Reviewed by Gel214th on 9/29/00

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First Impressions:

Step aside Lara, there's a new lady in town! That's the first thing that ran through my mind when I fired up FAKK 2! This highly entertaining title from Ritual is based on the world of Heavy Metal as envisioned by the creators of the cult animated film. The Heavy Metal universe has always been about fast paced action, full-bodied and half dressed women, and a hard driving rock soundtrack pervading it all. And FAKK 2 is completely true to that. Julie, the heroine, is a strong willed woman tasked with the job of protecting her adopted people on the planet of Eden. The game takes place 30 years after the movie Heavy Metal: FAKK2, and Julie has been doing rather well for herself. The water on the Planet Eden has special properties, one of them apparently being enduring youth and good health judging by the appearance of Julie and the other inhabitants.

The story unfolds in Julie's hometown on Eden and starts with a good mix of action and adventure. There is dialog between Julie and the people in the Town that helps to set the tone of the rest of the game. At this point, I was quite enthused, thinking that this was indeed different from the old formula of the third person shooter, even though the conversation was all pre-scripted and the player doesn't have the option to select responses. As the game wears on, and the "bad guys" attack the town, and Julie is forced to leave. At this point, this aspect of the game is left behind as well, and it becomes a simple "shoot 'em, jump 'em and flip the switches" platform game. This doesn't for one minute insinuate that FAKK 2 is a bad game; simply that it gave the impression of being more than this from the initial levels, and this letdown was a source of some disappointment for me as a player.

Graphics:

I've mentioned the graphics, and indeed the graphics are gorgeous, as the screenshots for this article will attest. Parents, there is absolutely no way that you should let your kids play this game. Julie's clothing is more than suggestive, though perhaps is just what's needed for an agile woman who must leap, flip, shoot and slash at her opponents. The settings and levels all seem to have an organic, mildly erotic feel to them - from the kneeling female statues, to the throbbing pulse of a red-toothed mouth, to the rather thinly veiled innuendo from one of the characters that Julie meets. The character model for Julie is quite well detailed and moves and jiggles quite a bit. The models for other humans in the game, however, are far less detailed. In fact, at times it was near impossible to tell the other male characters apart, they all looked the same. Rather drab. Perhaps this was why interaction between Julie and the other characters aside from a well-placed chop with her fire sword wanes early in the game.

As mentioned before, the environments and level designs are visually stunning and extremely well done. I found myself simply panning around the world just looking at things. Not since Vampire: The Masquerade have I found myself doing that in a game - enjoying playing it simply because of the quality of the environment graphics. The outdoor zones are incredibly well done and give you a natural feel. This is exemplified in the Swamp areas of the game, with lots of trees, mossy slopes and cute little creatures, which you can feed to the flesh eating plants.

Gameplay:

The actual mechanics of the game are no less well conceived. Julie's movements involve jumps, flips, crouches and, of course, combat moves. The combat system in FAKK 2 sets it apart from other games in this genre by the fact that Julie can use two weapons at the same time. So you can have a power shield in one hand and a Lightning Sword in the other, using the shield to deflect the swipe of some dastardly claws and spinning into your target with a shocking strike to the neck! Alternately, you could mix gunfire with some close in melee action with your sword. The weapons are varied enough to allow some strategy to develop between your choice of weapons and your fighting moves. You have a variety of swords including a kicking Chainsaw Sword that just makes you sit back and smile as you see Julie wield it. Pure Punk-Rock Heavy Metal goodness!

You will definitely have to figure out the best combination of weapons to use against your foes, as some will stop your special attacks, and others require specific weapons to be effective against them. The AI is good but nothing groundbreaking really. You also won't find any glaring inconsistencies to throw off your enjoyment of the title. Your opponents are well balanced to your abilities at various points of the game. This is important, since there is no "skill level" to select with FAKK 2. You go in, and you go in hard and pumpin', or you get skewered. You don't have the option of selecting "easy" to breeze through the game.

The game's physics model is also ever-present, allowing you to leap onto a rope and use the forward and back keys to realistically start Julie swinging on the rope. The great physics model is also quite evident in the placement of a square of wood suspended by three elastic cords attached to a handle in the center of the wooden square. When Julie leaps onto the wood, the cords creak and shudder, and the wooden plank tilts and drifts just as you think it would as you run from side to side. Allow it to tilt too far, and you hear the gut-wrenching wail of your heroine falling to her doom beneath the haze and mists below.

Music/Sound:

The music and sound effects in the game are very well done, with some highly entertaining voice acting for a particular Propaganda robot that extols the virtue of his creator - the evil mind behind the terror befalling Eden. The voice acting throughout is well done, though I found the Jamaican accent/stereotype of one of the characters a bit forced, but perhaps this is because I'm West Indian.

Overall/Enjoyment:

FAKK 2 is by far the most enjoyable Third person game I have ever played. It beats its nearest rival Tomb Raider in every category and in every way. It's a great adventure, and perhaps its worst shortcoming is just that - it was too short. You can conceivably finish the game in about 6 hours from beginning to end.

Good news , though, is that Ritual has released an SDK for the game. This is simply a set of tools that gamers everywhere can use to create their own adventures and games using the same game engine that Ritual used to create FAKK 2.

I recommend this game to any avid gamer, and I definitely recommend it to any fan of the third person action genre. There is nothing like it on the market today, and Federation Assigned Ketogenic Killzone 2 (FAKK 2) is a classic.

Editor's Note: Although it's pretty well known that the Heavy Metal movies/magazine/etc. are not exactly aimed at the female market, after watching the demo and hearing testimony, if you can get past Julie's somewhat overblown physical attributes, the game looks kick-butt.