Reviewed by: Brent Hecht
Review Date: 8.27.99
Publisher: Bungie Software
MSRP: $19.95
Bungie has quite a history of innovating for the Mac platform. As the company slaves
over two widely anticipated releases, Oni and Halo, it has decided to share its history
with the Mac community. The Bungie Mac Action Sack includes full versions of the
company's early titles.
Minotaur
In Minotaur, players must gather an array of weapons and magical tools in order to
defeat the other players. The graphics are entirely two-dimensional, the effects
are dismal at best, and the game only supports network play. However, the 
game does offer a wide selection
of characters, mazes, weapons, and tools. While this massive collection can be confusing
to the first time player, once the he or she has gotten used to the game, it can
provide quite a lot of entertainment.
Pathways into Darkness
Pathways into Darkness can best be described as Wolfenstein with a role-playing element
mixed in. In the game, players must travel around alien infested ruins in order to
acquire treasure, gain points, and save the world. While the game's graphics are
absolutely terrible by today's standards, the gameplay can be somewhat entertaining.
Also, like Minotaur, the game has very small system requirements, making it an excellent
choice for a Mac gamer with an old machine.
Marathon
In a time when PC gamers were going crazy over Doom, Mac gamers were left in the
dark. Bungie came to the rescue with Marathon. Arguably the company's first big hit,
Marathon is a Doom-like shoot 'em up, first person action game with several unique
features. The most prominent of these features is its network gaming support. Playing
network games with Marathon still, after all these years remains incredibly entertaining.
Another positive aspect of the game is that it will run reasonably well on Macs with
the almost-ancient 68040 processors!
Marathon II: Durandal
Marathon II: Durandal is fantastic proof that the phrase "sequels always suck"
is completely untrue. The game succeeds in enhancing all of the positive characteristics
of the original, while downplaying the negative points. The game sports a faster,
yet still petite graphics engine, more weapons, more scenarios, and more grotesque
looking bad guys. Marathon II's network gaming support is so well executed that I
was able to play a full two-player death match over a LocalTalk connection with very
little visible slowdown! In addition, Bungie somehow managed to make all these improvements
without sacrificing support for older Macs. Like the original, the game runs satisfactorily
on most 68040 Macs.
Marathon Infinity
Marathon Infinity is the Marathon to end all Marathons. Designed to provide endless
game play, Marathon Infinity sports a 
new plot with new levels, scenarios, and maps. It also packs
a full-featured level and objects editor, which sport the ability to create maps
and objects, and alter the effects and physics of any Marathon II or Marathon Infinity
map. As a result, Marathon Infinity alone is worth the $19.99 price asked for the
entire Bungie Mac Action Sack.
Abuse
In Abuse, players must save the world by destroying mutants and defeating each and
every one of the many side-scrolling levels. If players can get used to the strange
controls (by default, the mouse controls the gun's aim), they are almost sure to
find the game somewhat entertaining. Also, like all the other games in the bundle,
it will run on 68040 Macs. However, once the player has gotten over the initial thrill
of running back and forth shooting mutants, the game gets rather mundane and repetitive.
The game does come bundled with a level editor, but it is so complicated that Bungie
itself will not provide technical support for it.
Bottom Line
The Bungie Mac Action Sack is one of the best game bundles I have ever come into
contact with. While some of the games in the Sack may be too old to be entertaining,
combined they should definitely be worth the $19.99 price. 68k Mac owners, who have
long been left in the dark when it comes to gaming, will especially appreciate this
incredible bundle of games. If you missed these games the first time around, this
may be your chance to cash in.
Score
8 out of 10
Requirements
Vary for each game
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