No One Lives Forever
MacPlay
Rating: 5/5

NOLF was one of the most highly anticipated releases of last year. Already hugely popular on the PC, its porting to the Mac was a great relief. Released almost at the same time as the sequel for the PC, it was nonetheless welcomed with open arms. The game marks the return of the unusual first person shooter to the Mac. Not since Deus Ex has the Mac gotten anything this unique . It is great fun and well worth the price of entry.

The storyline involves your playing Kate Archer as she battles the evil H.A.R.M., tries to save the world and while attempting to look stunning all the while. You travel to different locations round the world while battling the underlings of H.A.R.M. The game is not without its humour. There are obvious allusions to Bond films, the Avengers and even Get Smart. The game was made with tongue firmly in check. Sight and audio gags abound. The baddies are right out of central casting, eccentric to the hilt. In addition to the gameplay, it is rather good fun to try to see if you can spot and identify all the references in the game.

Its one of the few games where listening to the NPCs prattle on is not only useful but amusing. Interestingly enough the game actually gets easier as it goes along, the most difficult levels coming very close to the beginning. In the game you get to drive a motorcycle, snowmobile and ride a cable car. Several of the levels are absolutely huge and seemingly go on forever. Not that you mind, of course, since you are too busy making sure you don?t get killed and/or muss your hair. The snowmobile section is most impressive, and needs to be done with utmost care lest you get yourself in an ambush.

Unusually for a MacPlay game , for that matter any game company, it is stable right out of the box. I was unable to crash it even once. As someone who can crash ATMs, this is a great compliment. Unlike some other games one could mention, the game runs well on anything that can run OSX. The review computer was a Emac 700mhz with 384mb of RAM.

Graphically, it looks great with lush levels and lots of colour to go with its Austin Powers-esque 60s theme. The graphics are so good that is sometimes advisable, once alone on a level, to just look around at the scenery.