N.O.V.A. 2 – FPS Returns to Mac

Game: N.O.V.A. 2 Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance
Available: Mac App Store (Mac Computers) iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch)
Price: 6.99 MAS/iOS

Gaming on a Mac isn’t the best, it’s come a long way but also has a long way to go. For many of use we’ve resorted to iOS games, AngryBirds, Cut the Rope, Most EA games, and many others have begun to entertain us for hours on end. This January Apple introduced an App Store to the Mac. This has opened up a world of possibilities to Mac users in the way of gaming, and this 4th of July the Manchester Management team put it to the test.

I purchased a copy of N.O.V.A. 2, a First Person Shooter that quickly became the #1 multiplayer game for iOS devices. On startup we noticed something that made our day. It looks, plays, and feels just like Halo. If you’re unfamiliar with Halo, move that rock from overhead and hop online, it’s possibly the best console FPS multiplayer game. Some may be upset about the rip-off but for us we couldn’t have been more excited. The game includes a full campaign which isn’t the hardest but does offer a few hours of fun.

More importantly, multiplayer is where it shines. It includes your basic, free for all, team death match, and capture the flag, either online or local game play. The levels are great, too. Just like all FPS maps there are large ones for more players and small ones for less players. We found some are perfect for four players, which was good for the four of us. The games graphics aren’t the best, but at $6.99 they are pretty amazing. On that note, the graphics not being overly heavy allows all Mac users to play. We used a 13” MacBook Pro, 21.5” iMac, and MacBook all of which played perfectly fine, no lag. Another great feature of Multiplayer games on the MAS is that you can put them on multiple machines, unlike consoles were you need multiple disks, this allows for download to other machines.

Overall, N.O.V.A 2 is a great buy and is the first game to have been ported from iOS to Mac; and what a job they did. They kept it simple, controls are basic, graphics are reasonable, and you don’t need the latest and greatest to get in on the action. Nothing like playing some FPS against co-workers to tell them how you really feel. Enjoy playing!