WomenGamers.Com - Because Women DO Play

Publisher: Gathering of Developers; Developer: Ritual Entertainment
Reviewed by JayTee on 10/18/00

First Impression:

When I first caught wind of the development of a game starring the Playmate-of-the-Year wife of a dubious comic book my boyfriend eagerly shared with me a year ago, the initial thought that crossed my mind was "Lara-Croft type fodder for womengamers.com!"

True enough, when I pitched the idea to Atari, she agreed right away.

Now, guys reading this would be quick to assume that my review of FAKK2 would be weighed with prejudices, the heaviest of them all being that this game seemed to have been designed solely to exploit women. Needless to say, I (and many at womengamers.com, I presume) strongly disagree with the placement of a protagonist with the dress-sense of a lemur.

That said, I think the game, which uses an enhanced version of id's Quake 3 Arena engine, is much better than TR ever was.

Strained Concept:

I am fully aware that women are (not yet) a viable market for violent games, and this has been used as some sort of policy for those at Ritual Entertainment to have successfully launched games in this vein, such as Duke Nukem 3D and SiN. Obviously, this formula works very well for their true target market. Throw in a well-known persona by the name of Julie Strain, dressed in nothing but undies, and they have a winner (snort). Ah, the wonders of relentless market research.

As mentioned, this game is based on an adult comic mag called Heavy Metal. The (somewhat loosely done) cut-scene in the beginning informs you that Julie Strain, a 'god-killer,' is the heroine of the Holy Land wars, and that she (alone) had defeated the evil Lord Tyler (whoever he may be). After her 'triumph,' she brought her people to reside on the paradise planet of Eden.

Whaddya know, the water found on this planet somehow prevents aging and hence, these settlers have stayed youthful and everything has been pointing up for the last 30 years. In order to protect the planet from would-be attackers the colonists have employed the use of a "Federation Assigned Ketogenic Killzone" a.k.a the F.A.K.K.2 (don't ask me why it's numbered '2'). What this device does is that it alters the façade of the planet to make it look all desolate and dangerous, simply to ward off would-be attackers. However, as you soon find out in the first act, something is amiss, and this protective dome that shields the planet from outside 'gods' is about to be penetrated, and all hell is about to break loose.

Action-Packed Play:

While FAKK2 will appeal to many Tomb Raider fans, the former entertains in many ways Tomb doesn't. For one, it packs in more punch with the variety of arms available as you go through the game. We're not just talking about sub-Ms or photon guns. We're talking 10-foot long light sabers, lightning and fire swords, and even Half-Life-type bug-spewing machines. Some weapons are single-handed, some are double, and yes, you can hold a sword in one hand, and a gun in the other. It is a wonder no one has done this because two-handed combat is one of FAKK2's best features.

My favourite was the 5-foot long chainsaw. I picked it up at some stage of the game, whooped as I cut through my first troll-looking monster, and never used anything else. A note to add here is that the effects are stunning. I never lusted for blood, green and otherwise, this much.

While FAKK2 has all the workings of a first-class shooter, adventure fans will find the game's puzzles intriguing and its level design breathtaking. All the elements of a great action game are integrated within each level. While there are bosses (which are, by the way, simply called 'boss' instead of some new-fangled label no one understands or cares about in a game such as this) to fight, you will find a hard time trying to predict where they are, as each level and scene flows seamlessly to the next. This is to mean that each time the game loads a new scene, it doesn't really contain a 'boss' you need to kill. Sometimes, it's just the simple gunning-away (or in my case, chain-sawing) of a few skeleton machines or sinister-looking midget smiley jesters.

Great-Looker:

The scenery is indeed breathtaking. In the first act, I walked around Eden simply entranced by the architecture, colours and textures. I'm sure many will agree with me that this is the nirvana of optimisation as far as the Quake III engine is concerned and for that, hats off to Ritual.

However, what irritated me was that because I was running by default, I had haplessly stormed into a 'zone,' which would trigger off cut-scenes, before I could really enjoy the environment properly from a certain angle. That is hardly important to many, but being sucked into the next scene because of the scripting, without having time to adjust and absorb, can make the game trickier than it intended to be. Still, the game IS purportedly linear so it's not a big worry.

Blows:

FAKK2 isn't without faults. I've already voiced my first gripe about the game's protagonist. To expand on this, Ritual couldn't have been more juvenile in Julie's wardrobe. They seem to have made it a sort of bonus for players to persist in the game, as you'll see changing into outfits that become more outrageous as you advance. Why these garments are hanging about (e.g. Julie's third threadbare outfit is nicely exhibited at the entrance of the swamp level) is anyone's guess.

Anyway, that aside, another grouse I have is that the learning curve in terms of weapon handling and maneuvers is quite steep. While the tutorial is intuitive (by the way, the tutor looks more like a model traipsing down a catwalk with a hand on her hip, rather than a combat and weapons instructor - most of the women in FAKK2 walk around like this), trying to implement the sequence for the combo-moves and the climbing/crouching/strafing etc can be tricky when you're in the heat of battle.

Last Writes:

That said, I honestly think that Heavy Metal: FAKK2 is a technological wonder as it is a well-designed and visually superior game. What with such breathtaking graphics and intense action, my 450Mhz 128MB machine, armed with a GeForce 2, could still handle it without so much as a glitch. Kudos to Ritual for that, because they don't get any of my respect for taste.

Additional Review on WG:

To read Gel's review of FAKK2, click here.