Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.2 for Windows

First of all, this is a work in progress. The further I get into this game, the more I'll update this review. Maybe I'll have something better, or even worse to say about it as time goes on. At the moment I'm halfway through the first episode (9/19/2000).

So far the plot of the game doesn't matter. You're here to kill, and to kill thousands of baddies that look as if they were created drawn with crayons by some disgruntled 3rd graders. The one positive of this is that this game probably has more bad guys coming at you at one time on screen (without slowing down the framerates) than any other 3d-shooter out there (they're calling this "horde technology"). The extreme negative to all this is that you see the SAME monsters over and over and over again. I have read that in a lot of cases, what turns out being the level Boss of one level is nothing but a grunt in the next levels.

So far, in the first level, I've only noticed a few references to KISS the band (of which, I am a huge fan). I've gathered a few "artifacts" that resemble pieces of the KISS costumes, that supposedly give you more powers. Other than that I haven't found much of KISS in the game, and none of their music; there are supposedly several tracks within the game, somewhere.

The graphics were created using the Lithtech 2 engine, the same one used to create "Blood 2". I can only describe it by saying it falls somewhere between "Half-Life" and Quake 3/Unreal on the pretty-scale. It never looks quite as crisp. Like I said, most of the graphics appear to have done with crayons. A bit blurry for my taste. The death/gore of the bad guys is pretty plain-jane. You shoot them, and they turn into a pile of red mush, not at all as gorey or cool looking as the death graphics in games like "Soldier of Fortune".

In a few weeks or so I'll update this review, if I manage to be patient enough to play more of this game. Currently I'm on some stupid, huge bookshelf level, roaming around a pile of 10 foot high books. Yay.