Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.2

Pros • Tight level design • Lots of cool weapons and moves • Engaging story and cut-scenes	Cons • No real skill to swordfights • Puzzles relatively easy • A little short
Bottom Line The Heavy Metal universe brings with it a rich background story, tons of great action and a new heroine for gamers to take to their, uh, bosom. The real life counterpart of the main character in FAKK2, Julie Strain, describes herself as “6 foot 1 and worth the climb.” By comparison, this game could be described as “40 bucks and worth the time.” Gorgeous graphics running under the Quake3 engine are equally impressive in the great outdoors as they are in the tunnels and temples of Eden. Well-designed and obviously heavily play-tested levels mean the game may be a little short for some, but you’ll be glad they didn’t throw in anything less than stellar just to fill up your time. The two-handed weapon system takes some getting used to, and you’ll probably never use the shield in favour of a larger two-handed weapon or a second Uzi. In our age of anti-corporate sentiment, the FAKK2 story quickly becomes your cause-du-jour, pulling you in to Julie’s world and making the game one of the best third person all-out-action adventures since Heretic II. Heavy Metal F.A.K.K.2 knocks Lara out cold, steps on her “specs” and steals her motorcycle to boot.

I’ve never bought a Heavy Metal magazine, but I did read a few when I could jimmy open the lock on my older brother’s filing cabinet. I also saw the movie, which provides some background to the game’s story. It’s 30 years after Julie defeated Lord Tyler, and she’s traveled across space to the planet Eden, picking up other wanderers along the way. Soon after the game begins, Eden is attacked by the evil Gith Corporation, intent on stealing the secret of eternal life that the planet holds in its core. Only one of true God-killer lineage can save Eden. It also helps if you’re a former playboy bunny.

The Quake3 engine is used to its full advantage, rendering huge outdoor environments and high-poly enemies with the same ease. The textures are some of the best ever seen in a video game, and they aren’t used sparingly. There are four large temple areas that are lavishly decorated and each one is unique, though you’ll only spend a few seconds in each room before using its portal. The effort that went into such a small part of the game is indicative of the commitment Ritual has to pleasing its audience. Criticized for releasing SiN with too many bugs, Ritual is taking a few hits on the message boards from users complaining about crashes in FAKK2. With the amount of current and legacy hardware available for the PC, it’s not surprising that some users have trouble. A patch has already been released that fixes most problems, and Ritual is still working with users to iron out the rest. On my PIII 500 with a Viper II card, it didn’t crash once.

The game’s tutorial level is your standard helper-driver walkthrough, but it goes over pretty much everything you’ll need to know. Strangely enough, some of the moves and weapons you learn to use in the tutorial will only be required once or twice in the game. One of the best and most unique features though is Julie’s two-handed weapon system. You can hold a weapon in each hand, using the left mouse button to “fire” the weapon in your left hand and the right mouse button to fire the one in your right hand. Weapons include slings, pistols, Uzi’s, several swords, an energy crossbow, a chaingun, and, of course, your standard gas-powered hedge trimmer. Melee weapons can only be held in your right hand, and shields in your left. You’ll probably forget about the shields (they’re too slow when blocking anyway) and opt for the pistol or an Uzi as your secondary weapon. Julie even has some cool combination moves, which involve a few well-placed sword slashes interspersed with one or two rounds from the Uzi.

The FAKK2 enemies are a little disturbing in their design, most likely due to their Heavy Metal influence. There aren’t a whole lot of variations, but there’s enough of them to keep the action level cranked. Attacking with your sword doesn’t really require any thought; just keep slashing and strafing, but with blood and body parts flying everywhere you’ll experience more than enough visceral pleasure. After playing some of Daikatana (as much as I could take), seeing mosquitoes in FAKK2 was a little off-putting, but they’re easier to see and go down with a quick sword-swipe. The targeting system for ranged weapons works very well too, and the camera always seems placed at just the right spot.

The levels are very well laid out and each one is entirely different from the rest, which may account for the relative shortness of the game if they were afraid of repeating themselves. There are quite a few puzzles in the game, but they aren’t very challenging. Once you figure out what needs to be done (push some buttons, climb a platform), they don’t take long to execute. Some of the jumping puzzles are harder, so it’s a good thing you can save the game at any time. Thank Ritual for including this feature in the original release instead of in a patch put out after users complain.

The central character, Julie, is based on and very well-acted by actress/playmate Julie Strain. If the Heavy Metal game license is to succeed, Ritual knows that it’ll depend a lot on how players respond to her character. Just like the real thing, she’s tall, lean and amply proportioned. She also goes through outfits like Calista Flockhart through Slimfast, and each one is more revealing than the last. Of course, it wouldn’t be Heavy Metal without a little politically incorrect sex-ploitation, but they pull it off with class and only a few raised eyebrows.

Although it’s a little shorter than most gamers would like, any complaints about the length of the title are probably due to the fact it’s such a good game you’ll want to keep playing. A well-told story set on a lush planet with varied environments and a strong action heroin makes FAKK2 one of the best 3rd person action games around. Ms. Croft had better work on her swordplay if she wants to go up against Julie in the near future, because you can bet there’ll be sequels for both girls.

Info & Screenshots