Windows

Marathon 2: Durandal

Either way, graphics aside, the Marathon trilogy, and Marathon 2 especially, is easily up to the quality of Halo. The gameplay is fast, explosive and offers a challenge, the sound is good quality despite the lack of in-game music and the storyline is amazing. This game easily deserves a 5.

Beyond that, it's a nice conversion. The hi-res graphics are brilliant and the pace is smooth on a Pentium 133. You won't miss anything for not having played the original Marathon. This is a much more sophisticated creation. One hitch: I had consistent problems with memory-related crashes at boot. Welcome to the IBM, guys.

As with all great multiplayer action games, Marathon 2 rates way up there on the Office-Productivity-Kill-O-Matic and the Cuss-O-Meter, and any minor flaws (such as the inability to jump) are nicely sidestepped by crude fixes (such as the ability to "help" someone get some air by detonating a grenade at his feet). Marathon 2 is a distance runner, and with all its perks and goodies should more than tide over the 3-D shooter fanatic until the totally customizable Marathon Infinity comes out for the PC.

Marathon 2 does clean up some flaws from the original, namely in adding some needed variety to its environments. The plot is an excellent continuation, and magnificent at setting up noteworthy battles. When it works, it goes far beyond simply shooting 2D sprites, and far closer to playing a keystone role in a futuristic resistance. However, the choice to give PC players only a third of the story - and drop them right in the middle, no less - hurts the series immeasurably for the PC crowd. The sequel does feature a contained story arc, but without the backstory and experiences from the previous game, a lot of the point is going to go right over players' heads. Do yourself a favor and check out the first (all three are freeware now). If you still want more, Marathon 2 will be more than ready to deliver.

In the end, I highly recommend Marathon 2 as a fun and engrossing game that engages your wits and strategy skills as well your hand-eye coordination and your ability to destroy mindlessly everything in sight. One has a real sense of fulfillment after completing a level, and sometimes you just want to pause and take in the stunning backdrops during gameplay. It is certainly a pleasure to have a thoughtful and innovative player in the PC 3D first-person shooter market, rather than another company pandering cheap rapidly-thrown-together imitative clones hoping to make a fast buck before unsuspecting customers discover they have indeed wasted their money.

PC users should rejoice at the addition of Marathon 2 to their computer's library. It follows in the footsteps of other great Mac games that ended up on the PC, such as Myst. Though not as smooth and textured as it's Mac counterpart, Marathon 2 is still worth a look from any fan of this genre.

Basically, it's a good 3D action game, but not an epochal event. Stiff hardware requirements, quirky controls, and a lack of anything that's really new for PC gamers makes this something less than the breakthrough game Bungie has promised. Still, it's worth a look.

Marathon 2 är ett skojigt spel som dock känns mycket föråldrat om man jämför det med ett spel inom samma genre, nämligen Quake. Men om du fortfarande gillar Doom så tycker jag gott att du kan ge Marathon 2 åtminstone ett försök.

Und wieder einmal "beglückt" ein Softwarehaus den Markt mit einem 3D-Actionspiel. Den eigentlich einzigen Vorteil zieht Durandal aus der Verfügbarkeit für PCs und Macintosh-Computer. Alle darüber hinausgehenden Eigenschaften des Spiels sind in anderen Vertretern dieses Genres schon hunderte Male vorexerziert worden.