Many games try very hard to quirky or outlandish, be it's Portals pin point precision writing or Borderlands trite characters equating shouting to zaniness. None though seem to quite so effortlessly succeed as Shiny Entertainment.
MDK basically has no writing or characters. It has briefings, announcing "giant mine-crawlers" comically attacking tiny inconsequential British villages (most likely the developers home locations), but aside from that, anything approaching characterization or plot is non existent.
Instead, it uses that vagueness to enhance it's otherworldly feel. This, combined with a juxtaposition of dark cyberpunk imagery and Tommy Tallarico brooding tones working against self-aware buffoonery, gels together to make a wholly unique game unlike any other third person shooter before or after.
The visuals are especially worth bringing up. This game is now 20+ years old. Around it's release (1997) when 3D graphics were still emerging, it's remarkable how good this game looks. Against contemporary peers Tomb Raider, Mario and Zelda, there is really no competition, MDK looked light-years ahead, you only need look at the screenshot to see this.
The game-play also holds up remarkably well. If you're modern gamer wanting button combo's, leveling up or wall-cover based combat though, this is not your game. It's charm lays in it's simplicity.
It's operates very much like a third person Doom. Aiming is automatic, all enemies fire dodge-able projectiles with levels scattered with resources, and similar to Duke3D, usable items.
It has a few sporadic platforming sections, and the rare "figure it out dickhead" but nothing taxing, acting as a nice diversion from the wide arenas the encompass much of the game. Arenas tend to be full of dozens of enemies at once or varying types, but all are perfectly defeatable simply by avoiding projectile attacks, death never feel cheap.
This is one of the first games in memory with a sniper. It's used rather well. Instead of specifically used for redundant head-shots it has multiple mods of fire with specifically designed sections to take advantage of it, while also remaining optional and useful for arena battles themselves.
Usable items like grenades, a decoy dummy come in very useful in the harder difficulties, typically serving against enemies with large HP pools. Optional Bonus pickup's and the scarce secret area comes in handy, such as the eccentric "groovy" (with a nod to Earthworm Jim) that drops cows from the air.
If I had criticisms it would be the default control layout which is obtuse, and doesn't meld well with it's "tunnel" stage. By and large though, once this is worked around MDK is an incredibly slick third person shooter with excellent pacing. At around 5 hours long, it's short, but never feels like it's outstaying it's welcome like so many titles today - pointlessly padded. On the downside, it's simplicity lacks the replay of other modern action titles.
MDK is a game designed by English speaking people, with a French music video for an ending, a game where beating the end-boss involves turning a 4 armed dog into a seal, where you are running around as a Dark Knight like character chasing a physically running health pickup - screaming like a chimpanzee.
So there it is, odd, simple, short and now old as hell. But it works.
