Overview
Sin Gold, from MacPlay, is a first person shooter based on the Quake 2 engine. Sin gold is a sequel to the first Sin, released in 2000. It is now a value game on MacPlay's website. 20$. I am sure it can be found cheaper in other places, or used.

Sin Gold, from MacPlay, is a first person shooter based on the Quake 2 engine. Sin gold is a sequel to the first Sin, released in 2000. It is now a "value" game on MacPlay's website (retails for 20$).

From MacPlay's website:

When the CEO of SinTEK Industries begins injecting the streets with a DNA-altering drug, it's time to reassess the laws of morality. When the same twisted bio-chemist plans to overtake the world with her unholy army of genetically-engineered mutants, it's time to rewrite the golden rule.

You are Colonel John R. Blade, head of the most prominent private protection agency in Freeport. Now Elexis Sinclaire is waging her holy war against the security industry... and you along with it. You've made a religion out of fighting crime. Now you're going to make Elexis pay for her sins.

Prepare yourself for a whole new type of action game. Always expect the unexpected. With levels and characters that change depending on the decisions you make and the path that you choose. Never before has a 3D action game ever been produced with this level of reactive technology and innovation.

Get ready for a new era in 3D action gaming. Get ready for Sin.

Gameplay
In the game, you play Colonel John Blade. It s a basic stop the bad guys from doing whatever they are doing shoot 'em up. It starts out with the bad guys robbing a bank, and you're trying to stop them.

There is a lot of violence and gore in this game. When you shoot people, they tend to explode more than anything. You can shoot people in different parts of their bodies and they react. If you shoot them in the leg, it will take more shots to kill them. If you shoot them in the more vital areas, they go down with less shots. I think this is why the game received a Mature rating from the ESRB. It's nice for getting out your aggression.

There are plenty of weapons in the game, and the levels are complex. No flat levels that I saw. The first level starts you in a helicopter returning fire to men on rooftops. It's interesting to shoot from a moving helicopter and actually trying to hit someone. Running up and down escalators, and between different buildings to find the keys and computers to find your objectives keeps the level very exciting. The puzzles are challenging, yet the story line seems a bit immature. Inadequacies in the storyline, on the other hand, seem less important compared to the raw action of the intense game play. A note for parents... there are quite a few profanities thrown around. It would have been nice to be able to choose the level of profanity.

The puzzles are challenging, but the story line seems a bit immature.

MacPlay' s website shows a system minimum requirement of Mac OS 8.6, PowerPC G3 233 MHz, 128 MB RAM, 650 MB HD Space. The disk space requirement seemed excessive, but no way to get around it. Of course the more memory you have, the better the gameplay. The test machine for this review is a 550 Mhz Powerbook with 1gig of memory. Gameplay was great with no noticeable lag.

The game is Multiplayer enabled, but I didn t try that out. If you' re expecting to buy the game and find people to play with, I don t know that you re going to find anyone. The game is already a couple years old, so most gamers have likely moved on. If you can plan an online game with a friend, it promises to be a fun evening.

Summary
This is a basic "shoot the badies" first person shooter. There are some tricky parts that slow down some levels, but the worlds of each level are well designed. My 550 Mhz Powerbook fan was running on high the whole time. There is a lot of graphic violence and profanity, not suitable for younger children (the profanity was a bit overdone even for adults). The game would have gotten higher marks in its day, but by today's standards, it falls short in terms of graphics and effects. For adult entertainment, this game is a lot of fun!

Pros

• Intuitive and easy-to-operate interface
• Great action - great stress relief
• Good variety of levels
• Older graphics allows game to run on older Macs

Cons

• Dated graphics engine
• Profanity overdone

Overall Rating

3 1/2 out of 5 Mice