DREAMCAST
Publisher: Interplay
Review by Ben Hopper of GameCritics
3/14/2001
Article
Discussion Forum
First
Impressions:
Ask
the designers of the original MDK at Shiny Entertainment as to what
MDK stands for, and they'll likely give you a different answer every
time -- ranging from Massive Dollops of Ketchup to Million Dollar
K.O. In fact, they often went out of their way to avoid ever revealing
to what the letters MDK refer, simply because that was the one question
everyone had when the game was released. The popular belief was
that the name of the game stood for Murder Death Kill, since the
lead character Kurt Hectic could blast the eye balls out of his
enemies with his deadly sniper cannon. But not only did that idea
conflict with the game's light-hearted nature and innocently goofy
characters, it was also a term taken from a Sylvester Stallone movie
(and Lord knows we don't want to associate MDK with that).
After playing the Dreamcast sequel, MDK2, it's now obvious that
MDK was named after the three lead characters in the game -- Max,
the four-armed, two-legged, cigar-chomping pooch; Dr. Fluke Hawkins,
the brilliant but clumsy scientist; and Kurt Hectic, the reluctant
hero. Whereas in the original MDK you were limited to playing only
as Kurt, MDK2 bases all the action on the ability to play as all
three characters. The cover art of the games reads, "Out Snipe --
Out Shoot -- Out Think," which corresponds to each of the characters'
strengths. The sniper scope in Kurt's special Coil Suit allows him
to pick off enemies from afar. Max's four arms allow him to carry
and shoot four guns at a time. The good doctor has to use his big
brain by finding ways to use ordinary household items as weapons.
I liked the idea of sniping, shooting and thinking in a one game,
but here it's done in three different games. MDK2 is essentially
split up into three alternating parts -- Kurt's adventure, Max's
adventure and Dr. Fluke's adventure. Because each character's missions
are built around their various abilities, each part plays completely
different, and there's not much to hold everything together to make
it feels like one game. MDK2 is a beautiful 3-D action game, and
it's pretty fun, but there are problems in the game's basic concept
that keep it from being really fun. Graphics:
MDK2's
graphics are truly a sight to behold -- filled to the brim with
wondrous landscapes and other-worldly designs. This game serves
as a great showcase of Dreamcast's rendering capabilities.
Sound/Music:
The
original soundtrack is also good -- especially when the shooting
action gets wild. MDK2's sound effects are solid as well, though
there are many moments in the game in which things are curiously
quiet.
Gameplay:
MDK2
gets off to a good enough start. A great tone for the game is
set by telling the background story through the pages of a comic
book, complete with AM-radio narration and fabulously stylized
color artwork. The events from the first MDK are related in this
way, but then the game shifts to a standard and much weaker 3-D
movie mode to set-up the ensuing action. The comic book theme
works so well in the beginning that I was puzzled as to why the
game falls back on typical video game conventions the rest of
the way (except for the loading screens, which label each chapter
with a different comics cover page). The movie scenes do keep
a sense of humor throughout though -- such as when Dr. Fluke uses
the toilet -- but we won't get into that one. I liked the scene
at the start in which Kurt gets ready for his free fall out of
orbit by flexing his arms, only to trip over himself and fall
head over heels down to Earth. That scene is followed up by a
thrilling first stage in which Kurt dive bombs his way towards
a rampaging mobile base and must avoid incoming enemy missiles.
The opening act is just one example of how MDK2 keeps the gameplay
interesting and fresh. Most of the game is played from behind
your character, but once in a while there's a nice surprise. When
you take control of Max the dog for the first time, he is shot
from the doctor's spaceship, the Jim Dandy, toward his objective
in a space torpedo. The game switches to a side view once he's
off and hands control over to the player -- who then must guide
the rocket through an asteroid field. Only then can Max begin
his mission. There's also a truly bizarre series of events a bit
later on with Max when he has to jump up several moving platforms.
Normally this scenario plays out pretty standard in action games,
but in this case there's a group of aliens watching from a bubble
-- cheering every time Max makes a successful jump. It was hard
to concentrate in that part of the game because the situation
was just so odd, but it was kind of funny, too.
MDK2 plays pretty well throughout the rest of the game as well,
but the idea of playing as three separate characters -- while
unique -- isn't executed as well as it could have been. One problem
is that you're not given a choice as to which character you'd
like to control -- the game kind of settles that for you. Just
when you're getting into a groove floating around and strafing
fat aliens with Kurt, you're forced to suddenly play as Max and
adjust to the way he controls. And just you get used to Max, it's
time to play the part of Dr. Fluke. I guess this wouldn't normally
be a bad thing, but the game is played totally different depending
on which characters are being used. Kurt's fighting style is built
on stealth. Max's strategy is to run-and-gun the aliens. Dr. Fluke
is very weak physically (he can't even pull himself up onto a
ledge), but he can create useful weapons -- like the Atomic Toaster.
It's difficult to adjust to the different playing styles of the
characters partly because the control scheme isn't optimized for
each of them. Initially, the control configuration works well.
The A, B, X, Y buttons are used for movement; the two trigger
buttons are used for jumping and firing; the analog stick is used
to look around and the regular directional pad toggles through
weapons. It must be a good set-up because Quake III Arena on Dreamcast
uses it, too. I think it works great for controlling Kurt, but
with Max and Dr. Fluke it's a different story. The problems don't
arise for Max until he acquires the jet pack -- at which point
juggling the camera control with the firing, movement, weapon
loading and thrust controls (all at the same time) simply becomes
too demanding (not to mention unfair). Since the doc can't do
much offensively, I didn't think it would be a problem with him
at first, but I was wrong. Dr. Fluke does a lot of jumping from
narrow platform to narrow platform in his levels, and it's difficult
to perform such precise jumping and landing using the game's unusual
control set-up.
Enjoyment:
After
playing as all the characters, I found that I had the most fun
playing as Kurt, despite the difficultly of controlling the other
characters. The gameplay just seems to suit him better, and visually,
it makes more sense for him to be playing in such wonderfully
weird world. With Kurt, I felt like I was actually playing the
game. With Max and Dr. Fluke, I felt like I was playing a different
game -- one that involved too much item management. With Max,
you're constantly running out of ammo, health and jet pack fuel
(at least until you acquire the atomic jet pack). I kind of liked
blitzing enemies with four uzis at a time, ditching them when
they ran dry and equipping new ones (just like Desperado), but
more time is spent looking for items and not enough playing through
the level. That's not a problem with Kurt, as he's already fully
equipped to fight the bad guys. It's the same problem with Dr.
Fluke, however. He has to find items so he can make weapons and
such, so he spends most of the time running around looking for
things. It distracts too much from the actual game. The items
the doc can use are pretty limited anyway, and the combinations
are obvious, not inventive like the game wants them to be. It
never feels like you can pick up anything and use it -- a prospect
that I would have found more appealing.
Multiplayer:
N/A
Overall
Impression:
Overall,
BioWare did a nice job with MDK2. I liked the game's ideas and
its approach to the genre. The graphics are truly a sight to behold
-- filled to the brim with wondrous landscapes and other-worldly
designs. The original soundtrack is great as well -- especially
when the shooting action gets wild. MDK2 keeps the spirit of the
original intact while adding some appreciated gameplay variety,
but the idea of playing as all three characters wasn't completely
realized in the final product. In the end, MDK2 delivers on most
of its promises. Had it delivered on all of them, I would have
liked it even more.
Marketing
Efforts Towards Women:
Since
there aren't any playable female characters in MDK2, or even any
supporting ones, women may feel hung out to dry with this game.
However, none of the characters embody the typical male, action-hero
stereotype, either. They're all kind of clumsy and good-hearted,
so women might find the non-traditional depiction of the run-and-gun
male refreshing.
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