Heavy Metal FAKK2 Review

On a planet known as Eden resides one known as the Godslayer. After her defeat of the would-be god called Tyler, thirty long years have passed, and the inhabitants of Eden have grown complacent and peaceful. Now, one known as Gith is coming to Eden, with the sole intent of changing reality into what he wishes it to be - his own twisted universe. Only the Godslayer, FAKK2 - also known as Julie - stands in his way. The battle ahead is long and difficult, for one overwhelming reason - what Gith wants, Gith gets.

No matter how trite and overused the phrase is in the game and the marketing, “What Gith wants, Gith gets” still provides a good way to begin talking about Heavy Metal FAKK2. What does Gith want? Gith wants a game using the Quake 3 Arena engine. Gith got it. Gith wants a rocking soundtrack, over the top action, and a host of odd characters. Gith got it! He also wants it as a third person view, with all the benefits and problems that perspective entails. Again, Gith got it. Gith also wants some massive difficulty factors, sometimes maddening puzzles, and even for some people to be forced to reboot their computer after playing. Yep, you guessed it. Gith got it.

Heavy Metal FAKK2 (henceforth referred to as FAKK2) is loosely based on the movie bearing the same name. Parents, don’t let your kids run out and get this movie - it may be animated, but it’s made for a mature audience, as is the game. Although the game is not much worse than other games of the day, it’s still enough that parents should be wary about letting their children play it, especially with an adult movie background.

Installation of the game was quick and painless, and I was playing within minutes. Thankfully, the designers defaulted movement to the standard WASD + mouse combo that many gamers use, so it didn’t take long to get accustomed to the control. Another nice point was a tutorial, cleverly placed as a required portion of the game, which taught me everything I needed to know about the game. Tutorials are very nice, although they shouldn’t really be required in most cases. FAKK2 does fall under a special case, however, with several unique features and controls.

Graphically, the game is superb. The Quake 3 engine lends itself to some very pretty environments, although the swamps have some pixelated and ugly textures at times. Other areas make up for it in spades - the detail of the town and the underground is simply amazing. The models used in the game are of excellent quality as well. Julie herself is painstakingly rendered (if in ways that should have earned her a place on Raven’s last column), and the detail of creatures and people are very well done. Ritual’s artists have done an excellent job on this game.

The sound on this game is bar-none excellent. I’ve never enjoyed game music as much as I have with FAKK2, and since I mostly turn game music off, that is a definite accomplishment. The initial theme music is so catchy that I opened up the .pk0 file with Winzip and hunted through the .wav and .mp3 files until I found it and extracted it. The music is simply excellent - I can’t say it enough. Sound effects are equally well done, and even the voice-overs sound great. Julie Strain (as the voice of Julie) sounds great, giving the character just the right voice. Her commentary during the game was always in-character and added a great deal to the immersion.

Gameplay is unfortunately, a mixed bag. Third person has never worked out extremely well for any type of shooter game, but FAKK2 is some slight exception to the rule. Auto-targeting with a ranged weapon helps a great deal, and there is a great emphasis on melee weaponry. There are also a lot of things that can only be done effectively in third person, like rope-climbing, cliff-hanging, rolls and flips, and the like. These things aren’t thought of in first person games, but can be essential in third person.

There are quite a few weapons of mass destruction in the game. Julie’s favored weapon is her sword, which she can use very effectively in one hand, while holding a shield or a small handweapon in her left. That’s right - two weapons can be used at once, the left hand being controlled with the left mouse button, and right on right. This means that finding two Uzis can result in a two-handed John Woo action scene as you mash both buttons down to spray lead.

Water is highly important in FAKK2, as it’s not just a life-giving substance, it causes aging to stop. In the game, it also acts as armor, reducing damage taken by Julie. Simply standing in fresh water will refill your water meter to halfway, while raising it higher is a matter of finding water ampoules. Having a water level above 90 will increase Julie’s speed and jumping ability, which can lead to some very valuable finds.

The assortment of creatures in the game is nicely done. The little creatures you find hopping around at the beginning turn dark and evil on contact with water and come after you in a very comical fashion. The Gith Recruiters are absolutely hilarious (Praise Gith! Can you feel the power!) and the Gith troopers are very odd-looking, being basically a spine, head, and legs with weapons attached. There are several other types of critters, some more annoying than others, but all very deadly.

The difficulty factor in FAKK2 is somewhat daunting, but not hard enough to pose any reason to scream bloody imprecations at the game and its lineage. Several enemies are very difficult to kill effectively, and some are just maddening. The little buzzing super-mosquito critters were the worst - I would just swing my sword madly and hope I could hit them. The third person perspective did not help this either. Many other points in the game were very maddening, and I did quit the game in frustration more than once. Unfortunately, this brings me to my next topic: stability.

While being an excellent game in all other technical respects, FAKK2 had a nasty problem with freezing up or crashing on exit, and forcing a reboot. The 1.1 patch did not fix this problem for me, but the 1.2 patch, which I picked up just before I wrote this, seems to have solved the problem. Even so, this problem should never have occurred in the first place. It seems to be widespread enough that it should have been picked up during testing, and has been very frustrating. I advise all players to make sure they have only a bare minimum of applications running when playing FAKK2, as this will reduce the chance of crashing.

FAKK2, with the release of the 1.2 patch, is almost a must-have game. If you’re a fan of the third person perspective and don’t mind a little difficulty, pick this game up. The music and graphics will blow you away, and the game is pretty fun as well. Gith wants you - to get the game.

Genre: Action Release Date: Available Publisher: Gathering of Developers Developer: Ritual Entertainment ESRB: Everyone System Requirements : P2-300 64 MB RAM DirectX 7.0 OpenGL 3D Acceleration DirectX Sound 30 MB HD (400 rec) 4x CD-ROM