
<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 Playstation 2 Genre Action Publisher Interplay Developer Bioware ESRB T (Teen) Released Q2 2001

- Interesting art design - Retro approach to game progression - All around great audio

- Control issues - Characters are unbalanced - Lacks pop to set it apart from the crowd

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MDK 2: Armageddon

Score: 7/10

One game that has really seen its share of ports in the last while has to be MDK 2. It's already made the rounds of with the Dreamcast and the PC, now it's made its way over to the PS2. Getting a little bit of a polish up and fixing some of the problems and gripes that people had with previous incarnations we're left with a nice, straightforward action title to spend some time with.

The game takes place right after the first one left off. After they believed that they had rid the Earth of the alien menace, Kirk, Dr. Hawkins, and Max began celebrating. Moments later new rifts opened up on Earth and more waves of enemies proceeded to take over the planet. Now Kirk, the doctor, and Max must all go out and repel this latest invasion. What follows is a very straightforward action game, following distinctly laid out paths, going from level to level like in the action games of old. It's a refreshing change of pace from the usual deep, brooding war epics that are becoming increasingly popular.

The game looks nice on the Playstation 2, however the visuals aren't of as high of a caliber as other titles for the system. Helping to fix this somewhat is the artistic merit that the game holds. The character design for both the heroes and the enemies is very interesting, reminiscent to the stylings one would come across in an underground comic book. The different environments are also very unique, giving a surreal "It's Earth, but not Earth" feel. With all of the running around and shooting of bad guys the frame rate of MDK 2 holds up well, but when facing off against a large number of them at once slowdown starts to work its way into the picture.

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Getting Kirk, Max, and Dr. Hawkins to blast these enemies takes some getting used to though. The way that the control scheme is setup does not feel at all intuitive and on top of this the game needs a lot of different moves which, under the circumstances, feel crowded on the PS2 controller. After some time however, one can get accustomed to the control scheme and aptly dispose of the bad guys. The only other difficulty to arise in the gameplay comes in how the different characters

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handle. While Max and Kirk behave about the same, Dr. Hawkins is very different so it is very jarring on levels where you have to use him after getting used to the other two characters.

Listening to the game, the music is very good, leaning more towards being moody, which is very welcome. Instead of popping out and trying to corner your attention it does a fabulous job of enhancing the mood of the game on a subconscious level. Adding to the sonic experience is the excellent sound effects. The sounds of weapons fire and the taunts of enemies as well as ambient noises all do a great job of helping to flesh out the feel of the game.

Some of the important changes that have been made to MDK 2 for the PS2 include allowing multiple levels of difficulty, as opposed to the single one on the Dreamcast version. Also of note is that targeting for important objects and bosses is much more noticeable now, with big red pointers pointing them out.

What MDK 2 comes down to is a fun diversion for a PS2 action title. It doesn't provide anything terribly groundbreaking or revolutionary, but it does make for a good time.

- Mr. Nash

(July 13, 2001)