Giants is the eagerly awaited 3rd person shooter/building game from MacPlay. This stunning looking game has all the appearances of a classic game, until you truly get into the game that is. Starting with the fact that the game did not include multiplayer, although prominently advertised on the box - it is necessary to actually have bought the game before discovering a sheet of paper that says they are working on the multiplayer patch, a quirk that somewhat violates the UK Consumer Protection Acts. With that said the download is a relatively simple operation, advertised as only 4 Megabytes, yet is actually 12 Megabytes. Gameranger, the Macintosh online gaming service, is included on the Giants CD set.

In Giants you play 3 different races all vying for control of an a series of islands. These three races do not get along with each other, or there would be no game. You, the player must play each race in a specific order beginning with the 'Meccs' (Meccaryns)- a bunch of cockney space adventurers stranded en route to Planet Majorca, Sea Reapers and lastly, but by no means least, Kabuto a gigantic ape-like monster created by the Sea Reapers to help dispose of the indigenous Smartey population. Each race has its own particular skills and tricks.

Meccs use an array of heavy weaponry and jetpacks or gyrocopters to get around, Sea Reapers use magic, swords, an assortment of lethal bows and a jet ski. Indeed part of the Sea Reaper plot involves a series of jet ski races. Why these sort of levels are in a third /first person shoot 'em up I have no idea. That said, once you get the hang of it, it can be rather fun if a tad frustrating. Throughout these levels you are guided and assisted by various Smarties with a bewildering variety of accents, ranging from Highland Scottish, through Australian to 'Yan the Samurai Smartey' (Japanese, of course). Eventually you reach the Kabuto levels. Kabuto eats just about everything (eating smarties allows him to create Kabuto offspring who you can control to kill or bring him more food) and breaks things in a style that will appeal to WWF followers. Kabuto is by far the least exciting of the characters to play and this section of the game becomes rather tedious quickly. In both Meccs and Reapers it is necessary to construct and maintain bases. Base building can be fun and adds an RTS element to the normal 3rd person shooter fare. It does get slightly repetitive in the Sea Reapers levels (ski-race, base building & repeat ad nauseum), but will put you in good stead for the multiplayer aspect of the game.