Name:         MDK.
Publisher:    Shiny Entertainment.
Format:       PC CDROM.
Available:    Now.

Requires:

O/S:          MSDOS or Windows 95.
Processor:    Pentium 60 Minimum, P90 recommended.
RAM:          16Mb RAM.
Graphics:     1Mb SVGA Card (DirectX compliant for Win 95).
CD-Rom:       Not Stated.
Soundcard:    Soundblaster or 100% Compat.
 
Tested on:

O/S:          Windows 95.
Processor:    Pentium 166.
RAM:          32Mb.
Graphics:     2Mb Hercules Terminator 64 3D.
CD-ROM:       Eight Speed.
Soundcard:    Soundblaster AWE32.
Controls:     Mouse/Keyboard.

MDK

Upon receiving MDK (Murder Death Kill, Mulder Does Kathy, whatever) I had high hopes. Everything I'd seen and read looked very promising - the ability to snipe at targets and inflict wounds to draw out other enemies, head shots, and the coil chute all sounded like the ingredients for an excellent game. However things weren't all I'd expected them to be. I supposed I'd better explain.

MurDer my Kilobytes.

Everything got off to a good start. The installation was smooth, painless (Yes, I'd like the Windows 95 version, no I don't need DirectX 3, I'm already running it) and proceeded without a hitch. One thing did take me by surprise though - the installation options.

MDK gives you three options for installation.

1. Minimal. In layman's terms too small to be of value. Selecting this option is your cue for long loading times between levels.
2. Medium. 33Mb of data is transferred which does make the game play a lot more smooth, by minimising loading times between levels. However, the loading times were on the long side for my taste, especially for an eight speed drive.
3. Large. 150MB!!!! Who does Shiny think they are? Microsoft? Maybe MDK 2 will be supplied on it's own 2.5Gb hard disk!

My! Doze graphics are Kewl!

The graphics are excellent. The game is almost entirely polygon based (only explosions tend to be bitmaps) and the game is very fast and smooth, especially with the patch applied from Shiny's web site. The textures are good, suffer from little pixellation and fit in well with the general dark, broody atmosphere of the majority of the levels. It's quite a feat of programming and design to be honest. Admittedly the polygon count is higher in other titles, but the whole thing hangs together exceptionally well and does provide a convincing backdrop for the game.

MDK is played in the third person perspective for the vast majority of the game, so you can appreciate that a smooth and convincing environment is essential. The Sniper mode is played in first person perspective and helps highlight the detail of your environment, which is obviously invaluable as you attempt that one shot kill, the head shot.

Musical DisKord?

No, not really. The music is excellent. The in game music is worthy of listening to in its own right. For example, in one of the levels you're surfing, shooting and jumping over objects, very reminiscent of a certain scene from a James Bond film; as is the music. The sound effects are also of a similar high calibre, every effect suits the on-screen action perfectly, from the sounds of gunfire or the chattering of enemy robots to the opening of the Coil chute.

Murderously Difficult Kontrols?

Except they aren't. The control system is simple but very effective. Very soon controlling Kurt Hectic (that's you, that is) becomes second nature. As Kurt is a very versatile character (ask any member of parliament) you'll be glad that making him glide, shoot, snipe and blow the hell out of anything that moves (or indeed, looks like it might) is second nature.

Many puzzles Don't ya Know.

At this stage you might have got the impression that MDK is just another run, shoot the robot, jump the ledge and shoot a few more robots type of game. It isn't, this game has puzzles as well.

Oi! Come back! It's not as if they're particularly difficult puzzles to solve, typically a small amount of exploration will reveal the solution to your problem. Usually the puzzles involve a death defying jump, gliding between certain points or shooting certain objects. As an example, one of the levels presents you with a closed gate. To progress further you have to go through the gate, BUT the gate is impervious to bullets, small explosions and there's never a nuclear warhead around when you need one. However, to the left of this gate is a small room with a gear like object sat in the middle of it. By shooting the gear and making it spin, the gate opens. This is fairly typical of the puzzles found within MDK - they won't tax your brain too much but they do provide a welcome break from the gun play.

A typical level.

OK, so it isn't an acronym, but hey! Who's writing this?

Every level starts the same way. You get an introductory screen (with suitably warped characters) which informs you of the location of the alien ship. These inform you of the area which the aliens are attacking (Laguna Beach USA, or where I live Alfreton, Derbyshire UK), but provide little else in the way of information. After this introductory screen the level begins to load, as mentioned earlier this takes a little time but it does show you a picture of your ultimate enemy. After loading the game begins.

The levels start with a descent onto the enemy ship from outer space. OK, descent is too calm a word, you're plummeting from outer space toward a ship miles below. As you fall a radar beam is attempting to track you (usually in the same place as the bonus weapons you can collect are also falling). It is a good idea to avoid the radar beam, because if it "sees" you several homing missiles are launched. Naturally catching missiles does wonders for your health, NOT!

OK, we've landed, guns at the ready. Now the clock starts tick. Yes, ticking. You can't afford to dawdle, as the longer you take the more people die from the aliens "mining" efforts. So you need to put some effort into reaching the end of the levels even if you don't kill everyone in sight. Using the normal view of things you view Kurt from behind as you run and jump, also in this mode you have access to the chain gun. As we round a corner we bump into a few enemy robots, BLASTING TIME! The chain guns spits it's leaden death and sparks and bits of robot fly everywhere. Phew, that was close. I'd almost been killed by one robot as I'd drained the other of life - time to slow it down a bit. Slowly I edge up to the corner of a raised ramp, what's that? Movement in the distance? Sniper mode on. Zoom in. Ah, yes an unsuspecting robot "hiding" in a trench. Zoom a little closer, centre the crosshairs on his eye socket..blam! His head goes flying, cue one ex-robot. Oh, his friend who was edging closer appears to have an interest in running towards me, lets slow him down a bit. Blam! Crippled his leg. Ahhhh, look he's dragging it behind him now. Exit sniper mode and give him a freshly collected grenade to play with.

Hmm, Some robots taunting me from behind some impenetrable glass. Hmm, some open vents at the top of their room. Time for a few mortars. Sniper mode on, select mortar, aim and bombs away! One set of shattered glass and several dead robots later I'm on my way to finishing the level. I'll just glide down this gorge and finish the pilot of this ship.

As in common with most of the levels, the end of level bosses require the use of a particular skill. In this case the little swine is parked a long way off behind a glass shield, with only a small area which I can fire through. Sniper mode on, select homing grenade (courtesy of my pals up above) let a few off. Serious damage according to indicator in the top left of the screen. AAAGH! Enemy robots being drop-lifted into my sector, sniper off. FIRE!!!!!

DIE ALIEN SCUM!

The pilot's dead, and I'm now traversing some weird time tunnel thing, chasing a 150% life bonus (normally these scream and run away, but not in this section). So avoiding the walls I start to close in on my target, but one of my support team (a many armed dog!?) grabs me and whisks me away to the safety of my ship.

After I return to my ship I'm given the statistics for my level (gets the accountants going this one). Stuff like shot's fired, accuracy and head shots scored are all shown.

Basic Level Structure.

All of the levels are pre-set to a large degree as to where you can go. Normally this would be a problem, but in this case it does help enhance the feeling that you have infiltrated a large mobile structure and that you are pursuing a single goal - the assassination of the pilot of the craft. There are some "streamed" sections like the butt surfing or the flying on an alien surf board sections that limit your options to left/right and straight ahead, but these seem like natural sections of the level and don't intrude as much as you'd think.

So it looks nice, sounds good, what's wrong?

MDK is a good game, don't get me wrong, but it isn't without its problems.

There are a few graphical problems. For example the clipping isn't as good as it should be. Polygons disappear or the edges of polygons are tinged with white or red edges. The collision detection isn't all that it could be either.

However these are minor problems when you consider the save game options, or rather the lack of them. You can only save at the beginning of each level. Now this wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that some levels require very accurate jumping (all against the clock don't forget), large numbers of alien robots and the length of the levels. Surely the ability to save mid game could have been included? Shiny are releasing a patch that allows mid game saving, but why wasn't it included in the released version? Admittedly there are some nice touches, like hiding in a dead robots body to infiltrate an alien base, but the fact that you have to finish a level diminishes the gaming experience a great deal. The fact that on the harder levels the time limits make these problem's all the more acute is even more infuriating.

So, should I buy it?

MDK isn't a bad game any stretch of the imagination, but unless you have the patches handy I couldn't recommend it whole heartedly, hence the score of 7/10. However, if you are prepared to wait and download the patches it would be worth 8/10. It seems a bit of a shame that a game of this calibre is spoiled by the intrusion of a poor save game feature and graphical clipping. The game is by no means ruined, but without the patches your enjoyments can be tinged with frustration.

I can recommend MDK, but be prepared to do a little bit of downloading before you get the best from it.

Darren Clarke for Game-Over!