Rating: 
Summary: Top-Notch game should be part of your collection
Review: OverviewHeavy Metal FAKK 2 is a first-rate action adventure game. The few small problems, such as the odd clipping anomoly, a buggy crash-prone ending, and an obvious memory leak can be overlooked when you realise that everything else is top-notch. Although others may feel FAKK 2 could be longer, it certainly is not short. For your money, this game is well worth a place in your game collection. Gameplay In FAKK 2 you play the character Julie, a super-hot babe that could be on the cover of any girlie mag. It is your job to rescue "your people" while participation in an unfolding story that is both interesting and well told. The game genre is that of a fantasy/sci-fi hybrid; exactly how you will remember the movie Heavy Metal. This really gives the game the ability to go off in many interesting directions, and it does. You will wield flaming swords, tote a 50 cal machine gun, and fire a plasma crossbow. All while staring at Julie's beautifully rendered 3D bod in 5 different sexy outfits! The game consists of chapters which must be navigated before the next can begin. Excellent cut scenes keep the story flowing. While this may seem to be a very linear progression, it doesn't feel that way. First of all, the environments are made to be explored. Julie has all the abilities of a Lara Croft, and can use these abilities to get into some very interesting places. In many cases, you will feel like you're a kid in a playground, jumping, climbing and exploring. Secondly, you CAN move through chapters quickly at your own detriment. There is no code preventing you from missing out on useful items. So if you want, you can blitz through the game very quickly by choosing not to look for items. But you may be very sorry later in the game when it takes twice as much effort to perform a task. Therefore, it behooves you to find all the goodies in each chapter. And because there are no time limits on chapters, you can feel free to take your time to do this. Puzzles are, overall, pleasant and not overly difficult. Games like Unreal have some insanely frustrating button-pushing and lever pulling tasks, but FAKK 2 tends to keep all their puzzles localized. What that means is you won't push a button one place, then run all over the map to figure out what it did. Any button/lever that affects an object even a short distance away is clearly shown with a cut-scene. Jumping games do exist, but overall they are fairly easy... except for one near the end. Throughout the game, combat is frequent so anyone who likes fighting as much as puzzle solving should be happy. The combat system is not complex, but it certainly is varied. Julie can dual-wield one-handed weapons, wield one two-handed weapon, or wield a one-handed weapon and use a shield. A special attack is built in that is fairly easy to trigger if you are not interrupted mid-swing. But because various monsters in FAKK tend to attack you at the same time, and ranged-weapon ammo is not always abundant, it seems that you almost always need a melee weapon and ranged-weapon combo to be effective. Swapping the ranged-weapon out for the shield is often necessary. About the only drawback with such a varied combat system is weapon selection. They did their best, but it still takes a couple seconds to choose your weapons from inventory. You won't have to switch during combat too often normally, but the Boss fights usually require it. Graphics Absolutely incredible. The last time I was awed playing a game like this was seeing Unreal for the first time years ago. The Quake3 engine, with it's shiny surfaces, is THE best engine I have ever seen. If every game developer used this engine from now on, I would be a VERY happy gamer. There are a few small quirks. First, the clipping anomolies that everyone is referring to, are relatively minor. I think only once I got so stuck I had to restart the game. Yes, the collision detection seems a bit off in some places but it's really not hard to sidestep or jump out of these places. What is a little more annoying is that there appears to be a memory leak. After about an hour of playing, the game gets a little choppy and I had to reboot my machine to get the liquid smoothness back. Unfortunately I installed the latest patch in the last chapter, so I don't know if that fixes it. You really should download both patches before you play the game. Sound Excellent. Sound tracks are top notch and vary throughout the chapters. Even the main menu theme song is really good. Sound effects were extremely well done, from the ambient sounds in the environment (like running water and wildlife) to the weaponry.
Rating:
Summary: TOP OF THE LINE
Review: The game play is perfect, this game will go down in history. JUst want more!
Rating:
Summary: TOP OF THE LINE
Review: The game play is perfect, this game will go down in history. JUst want more!
Rating:
Summary: Wow....Just....Wow.....
Review: This game just completely blows me away. First off, the graphics are incredibly done, with extremely detailed models, texture art, and massive, vast environments. With lots of lighting and special effects (including fire and water) the eye candy in this game is absolutely astounding. The controls are clean and easy to use (even when customized) and respond quickly, utilizing smooth and fluid animations that really give the game character. I'd like to comment the makers on this game for their attention to detail in the animations (even your character's..."assets"...are animated). It's the little things that count. As with any game, sound is very important to help immerse the player into the game's environment. High quality (up to 44Hz--CD quality!!) sounds with convincing slashing, bashing, and gut smashing sounds to waterfalls and voices. The music is awesome and boosts the mood of the gory action considerably. My only nit-pick is the voice acting could've been a tad bit better, but not even that shows too many vulnerable points. The game itself is a blood-fest of absolute fun. This game is NOT for the kiddies my friends. Carrying around some humungous weaponry, bits and pieces of your enemies fly all over the place. It's gorier than Soldier of Fortune! The enemies are challenging and alot of them are an absolute riot to tear up, not to mention the bosses. As an added bonus, if you ever get bored of the action (which will never happen), the main character's wonderfully-modeled booty is smack right in the middle of your screen ;) In all honesty you will hardly even pay attention to any part of Julie's body from the shoulders down as you'll be totally absorbed into the incredible gameplay of this awesome game. Lara Croft is out of the job. Buy it, here at Amazon! Buy it NOW!
Rating: 
Summary: Good graphics
Review: This game took a little tweaking to get it to work well. I had problems at first with stuttering video, sound and frame dropouts. I fixed the problem by lowering the sound acceleration one notch using 'dxdiag.exe'. This is somewhat irritating because other software only works with full sound acceleration. About the game itself, the graphics were very good. The method of steering and manipulating the character's movements, I considered awkward. I found most of the puzzles not to difficult but some are extremely frustrating because they require precise timing of movements by the character. Spending hours trying to get through an animation sequence became more of a dread than a entertaining experience. I have not finished the game and probably won't. Any software that makes the user want to slam the keyboard in frustration should be dumped in file 13.
Rating: 
Summary: A great 3rd person game.
Review: With a great blend of action, puzzle solving, and architecture, FAKK2 is one great game. The level design is stunning, control simple and easy to learn. The interface is straight forward and the story is engaging. The game is good, but not perfect. At times I found my self getting stuck on walls or boxes, and the entire game seemed a bit short. With no multi-player the replay value is low. But if your looking for a new "Tomb Raider" style game, don't pass this one up.
Rating:
Summary: A great 3rd person game.
Review: With a great blend of action, puzzle solving, and architecture, FAKK2 is one great game. The level design is stunning, control simple and easy to learn. The interface is straight forward and the story is engaging. The game is good, but not perfect. At times I found my self getting stuck on walls or boxes, and the entire game seemed a bit short. With no multi-player the replay value is low. But if your looking for a new "Tomb Raider" style game, don't pass this one up.
Rating:
Summary: The game Daikatana should have been...
Review: Yes, I know it's somewhat unfair to compare it to, quite possibly, the worst game of all time, but there are quite a few similarities. You wield primarily a sword (along with myriad heavy weaponry), you have to deal a lot with hacking down swarms of flying insects that come from out of the woodwork (sometimes literally), and the level design ranges from the lush and pristine to the grimy and forbidding. Also, many people complain of bugs in both, yet I have yet to see a glitch with it on my PC. In addition, the graphical detail is incredible (I think only Alice does more with the Q3 engine), meaning you'll need, in my opinion at least, a 600+ MHz PC and at least a 32 MB GeForce2 MX (I have a 64MB GeForce2 Pro, and I don't want it to run too much slower at 1280x1024x32). The story, based off the graphic novels by Kevin Eastman and the 1999 cult hit film, puts you in control of Julie, a one-woman militia with a bad attitude. However, after a while, you realize that this is not the books or the film, but a computer game that is up against far stiffer ratings guidelines (as well as the guidelines of taste), as it seriously tones down the violence (it's bloody, but not like the movie), the language (a few expletives fly, but it pales to the graphic novels' cussouts), and, as expected, the nudity (yeah, right, like they would allow THAT in a game. Joe Lieberman would throw a hissy fit if that happened). However, aside from the concessions on content, the game lacks some of the frantic action, having you take a few more tactical sword hacks (which sometimes are hard to aim, curse you bugs!) rather that having to fight maddening swarms of monsters or big, massive creatures (although the bosses are downright frightening, and some actually fit in this category). Also, some aspects of level navigation take a turn to the side of "Tomb Raider", where you need to accomplish what seems to be almost perfect execution in jumping, climbing, what have you. In addition, the lack of a multiplayer mode baffles me. Why?? All things considered, Heavy Metal FAKK2 is an incredible game with absolutely jaw-dropping visuals, but it comes at a steep price: a slight loss of the Heavy Metal feel as well as the lack of multiplayer support and sometimes stodgy level design. I still highly recommend the game, but have some slight reservations.
Rating:
Summary: The game Daikatana should have been...
Review: Yes, I know it's somewhat unfair to compare it to, quite possibly, the worst game of all time, but there are quite a few similarities. You wield primarily a sword (along with myriad heavy weaponry), you have to deal a lot with hacking down swarms of flying insects that come from out of the woodwork (sometimes literally), and the level design ranges from the lush and pristine to the grimy and forbidding. Also, many people complain of bugs in both, yet I have yet to see a glitch with it on my PC. In addition, the graphical detail is incredible (I think only Alice does more with the Q3 engine), meaning you'll need, in my opinion at least, a 600+ MHz PC and at least a 32 MB GeForce2 MX (I have a 64MB GeForce2 Pro, and I don't want it to run too much slower at 1280x1024x32). The story, based off the graphic novels by Kevin Eastman and the 1999 cult hit film, puts you in control of Julie, a one-woman militia with a bad attitude. However, after a while, you realize that this is not the books or the film, but a computer game that is up against far stiffer ratings guidelines (as well as the guidelines of taste), as it seriously tones down the violence (it's bloody, but not like the movie), the language (a few expletives fly, but it pales to the graphic novels' cussouts), and, as expected, the nudity (yeah, right, like they would allow THAT in a game. Joe Lieberman would throw a hissy fit if that happened). However, aside from the concessions on content, the game lacks some of the frantic action, having you take a few more tactical sword hacks (which sometimes are hard to aim, curse you bugs!) rather that having to fight maddening swarms of monsters or big, massive creatures (although the bosses are downright frightening, and some actually fit in this category). Also, some aspects of level navigation take a turn to the side of "Tomb Raider", where you need to accomplish what seems to be almost perfect execution in jumping, climbing, what have you. In addition, the lack of a multiplayer mode baffles me. Why?? All things considered, Heavy Metal FAKK2 is an incredible game with absolutely jaw-dropping visuals, but it comes at a steep price: a slight loss of the Heavy Metal feel as well as the lack of multiplayer support and sometimes stodgy level design. I still highly recommend the game, but have some slight reservations.
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