg Egg, which I will never tell you where it is).

Multiplayer: 10/10

Best. FPS Multiplayer. Ever.
There's two new weapons, two new vehicles and four new levels that never made it to the Xbox version in this. The Flamethrower and the Plasma Rifle have made it to Multiplayer (Multiplayer ONLY), the two new vehicles include the Rocket Warthog, just like the gun one but shooting rockets and coloured black, and straight from single player; the Banshee! So now you can fly over your enemies and shoot them down with them having a hard time aiming!

The four new MP levels are Ice Fields, much like Sidewinder with it's freezing cold weathers and such and in a way representing the outside area of Assault on the Control Room. Then there's Gephyrophobia, a long bridge stretching to each base with ghosts and banshees as such, not to mention how it also represents the bridge areas of AotCR. Danger Canyon is a stretch of land in a valley type area which is basically a typical battle ground, with most of the action you'd expect to get in the middle area. There are two general paths to the enemy base, either by vehicle in the outside area or thru the tunnels where just as much turmoil can happen, but with enough areas for some stealth action. The final new level is possibly the biggest multiplayer level in the game, the level layout being a horizontal 8 to represent the name, Infinity, I haven't been too sure which level this represents yet, but even if it doesn't, it's THE BEST level to have a Race on, not to mention a huge enough level to make a 16 player match silent until the first gun shot.

Another good thing about the Multiplayer is it's feeling that comes with it, the Multiplayer on the Xbox version would often be overlooked and yawned at with very little to merit from while the MP is the key element of Halo for PC and Mac. There's definitely a better feeling that comes from your computer on MP, not to mention instead of playing against up to three players at your very own living room on split screens, you have your very own screen and you can take on up to 15 other players, this adds much to stealth as such, with your opponents not knowing where the hell you are. Not to mention unaware if there's a sniper a mile away that has your head within sight.

Overall- 8/10

A brilliant game flawed only by it's Single Player and supported all the way by it's Multi.

Go out and buy it now!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/07/04