ioware Corp.'s MDK2 is the sequel to Shiny Entertainment's 1997 hit game MDK, a bizarre third-person shooter starring the janitor Kurt Hectic as the unlikely savior of Earth. In the first game Kurt was taken into orbit by inventor Dr. Fluke Hawkins to clean the spaceship Jim Dandy. When strange aliens invaded Earth in giant crawlers and attempted to strip-mine landmark cities like Sparrow Pit, England, Hawkins strapped Kurt into a "coil" suit and sent him down to wipe out the bad guys.
The coil suit gave Kurt the ability to glide as if suspended by a parachute, fire unlimited rounds from a built-in chain gun, and use the chain gun as a sniper rifle that could whack enemies from exceedingly gratifying (and safe!) distances. MDK ended with Kurt destroying the last of the mine crawlers and saving the world.
When MDK2 starts, Kurt, Hawkins and the doctor's six-legged, cigar-chomping dog, Max, find out there is one more mine crawler that has to be destroyed, so Kurt dons the coil suit and heads down to do battle.
Although Shiny's fantastic MDK gameplay has been reproduced expertly by Bioware, there are some differences this time around. After Kurt polishes off the crawler, Max gets to do some damage. Max's six legs make him particularly adept at wielding weapons, since walking on two legs leaves four paws free to carry things like Uzis, shotguns, Gatling guns and more. In fact, Max is a veritable one-dog army who can even take out the scenery--sometimes the quickest path around a wall is to go through it.
Dr. Hawkins also gets a chance to battle the bad guys, but he's a wuss when it comes to weapons. In fact, he can't pick up any armaments per se, but he can combine various objects (towels, extension cords, toasters, lighters) to create an arsenal of sorts. He's physically weaker than Max and Kurt, but he uses his brain to get through situations in which his more beefy accomplices would apply brawn. Together, the three crewmates of the Jim Dandy must take on the alien menace, save the world and, in Kurt's case, clean up the resulting mess.
Extraterrestrial unintelligence
MDK2, which is also available for the Sega Dreamcast, has been well received by MDK fans. The consensus is that Bioware not only has faithfully recreated the original game but has also added some nifty features, most notably the ability to play Max and Hawkins. Despite these laurels, however, MDK2 is not quite the game it's descended from. The two titles diverge most noticeably in their puzzles. In MDK, the puzzles were often ingenious, sometimes outrageous, and almost always fun. In MDK2, the puzzles are mostly uninteresting, usually repetitious, and almost always boring.
Bioware also comes up short in the artificial intelligence of the enemies. In MDK, the bad guys taunted players with obscene-sounding language and dances, often popping up from behind cover to make faces at Kurt before dodging away. In MDK2, the enemies have the taunting down pretty well, but somehow Bioware left out most of the dodging. This makes the bad guys pretty easy targets. On the other hand, they are badasses when it comes to hand-to-hand combat.
These flaws aside--and they might be showstoppers for some players--MDK2 shines when it comes to gameplay. There is nothing quite as fun as zooming in with Kurt's sniperscope and taking out a bad guy, or gliding down from tremendous heights with the chain gun blazing. And Max is a wonderful addition to the game, with his high-powered shoot-first-and-ask-for-a-reload-later attitude. Even the professor--whose controls were designed with unnecessary complexity--is fun, albeit in a more subdued fashion. MDK2 lives up to MDK's striking graphics for the most part, which makes the game downright stunning to play at times.
All in all, this is a sequel that both lives up to and has a hard time living down the original.
