From TheGamersPress

Contents 1 MDK 2 2 Back in the Spaceship again 3 The Story as it stands 4 Kurt from the distance 5 Pet Max before he shoots you 6 Hawkin the toast 7 Graphics 8 Sound 9 Gameplay 10 The end comment

MDK 2

• Platform: PC/Windows
• Genre: Other
• Publisher: Interplay -
• Developer: Bioware Corp -
• Good Thing 1: The graphics are the most fluid and crisp I've ever seen
• Good Thing 2: Multiple styles of play, frequent mini-games to separate the action
• Good Thing 3: Chocked full of comic book humor
• Bad Thing 1: This is one hard game
• Bad Thing 2: I mean it, it's really hard
• Bad Thing 3: Some mini-games are a little difficult
• Summary: MDK2's level of difficulty might scare away the casual gamers, but anyone with a love of puzzles, action, and outright fun shouldn't over look this title. Just be prepared to pull your hair out at time.
• Score: Buy

Back in the Spaceship again

Back before the days of Messiah, Shiny was making a name for itself by having a game that was in almost every new 3D accelerator card in the planet, MDK. Nobody knew what MDK stood for (some suggested Murder, Death, Kill as the line from Demolition Man), but one thing anybody who played the game knew: it had action, it had tons of strange alien creatures doing what alien creatures do best, try and blow up humanity (why are we always picked on? Why can't they blow up those freakin' Ferengi butt-headed aliens?), and a hero with an amazing Sniper Rifle. Shiny made the game more than just a shoot-'em-up by adding in puzzles (from "Fire a mortor round into the pipe" to "Figure out how to jump to the top of the building), and different mini-games to break up the action.

MDK was one of those hits that everybody has, and almost everybody plays. So there was some surprise when BioWare were assigned the MDK2 project. Could they pull of the zany, off the wall humor of the original? What about the evolution in 3D hardware?

Let me put those fears to rest. MDK2 has the best graphics, the most appealing, brain challenging, finger mashing play by having not one, but three different heroes saving the world with guns, sniper rifles, and atomic toast.

The Story as it stands

Let's assume that you've never played the original MDK game. Luckily, MDK2 catches you up with a comic book introduction that goes like this. There was a janitor by the name of Kurt who's only ambition was to mop things. He got a job with Dr. Hawkin, a scientist of equal brilliance and capacity to accidentally blow things up. Hawkin took off into space with his janitor to "prove himself to the minds of the scientific community" (and because they didn't want to listen to his theories on how to make better Cheerios using Uranium extract). While in space, Hawkin created Max, the four-armed, two legged dog to assist him.

All was good until evil alien invaders tried to take over the earth. So Hawkin created a super kevlar suit with built in retractable parachute, limitless ammo machine gun / sniper rifle, and threw Kurt to the earth to stop the aliens. So Kurt did, he kicked butt (though as the game points out, reluctantly. Turns out there was a mopping championship game he wanted to attend, but no, he's got to save the world), and the aliens were defeated. The end.

Well, not the end. Turns out there were yet more aliens wanting to defeat the Earth (why? Well, they heard about this group called N'Sync, and, well, you can figure it out from there). So Kurt, Max, and Dr. Hawkin were called in from their 5 minute long retirement to kick more alien butt. Only this time, Kurt isn't going alone. He's two friends are going to help out. They are our only hope against alien domination. Our only hope to keep our N'Sync and 98 Degree music alive.

On the other hand, all hail the aliens.

Kurt from the distance

One third of the game is played from the position of Kurt, who gets his kicks by floating about with his parachute (retractable in a ribbon format, not the original bow idea Hawkin wanted to go with). He wears black (don't all the cool heroes?), and carried a machine gun with unlimited ammo that he can upgrade (for a temporary time) with super powerful bullets and lasers, and can find grenades, cloacking devices, and other goodies lying about for his own use. (Usually to blow up an alien). But his true power is in his sniper rifle. With it, anything within 2 miles becomes a bright new target. Along with the sniper rifle is a camera that shows Kurt (in case somebody's trying to shoot him), and a "bullet cam" so you can see the bullet's point of view as it drives itself into the noggin of your enemies. (Note: that's noggin, not nog. Two different things. You drink nog to gross out your wife at Christmas.) The only downside is that the aliens can see pretty far as well (or at least they're not idiots). If you shoot at them, even from a distance, odds are they'll figure out which direction the shot came from and go to silence the shooter.

Pet Max before he shoots you

Max, the loyal, dedicated dog to Dr. Hawkin, and friend to Kurt, has a more direct approach. He doesn't sit back in the distance, trying to pick off his enemies. He doesn't have a parachute. What he does have is 4 arms to hold head-kicking weapons (I think I've mentioned butt-kicking often enough), like shotguns, uzis, lasers. Basically, if it involves hurting someone, he can use it. He's also extra tough (twice as tough as Kurt), and being a robot dog (he doesn't drop dog poopie on the floor, but AOL CD's) he can gain more health through battery recharges.

Hawkin the toast

Dr. Hawkin rounds out our triadic group of heroes (is that even a word, triadic?). He doesn't use a gun. He doesn't have more than two arms (though I'm sure he could build some if he wanted to.) No, he's got...a really big brain! He also has two different inventories, one for each hand. He can then "combine" anything he's holding in his hands to form weapons (like the atomic toaster that shoots plutonium filled toast, tasty and oh-so-deadly for you!) or tools (like pipes + duct tape = ladder). He can also find new switches, dials, and levers to pull. With these tools at his disposale, he can assist Kurt and Max in saving the world. Or in making some very tasty toast.

Graphics

At first, I was worried that MDK2 was going to be a system hog. I've been steadily watching my P-II 450 with a TNT2 card system move from top of the heap to just barely performing as new games come out, and thought that this would put the final nail in my desire to upgrade to an Athlon 900 with a Voodoo 6000, with an ATA/66 drive (drool splatters on the desktop). Um, where was I?

Oh, yes. MDK2 let's you tweak the game, then test it before you even play. I set the graphics at 960x720, gave it a test- buttery smooth. I only had a couple of stutters the entire time, and those were usually when I had just reloaded a level.

So if they were so smooth, they had to suck, right? Nope. They were not only smooth, but crisp, and so good I had problem separating what screenshot to show. They all looked so good, I would up with 200 different shots(!) before settling down on 50. The engine shifts from tight, enclosed spaces where you're duking it out for your life, to huge planets as your jumping across buildings trying to get just one good shot against the spaceship blasting at the walkways beneath your feet. The planet Swizzle Firma looks like Futurama meets Blade Runner meets Aliens. All fun, all organic, and all cool.

Want eye candy? MDK's got it. I haven't seen lightning effects this good since Half-Life, and liquid (green, so don't worry Congress) blood that looked like, well, liquid. It even has bullet casings that give a nice metallic ring as they hit the ground.

Sound

Sound is like a good IS manager. You only notice him if there's a problem. When I play a game, if the sound is good, I don't notice it because it feels natural. If the sounds sucks, then I notice and start cringing real quick.

So how does MDK2 stack up? Beautifully. Gunshots sound loud, lightning sizzles, and even the voice acting is good. (I know, I even had my ears checked. Trust me, the is some of the first voice acting for a game that didn't make my ears bleed.)

The music is made to fit into the rest of the sound like gear in a cog. When you play as Kurt, the music has a nice techno-beat. Shift to Dr. Hawkin, and it has a peppy melody offsetting the humor of his antics. Top notch to the music makers.

Gameplay

Remember the first time you played Tomb Raider? How cool it was that you could see Lara's body in front of you, jumping and shooting her way through ancient tombs? Then remember how pissed off you got when the camera went swingning around so you couldn't see what the heck she was firing at?

Ever since then, only three games have really done the third-person view right. Heretic II, Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight, and now MDK2. What sets these games aside?

Never, not one time, did I ever have a problem with the camera. If you back up to the wall, the character you're controlling and the wall go transparent. Turn one way, and the camera follows your head movements. The only complaint that I had was that the camera wouldn't let me look straight up, but then again, I hurt my neck whenever I do that. (Go ahead, try it. First sign this legal disclaimer though).

MDK2 is like playing three separate games in one nice package. With Kurt, you play a sniper, trying not to engage the enemy directly. His puzzles focus on "hit the little blue sphere" type that gradually grow in difficulty (though you learn to hate the bouncing targets...). Max is like playing Quake III with a character that can go super-akimbo style, with four weapons. His puzzles deal with platform jumping, and figuring out what wall to blow up so he can go on.

I had the most fun with Dr. Hawkin's gameplay. Whenever I've played adventure games, I've wondered who thought up the stupid inventory combinations (like "put the tape on the cat door, then use a water bottle to scare the cat and make a mustache for a disguise" trick). Once I figured out what to do (all right, so I would cheat and use the manual), I felt cheated, since there was no way a sane person would ever try that.

For Dr. Hawkin, he lives in a world with cartoon physics. A fish bowl works as an astronauts helmet. Magnets are always in a horseshoe shape, and anvils are plentiful. (All right, there were no anvils, but there should have been.) His inventory items were few, but once I figured them out, I was delighted. Of course you could use bread as a weapon! His gameplay is full of other puzzles, from shutting down bombs to trying to create a rocket ship from a telephone booth (Tardis, anyone)?

My biggest complaints about the gameplay? First, it's too short. The game lasted me a full day (though I'm sure I could play it again at the Jinkie! level of difficulty), and after ten fun filled levels, it was all over. There are three endings depending on whom you choose for the final boss fight, but that still doesn't add all that much extra.

<a href="images/mdkreview_009.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="images/mdkreview_009_t.jpg" align="right"></a>My only other complaint is that MDK2 is hard. Very hard. Not "Man, I shouldn't have eaten that chili" hard, but "NOOOOOOOOO! Why, Lord, did I eat that whole bag of whole grain wheat right off the farm! ARRRRGGGHHH!!!" Even at the easy settings, you'll want to pull out your hair as you play. (Trust me, the goldfish scene and Max's jumping around the planet Swizzle Firma rank were so hard my hands ached). Length and difficulty (insane difficulty) were the only two things that dropped the price down. But whenever you figure out on of the puzzles, you don't feel cheated. You feel like shouting "Yeah, who's your daddie?" at the game.

The end comment

So should you play MDK2? Yes. Get it, play it, feel your brain fry, and love it. Word is that there's an MDK: Armegeddon coming. I'll be in line with my atomic toaster to keep everybody else out of my way...

MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:	RECOMMENDED SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
Pentium 166, 32MB RAM, Windows 95/98	P233, 64MB RAM, 4MB Video Card

Ü <p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px">All right, so you want your own copy of MDK2? Just send an email to <a href="mailto: dpaladin@gamerspress.com">John "Dark Paladin" Hummel</a>, and tell me who you think kicks more butt, Kurt, Max, or Dr. Hawkin? It has to be at least 100 words long, and make me laugh. I'll pick an random winnder on Saturday, June 3rd! Good luck! </blockquote>