Medal of Honor may need little to no introduction, since it really has won some serious accolades on every system it's come out for. The excellent graphics, immersive scenarios and attention to historical detail have been a staple of the game since it arrived on PlayStation several years ago. The subsequent games have been a hit, and this latest version, now available for Macintosh, is no exception. What might be exciting, if you've never seen the game or heard about it before, is that it takes World War II as a backdrop and paints a very realistic picture of the action. Think 'Saving Private Ryan' and you're very much on the right track. So, the images of Germany and Europe in the 1940's that you're familiar with from TV and movies are mapped onto the game to create a really nice, immersive environment. And, the sound of everything from cars and trucks moving around to the rumble of tanks and the shouting of soldiers or crackling of machine-gun fire brings another level of realism to the game. With a strong system that has a newer video card, plenty of memory and a strong processor, you'll be able to appreciate the full beauty of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. But, even with a system that is arguably growing older like mine, the performance was excellent and the graphics could be dialed up until a performance hit was noticed. Aspyr did a great job of aiming this game squarely at a middle-of-the-road crowd in terms of the end users, but put in enough candy to give high-end gamers a lot to love.

One of the areas where Medal of Honor has always excelled is in story and creative gameplay. Unlike some of the shoot-em-up FPS games you might have played (and nothing knocking those, 'cause they're awesome), Allied Assault is as much about strategy, following orders and executing a plan as it is about mowing down the enemy under machine-gun fire. And don't worry, you get to mow some folks down. At the very beginning of the game, a good training mode will walk you through the critical controls and bring you up to speed on everything from moving around to using weapons and objects. Not many of the advanced maneuvers are covered, but they are introduced gradually through the game, according to your mission parameters. I sound nice and official there, don't I? :) After training, you'll enter your first mission, a drop into the African theatre to rescue an agent, help him execute his mission and escape with critical intel. That's short for 'intelligence,' for all you non-military folks out there... The way Medal of Honor: Allied Assault introduces a mission and then makes changes on the fly according to events in the game creates a cool spontaneous feeling that helps keep things fresh. But, no real fear of things getting stale in the campaign or main single-player mode, because there is just a ton of variety present in Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. Missions run from simple sabotage or gathering intel to full-scale combat where the bullets fly and you try to grab the biggest gun you can find and knock down anything that looks German. The Multiplayer game offers 11 maps that can be played online or on a LAN with friends (or foes ;) and is either powered by GameSpy or a simple 'Connect to IP Address' feature. Many options let you control how players will interact during play, including the option to use your machine as a dedicated host. This will keep you from playing yourself, but it's an interesting option to have available. Different types of maps can be used for cooperative, combat or objective-based games and you can choose from multiple Axis and Allied character models.

The weapons available are true to the munitions found in any soldier's hands during The War, and you have everything from grenades and pistols to large rifles and even mounted machine guns! The use of weapons like grenades show the depth of design in Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. You can lob a 'pineapple' in one of several ways, befitting the orientation of your target and your position on the field. Other incendiary items can be found and used during the game, and in a very smart design move the spots where you can place items like bombs show up in a dim outline that is filled-in once you place the bomb. So, no guessing as to where you need to use items, and this also avoids the fumbling through your inventory wondering what to use and getting a ''You can't use that here'' message.

Once you get accustomed to the controls, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault does a good job of walking you through missions with the frequently updated mission objectives, so it's hard to lose your place. When difficulty is dialed up for a mission, you'll find that enemies are much smarter and harder to kill, but easier settings mean you can walk through a hail of bullets without a scratch and take out most enemies with a few well-placed shots. I like that fact that Medal of Honor: Allied Assault ships with a fat book to help you understand all the mechanics of the game and familiarize you with the game environment.

Medal of Honor: Allied Assault ran as well out of the box as anything I've played recently for Mac OS 9 or OS X. Further tweaks to the default settings improved the quality of graphics, mouse control and speed. For most gamers, the simplest changes will suffice, but advanced options let you change how much of your character is viewed in the screen, what level of shadows appear in the game, the amount of terrain, model, effects and curve detail will be shown, and a host of other options that change to look and feel and improve performance. Suffice it to say that running on minimum specs need not be a terrible experience with Medal of Honor.

A strong H.U.D helps to increase playability, and a compass system for objectives prevents screen clutter. As new objectives are added to your list, a set of points appear on the compass, and you'll see both the direction you need to move in and your distance from the objective, as tracked by how far apart the two points are on the edge of the compass. I mentioned a similarly innovative system that lets you quickly identify and use items on the battlefield, but some other neat elements of the game include the ability to use disguises, activate and disable alarms and use enemy papers to pass through checkpoints. These things, if poorly executed, could be like so many features that have great hype value but no substance. Luckily, Aspyr did a great job of realizing all these little details and making them work.

And, that really sums up the experience of playing Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, the fact that it really works well. It's a deep, fun, FPS experience that you'll have fun playing and replaying to improve your standing or trying new techniques. The depth of the single-player game is fantastic, but multiplayer fans will be very, very pleased with amount of extra play available through the Internet or LAN. High-end systems will be able to get every last visual treat out of Medal of Honor, but those with older systems that might come closer to meeting the minimum specs should still be able to enjoy the action.