
<MAP NAME="boxmap-p8"><AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="14, 200, 103, 207" HREF="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm/privacy-policy.html?o=1" ><AREA COORDS="0,0,10000,10000" HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/thearmchairem-20" ></MAP><img src="http://rcm-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/rcm/120x240.gif" width="120" height="240" border="0" usemap="#boxmap-p8" alt="Shop at Amazon.com">	Platform PC Genre Action Publisher GOD Games Developer Ritual Entertainment ESRB M (Mature) Released Q3 2000

- Excellent Graphics - Frantic, fast paced gameplay - Solid Audio - Tons of weapons

- Too short - Mosquitoes

Review: American McGee's Alice (PC) Review: Shinobi (Playstation 2) Review: Enclave (XBox)
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Heavy Metal F.A.K.K. 2

Score: 8.6 / 10

Now this is a nice title. Great visuals, solid control, reasonably challenging, plenty of weapons, the list goes on and on. With all of the splendid features in F.A.K.K. 2 there is plenty of fun to be had while spending time with this title. Unfortunately this is the one glaring weakness in the game: time. The game is too darn short. Four or five additional levels would have helped to remedy this, but this isn’t enough to irreparably damage the game. It’s still a damn good title well worth taking for a spin.

The game takes place 30 years after the battle with Tyler and the people have found a new

home, slapped up an orbiting defense grid, and everything is gravy, not to mention that the planet acts like a fountain of youth, stopping the aging process. Of course it wouldn’t be much of an action game if some sort of conflict didn’t arise, so the planet is being bombarded with green, glowing asteroids that’s radioactive properties make the local wildlife mutate into mean, aggressive creatures. Now it’s up to Julie to suit up and take on these meanies and figure out exactly what’s going on.

The game runs on a modified version of the Quake 3 engine, and does it ever look good. There’s detail galore, smooth animation, and fancy lighting effects to be enjoyed by all. All one really needs to do to soak in the game’s graphical grandeur is run up to a high peak in the game world and look at the sweeping vista and majestic sky. The visuals are a sight to behold.

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The smooth animation is a relief when in combat too, as there is a whole lot of bebopping about to be done, dodging salvos from monsters with ranged attacks while at the same time trying to deal with nearby enemies in melee combat. Players will really have to get their dance of death down cold by the latter levels in the game if they hope to succeed, but it is doable. There are also plenty of weapons to be found throughout the game for taking out the enemies with, including a

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number of swords, slings, a shotgun, energy weapons, a giant axe, and so forth. Better still is how the game is setup so that players won’t have a go to weapon they’ll become overly reliant on, instead there are a number of different situations calling for different weapons in order to succeed. Gameplay is fantastic here, and its frantic pace will keep most action fans very happy.

Rounding things out is the audio with a great soundtrack that’s one part peppy, fast paced fair, one part soft and surreal. The sound effects are what really stand out though, as they are very well crafted. The game also has voice acting for in-game cinematics, and the overall quality is quite respectable as well. F.A.K.K. 2’s audio adds intangible glue to the gaming experience.

However things are by no means perfect in this game. First it isn’t a very long title, which makes it a tad disappointing that it has to end so soon. Second there are constantly swarms of mosquitoes nipping at Julie. While they don’t take off a lot of damage on their own, if two or three attack at once and your trying to deal with some other bigger, tougher enemy, these twerps can really be a nuisance.

Thankfully these minor qualms aren’t nearly enough to cause any terrible damage to the title. F.A.K.K. 2 is one of the nicest 3^rd person action titles to come along in some time.

- Mr. Nash