M2: Durandal is the PC conversion of the macintosh first person shooter of the same name. The Marathon series is one of the most famous first person shooter games for the Macintosh. Although the engine is similar to Doom in most respects (2.5D maps, bitmap sprites instead of polygons, etc.) Marathon 2 distinguishes itself with such features as a rudimentary inventory system, ambient sound, multiple fire modes for each weapon, allies who help you as well as different factions of enemies who attack each other as well as yourself, and finally an actual plot which is gradually narrated to you at various computer terminals scattered throughout the levels (much like System Shock's e-mail transmissions).
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Although most of these features are standard fare in today's post Half-Life world, for the time the game was made they were pretty new and interesting ideas.
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In the original Marathon, you were a colonist aboard the Earth colony ship Marathon en route to populate a settlement on Tau Ceti. However when your ship reached the planet you were attacked by a mysterious race of aliens, the Pfhor, who were eventually revealed to be intergalactic slavers with dark designs on the human race.
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You managed to fight off the invasion with the help of the Marathon's three AI's, most notably the somewhat disturbed Durandal, a rogue and possibly insane AI with a mysterious past and potentially ominous long range plans involving the fate of thousands of worlds. By defeating the Pfhor you inadvertantly freed Durandal from his confinement within the Marathon, where he promptly proceeded to take over the Pfhor ship and escape into hyperspace.
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Now, 17 years later, it turns out Durandal dragged you along for the ride in cryo storage instead of leaving you behind to be a hero on Tau Ceti. Enlisted in his private army, Durandal has taken you and a group of the original Tau Ceti colonists to the homeworld of the S'pht, a Pfhor slave race who Durandal liberated and who now loyally serve him as their Messiah. Durandal is searching for the location of a legendary lost tribe of S'pht who may hold the key to his mad quest for... well, whatever he's madly questing for. Unfortunately, your old friends the Pfhor have already occupied the planet, and to make matters worse another of the Marathon's original AI's shows up allied with the Pfhor for a little revenge again Durandal and anyone associated with him.

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