MDK2
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| MDK2 | |
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| Developer(s) | BioWare |
| Publisher(s) | Interplay |
| Release date(s) | March 31, 2000 (DC) May 25, 2000 (WIN) March 26, 2001 (PS2) |
| Genre(s) | Third-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: T (Teen) USK: 12+ ELSPA: 11+ |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows, Dreamcast, PlayStation 2 |
| Media | 1 GD-ROM (DC) 1 CD-ROM (WIN) 1 DVD (PS2) |
| System requirements | 200 MHz CPU, 16 MB RAM, 250 MB available hard disk space, OpenGL-capable graphics card with 4 MB RAM, DirectX-compatible sound card (WIN) |
MDK2 is a video game and sequel to the third-person shooter, MDK. The original MDK was developed by Shiny Entertainment and released in 1997 by Interplay. For the sequel, established RPG developer Bioware Corp. of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada took the reins, delivering a highly rated gaming experience that followed on closely from the first game.
MDK2 was originally released for the Dreamcast and PC in 2000. It was later revised and released for the PlayStation 2 as MDK2: Armageddon. The main difference between these two versions is the ability to select the difficulty in the later, PS2 version.
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[edit] Protagonists and Gameplay
Like the original, MDK2 features three protagonists: Kurt, an ordinary janitor and reluctant hero, Max, a mechanical six-legged dog, and Doctor Fluke Hawkins, Max's creator and all-round eccentric scientist. Unlike the first game, the player is put in control of all three characters, with each delivering significantly different gameplay and puzzle experiences.
[edit] Kurt Hectic
Kurt is the main hero of MDK, and is a janitor for Dr. Fluke Hawkins. He would rather live peacefully, but the doc forces him to help with both alien invasions. Kurt's not one to abandon his friends, but at the same time he'd much rather be sitting back or mopping a floor.
Kurt's levels emphasize the use of his coil suit and Ribbon Chute, a ribbon-like parachute which allows him to take lifts off updrafts and glide gently from platform to platform. They also focus heavily on his built-in Sniper Scope which allows him to launch projectiles at foes, both directly and indirectly, using the various sniper mortar and rifle options. Kurt's puzzels often involve complex sniper shots with different munitions to strike "lock-balls", which often control doors or barriers. Often Kurt will go though a series of rooms with little items and will force the player to think for themselves, the puzzles are not always obvious or easy, and later stages become much more greatly difficult as more enemies and weapons appear. Also unlike Dr. Hawkins and Max, Kurt's stages will often be very abstract with platforms, floors, and objects placed in varying places.
For Bosses Kurt does not directly attack them for most of the battle. Rather the sniper bullets are often used to clear multiple puzzles on the boss while dealing with a large arsenal of attacks.
[edit] Max
Max is the Doctor's greatest creation, and was created perfect (meaning he was an assistant, not a robot with a glitch, or any plans for taking over the universe). Max would much rather pull a trigger than hesistate to ask a question and he has a major affinity for firepower to a near madman level. Regardless he counts Kurt and the Doctor as his friends and would still help them with problems.
Max's levels emphasize third-person shooting, allowing the player to arm up to four weapons at once, each wielded by one of Max's four arms. However, as part of MDK2's many platforming segments, Max is outfitted with a jetpack, which allows several mid-air refuelling challenges. Max emphasises shoot 'em up, so running into a room with up to seemingly endless enemies is very common. Having double the health of the other characters, Max is very susceptible to being attacked from all directions, but has a large amount of weapons scattered throughout his stages. Unlike the other two, Max has not to look for any little objects, items, or odd out-of-the-ordinary things that the others must deal with.
Max's bosses are head on shoot-the-heck-out-of-him battles. The bosses tend to attack much more rapidly and much more dangerously. The only exception is boss 8, where Max must use the environment to kill him within two minutes.
[edit] Dr Fluke Hawkins
Dr. Hawkins is a very eccentric man, shown by his rather odd personality. He says he's not insane, but he comes up with deadly combinations in machines. He's weak so he tries to push Kurt and Max in the fray first, but when angered he won't think twice about turning his inventions on you.
Dr. Hawkins' levels are perhaps the most divergent and provide a much different experience. The Doctor has to combine inventory items to make weapons and tools that can be used to progress and occasionally drinking plutonium that causes him to transform into a 'Hyde'/'Hulk' style creature, able to beat up the enemy. On later levels Hawkins must defuse bombs. Hawkins main theme is connecting things together, so something like electrical wire and pipes can be mixed together with duct tape, but it is up to the player to find the combinations. Due to his weak strength, the player has a much harder time bypassing enemies unlike Kurt and Max, but Hawkins encounters considerably less difficult bosses and enemies.
Dr. Hawkins bosses tend to not only be straightforward bosses, but items are added to make them considerably easier whether it be the environment, or a reappearing item for him to use. Regardless his bosses are not pushovers, but are usually much easier than Max's or Kurt's once the enemies are disarmed.
[edit] Plot
The game is a direct continuation from the end of the first game, starting with an introductory sequence showing all three protagonists celebrating the defeat of the alien menace, the 'streamriders' from the previous game.
[edit] The Hand of Hanz
Only to find out halfway through a celebratory toast, the Invasion isn't over and one last mine crawler is found in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Kurt is dispatched to stop the invading "mine crawler", with Doctor Hawkins mentioning that Max and himself will help Kurt if they can. Of course Kurt would rather stay behind, but he must go in to stop it being the 'best equipped'. Kurt skydives into the mine crawler, and clears his way through, overpowering the pilot, Hanz who controlled the ship from a large cicular bridge armed with massive lasers and locks. Afterwards, he establishes connections with Dr. Hawkins, but the transmission is not coming in well, and he cannot fully relay a message to Kurt. Dr. Hawkins has realized that there is something behind Kurt, even though Shwang's massive steps have not alerted Kurt himself. Kurt gets flicked in the back by a massive finger, the finger of Shwang Shwing, the right hand-man of the alien emperor. Later revealed before the boss of level 4, he wakes up without the suit strapped to a large metal girder.
[edit] Witness an Inferno
Dr. Hawkin's can't determine the reason for the delays and interruptions of the radio, but he soon realizes that the alien orbiter may be the disturbance. Max suggests they destroy it, but Hawkins comedically suggest "You should destroy it". Doctor Hawkins sends Max to the alien orbiter on board a torpedo, and Max destroys the ship's central AI. However once he does, Shwang finds him, and Max has just enough time to relay that he's fixed the transmission relays, but doesn't have time to tell the Doctor about Shwang and is knocked down and out as Shwang drops his massive hand on Max. Before the Boss of Level 4, Max is then bound upside down in a small chamber.
[edit] What is the BFB?!
Doctor Hawkins begins to become irritated with these interruptions, just as Shwang takes control of a radio line and talks to Doctor Hawkins over the video phone. He states that his ship, the Jim Dandy, is 100% impenetrable, However Shwang begins laughing just as some of his forces bust through the hull of the ship and enter inside. The Doctor weakling changes 100 to 99.9, then states "Oh fudge", as the intro scene fades out. Doctor Hawkins, through his zany inventions, clears the ship all the way to the cargo hold, where his arch-enemy, BFB ("Balloons for Brains", as he puts it) appears. Doctor Hawkins defeats BFB (after angering him by stating his paper on hydro-capacitors was simply "boring"; a response to BFB's boasting about how it was published in over 500 systems across the galaxy). Afterwards, the Doctor is able to pull Kurt in through the teleporter, and Kurt quickly makes a few statements, then wants to leave. However the Doctor makes some suits appear and pushes Kurt into the teleporter to return to the orbiter for Max. Once Kurt is gone, BFB rises behind him as Hawkins types away on the keyboard. Before the boss of Level 5, the doctor is supposedly taken by the BFB and it is shown that the Doctor is put inside of a holding field near the engines.
[edit] Shwang Shwing
Locating Kurt Hectic, Doctor Hawkins sends him to where Shwang Shwing is. Kurt goes through a multitude of new problems in this stage, but he eventually reaches the large room with the holding center where Max is bound. Kurt releases Max and when Max mentions Shwang, Kurt replies of his similar attack. Soon Shwang is in the room and pulls the ceiling off the holding cell and grabs Max, however Kurt refuses to let Shwang take Max. Kurt rescues Max and defeats Shwang, however Shwang isn't even nearly injured and decides to take off back to his homeworld Swizzle Firma. Kurt decides to take this problem himself and follows into the portal. Level 4 exits with the camera slowly advancing its image towards the escape pod on the ceiling.
[edit] Dog Eat Dog
Max enters the escape pod and rockets back to the Jim Dandy through a sub game similar to the rocket for the intro of level 2. Once Max boards (by crashing through the storage window), he takes out the aliens there (who comedically are dancing similar to the macarena). Max fights through the completely infested and very deadly Jim Dandy to reach the hull where he begins to exchange fighting words with BFB, but is stopped by BFB's own version of Max, a larger much more menacing Max named Bad Max. Once Bad Max is down, Max kicks him and a small little device activates opening a portal. Max releases the Doctor who wants him to accompany him to the bridge, but Max feels payment is due from the aliens and he's going to stop them first. He rushes into a portal as the doctor heads for BFB.
[edit] What is the BFB?! (conclusion) (subtitle: Hyde)
Hawkins readies himself with what seems to be a thouroughly trashed room taking anything he can (except the thousands of knives all over the counters and floors). He takes for the BFB, but is stopped by a multitude of bombs which require him to reach switches connected to the lit bomb section, and BFB continues to add more pieces as he scatters the switches. After the second switch, Kermit (Doc's plant) gives him some Pultonium, and the Doctor learns about becoming Hyde. Once he finds BFB, he takes his newfound items and defeats BFB, taking his brains, and ejecting the body into space. Once done, he extracts the coordiantes from his mind, and uses a sort of warp speed known as an 'atomic cascade' to teleport to Swizzle Firma orbit.
[edit] Stranger in a Strange Land
Kurt follows Shwang to Swizzle Firma, where Shwang takes a ship, most likely some form of taxi (which is equipped with a lightning gun and bombs), and attempts to shoot down Kurt as he progresses through the level on catwalks. With no regard to the tank, Kurt is far too high up to survive a fall, and is constantly forced to enter extremely well defended buildings to follow Shwang's Taxi. Once he reaches the end, Shwang uses the ship to shoot down Kurt, but Kurt takes it down, and Shwang crashes. Once down, Shwang gives Kurt the name of the true enemy: Zizzy Ballooba. Kurt uses his parachute to reach the entrance of the palace.
[edit] The Lazarus Effect
Max arrives inside of a black market shop (apparently filled with Bad Max dolls) and finds out from a conversation between the aliens in the shop that "The Ultimate Doomsday Device" will destroy earth, once the aliens figure out how to aim. Max attacks Swizzle Firma, where the locals don't waste any time sending out the army. Once Max infiltrates the heart center of the base, he encounters a badly-injured Shwang in the launching silo of the device. Max uses his guns and the environment to kill Shwang, who explodes completely leaving nothing but his chair and the shades. He tries to disable The Device, but it launches anyway (with Max -commenting "Oh Sh-"). However, since the aiming was not complete, harmlessly, The Device lands in front of Zizzy Ballooba's palace. Cowering, Kurt walks up to Max, and Max realizes Kurt's there, regains his composure, and states "I'm here to save you." Now they wait for the Doc.
[edit] The All Heroes Break up
Doctor Hawkins arrives in orbit after going through a sequence similar to the torpedo and escape pod subgames Max encountered. Kurt's heartbeat is apparently different from the aliens, so the Doctor spots him right away. However the Doc is vain for a second, and in his moment of priding himself over the teleporter, he zaps himself on the surface instead of pulling Kurt and Max up. In this, the Doctor has his hardest puzzles as he collects things to use on the phone booth to make it fly. It is the only level without a boss. Once done, he flies into the air for the palace. A comedic scene ensues were Kurt is smoking Max's cigar and begins to choke and cough after just one puff on the cigar, while Max toys with the sniping mode on the apparently removable chain gun. The Doctor arrives in the phone booth and sets the inventory straight.
[edit] The Final Stage
As they stand outside the palace, each want to use a separate infiltration technique. The Doctor feels taking the hidden way is helpful, but Max wants to charge the front door. Kurt wants to sneak in and use stealth to keep from being found. max and the Doctor begin to argue as max pulls out four weapons and the Doctor puts his hands up in a boxing stance stating "bring it on Fuzzy!" Kurt exclaims rather sissy "I have had it with both of you!" and turns around, folding his arms. At this point, the player can choose who he wants to use. Kurt takes a side entrance and sneaks in. Max charges blindly through the front door, and Doctor Hawkins scales the wall for a hidden entrance. Either way they all meet up in the throne room. Once inside, they find the 20 foot Zizzy Ballooba who is laughing. he reveals that the invasions weren't real, he had let them win them. Zizzy had figured out space and time, and thus attacked Earth for the only thing left, entertainment. He looks towards the player and states "It's all over, thanks for playing!" The group asks what happens next, and Zizzy replies it's over. Kurt rushes forward and yells "That's what you think!"
If playing as Kurt, Kurt aims his chain gun into the air and lets off a whole bunch of rounds as he charges Zizzy. Kurt must shoot multiple targets inside Zizzy's body to take him out.
If playing as the doctor, Hawkins makes a dramatic statement as he rushes Zizzy. Dr. Hawkin's must perform multiple puzzles inside Zizzy's body to beat him.
If playing as Max, Max is holding four weapons as he makes a statement and rushes Zizzy. Max must use maximum brute force to take Zizzy out from the inside as he heals.
Once Zizzy falls, all three friends finally agree it's over, and the player enjoys a comic scene similar to the intro which is specialized for each character.
After the credits, a special appears which won't activate if you access credits from the main menu. Dr. Hawkins and Kurt comedically keep agreeing that it's over. Once done, Doctor Hawkins states "You just purchased a videogame that ended... a long time ago."
[edit] 'Epilogues'
The choice of character for the final level takes the player to one of three endings. Each ending is similar to the intro of the game with a comic book format and narrator.
Kurt's Ending: Kurt is shown victorius in the ending comic book sequence. He returns to Earth as a hero, but finds the media all wants a piece of him and his story. He decides he will take his honors, but would rather stay with Dr. Hawkins on board the Jim Dandy. In the final panel, he has his medal on his bucket and is smiling contently with his achievement and lifestyle.
Max's Ending: Max is shown victorious in the ending comic book sequence. Dr. Hawkins and Kurt offer congratulations, but he wants more than a pat on the head. With emperor Zizzy gone, he decides to take the throne and becomes a powerful but trusting leader. Soon, Swizzle Firma and Earth are allies and the two forge a great alliance. At the close of this sequence, the narrator says "Good boy Max."
Doctor Hawkings: The Doc is shown victorious in the ending comic book sequence. As he ever wanted, the population of Earth is overjoyed with his prowess and power, and he is welcomed back with open arms. He now lives once again with content for his life, and his genius is proven, so he moves back to his original project, "Atomic Robot Zombie Men!"
[edit] The Soundtrack
Unlike Tommy Tallarico's symphonic, movie-like soundtrack for the original MDK, the MDK 2 soundtrack is considerably more modern. It was composed by Jesper Kyd. Most of the music falls under the category of electronica, specifically bigbeat, breakbeat, and drum and bass.
The Dreamcast edition allows the user to access all the music tracks from the game including the sound effect background tracks using the Dreamcast CD player function.
[edit] The Name
The name "MDK" was rumored to be an initialism for "Murder, Death, Kill" by fans and the gaming press after the original MDK was released. This was never confirmed by any of the involved parties, and various other theories exist regarding what this stands for. Some believe that the name stands for three main characters: Max, Doctor, and Kurt, however, in the original MDK the dog was named Bones. In the installation screen for the PC version of MDK2, several explanations are listed, with each followed by a question mark. No single, official explanation has ever been provided by Shiny Entertainment or BioWare Corp.
[edit] Trivia
- The Comic-Book style loading screens are an homage to Jack Kirby.
- The name "Zizzy Balooba" appears to come from an alien named "Zyzzybalubah" that appeared in an episode of Peewee's Playhouse.
- The telephone booth Dr Hawkins flies, is a spoof of the TARDIS in Doctor Who and the phone booth in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
- The mine crawler at the start of the game is actually heading towards the Bioware Corp. headquarters, much like the first minecrawler in MDK was heading towards the Shiny Entertainment headquarters.
- There is a folder of concept art on the Dreamcast version available when read by a PC.
- The games cover is a spoof of Charlie's Angels title sequence.
- There is a little dialogue featuring Kurt and Doctor Hawkins added at the very end of the staff roll if you watch the credits after you succeed in beating the game. Both characters are heard talking to the player, repeatedly assuring and reassuring them that the game is over. The doctor then tells the player that he is a fool since the game ended a long time ago, and a man says a few words about Bioware.
[edit] Credits
- Produced and Directed by Cameron Tofer and Greg Zeschuk
- Lead Programmer: Cameron Tofer
- Programmers: Stan Melax, Justin Smith, David Falkner, Ryan Hoyle, and Charles Randall
- Art Direction and Special Effects: Russ Rice
- Level Design and Art: Cassidy Scott, Kalvin Lyle, Casey Hudson, and Toby Manthorpe
- Art: Sean Smailes, Derek Watts, Rob Sugama, Matt Goldman, Lindsay Jorgensen, and Mike Sass
- Sound: David Chan
- Soundtrack: Jesper Kyd
- QA Lead: Karl Schreiner
- Executive Producers: Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka
- Voice Acting: Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie and Atomic Improv
[edit] External links
- Official MDK2 section at Bioware website
- IMDB credits of MDK2
- Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie (provided voicework for MDK2)
- Atomic Improv (provided voicework for MDK2)
