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

"A short, fun, simple game -- that said, there's nothing special about it"

Heavy Metal F.A.K.K 2 is the video game incarnation of the comic book and movie line of the same name. The heroine, Julie Strain, is on a quest to save her planet from an evil corporation.

Gameplay: 8/10

I thought this was the best part of the game. The controls are simple and efficient.

Julie has a variety of weapons from Swords and Chainsaws to Uzis and Rocketlaunchers. All of these have their uses, but it's likely you'll be using an elemental sword 90% of the time. The swords have a two swipe combo and a four hit combo. Most enemies can be disposed of by simply hitting them with a combo, blocking, and hitting them again. For guns, you just hold down the mouse button to shoot, though ammo is limited.

Moving around, jumping, strafing, etc. is standard. The game plays very much like Tomb Raider, and I have no problem with that.

The only problem is that it's maybe a bit too simple - there aren't any advance strategies needed for bosses, just whack them til they're dead.

Story: 4/10

Meh. It's nothing original. No one's gonna play the game for the story, and the developers probably knew that.

Graphics/Sound: 9/10

I was impressed by the quality of the graphics for a game of this age. Julie is very well rendered, and fluid motion is very good. The voice acting is superb. The sound effects are generally weird sounding, but authentic; you'd imagine a poison shooting plant to make that sound when hit :P

The music is very...well...Heavy Metal, as you may expect. I liked it.

Difficulty: 3/10

Even someone who's not very good at these type of games, like me, won't have any trouble with this. Everything is very simple, with the exception of a few jumps here and there. But a quick reload takes care of that.

Length/Replayability: 2/10

This game is really, really short, and that's my major complaint. Any gamer can finish this one off in two weeks. It probably only takes around 12-14 hours, and that's at max. most people can beat the game in 8-10 hours is my guess.
They could've added a few more levels just to make the game longer, its not as if the story would've stopped them.

The game's not gonna be any different the second time around. I wouldn't replay it.

Overall: 5/10

It was fun for the few hours spent playing it. Good graphics, solid gameplay. A decent intro to this genre of games, because of its simplicity. That said, there's nothing special about the game. Average.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 07/18/05