Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K. 2 Review
While it has some interesting sequences, and can be really enjoyable at times, more often F.A.K.K. 2 merely seems like the framework for a much better game.
Heavy Metal F.A.K.K. 2 is evidently the work of ambitious designers. The game attempts to combine the best elements of several genres: It looks like a third-person action game, begins like a role-playing game, plays like a platform game, and uses both first-person shooter conventions and fighting-game elements in its combat system. Unfortunately, the game hardly ever goes beyond the surface of any of its influences. What's worse, it's short, unstable, and the control is unresponsive. And while F.A.K.K. 2 does have some interesting sequences and can be really enjoyable at times, more often it merely seems like the framework for a much better game.
F.A.K.K. 2 takes place 30 years after Heavy Metal 2000, the animated film on which it's based. The main character, Julie, and her companions have taken residence on Eden, a planet with magical water that keeps the residents from aging. Though a large energy shield protects the planet, strange things are happening, like an invasion of malevolent bugs. And it soon becomes clear that a greater invasion is imminent. There is some semblance of a continuous story throughout the first third of the game, and it initially keeps the action interesting.
The game is broken into three parts. The first is the best, in which you (as Julie) wander around your city, talk to your neighbors, and perform various tasks for them in exchange for equipment. Though it could have used better dialogue and some more meaningful quests, this open-ended section is a good way to set up the challenges that lie ahead, and Ritual Entertainment did a good job of making Julie's home seem like a living city. Once the siege begins and the city gets ransacked, the game gets even better - you'll need to find creative ways to defeat seemingly invincible foes in a few key scripted sequences. Finally, you'll be sent to the swamps of Eden to begin your quest for the Heart of the We, a mystical artifact that can put an end to the threat.
Things start to fall apart in this swamp, which makes up the second part of the game. F.A.K.K. 2 aspires to have exciting platform-jumping sequences, but it can't compare with the best games in this style. In platform games such as Super Mario 64 and Rayman 2, your tasks gradually get more complicated, as you must find new and innovative ways to use the tools at your disposal. In F.A.K.K. 2, the jumps just get harder. The second part of the game consists almost entirely of jumping puzzles, and they get tedious.
They also get frustrating, because F.A.K.K. 2's control leaves a lot to be desired. Precise jumping sequences require precise control - but controlling Julie seems more like driving a hovercraft. She'll slide off objects when she turns, get stuck on obstacles, and generally bounce around in aggravating ways. What makes the second part of the game even more disappointing is the complete lack of character interaction that helped make the first section seem more substantial than most third-person action games.
Fortunately, the third part of F.A.K.K. 2 is better than the second, perhaps because the level design is more diverse and the jumping puzzles are less monotonous. However, the story has all but disappeared by this time - you merely have to perform a series of nonsensical tasks in four elemental environments - but these environments are good looking, and the levels are interesting. The final boss battle is also satisfying, and the boss itself looks impressive.
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Player Reviews
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Sweet-ass game, dunno why people don't like it, its tomb-raider game style in the quake 3 engine but 10 times sweeter Continue »
Critic Scores
- IGN 8 / 10
- Gaming Age B
- Eurogamer 7 / 10
- Game Rankings 90 / 100
- GameZone 9 / 10
- Electric Playground 9 / 10
- Game Vortex 10 / 10
- Game Blitz 80 / 100
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