Let’s Look At: MDK
Playing the same games you played as a kid later on in life can bring up some odd questions from people. Questions like, “Why are you 24 years old and playing Pajama Sam 2: Thunder and Lightning Aren’t So Frightening?”, “why is that plumber stomping on those mushrooms?”, and “seriously, why are you playing Pajama Sam. It’s meant for five year olds.” Maybe I like Pajama Sam, okay? But, it can also bring up questions you ask yourself like, “What the hell is going on? Who am I? How did I get this robo-suit with a machine gun for an arm?” MDK is a 3rd person shooting game that made me ask a lot of questions, but that sure as hell beats a boring game.
No video-game-playing-chlid can look at this cover and not immediately want to know more about that suit. Also fun fact, there's no agreed upon meaning for the MDK acronym. It has been said to mean anything from "Murder Death Kill" to "Mother's Day Kisses".
One of the biggest surprises I got while playing MDK again as an adult is that it apparently has a story! I don’t remember if I ever got this game in a box, so maybe I didn’t read any manuals that would have told me the fittingly strange plot of this game.
You play as Kurt Hectic, a laboratory janitor tricked onto a space station by the brilliant (if deranged) Doctor Fluke Hawkins. There’s also a 6 legged dog named Bones, though he prefers Max. Dr. Hawkins, ashamed that he couldn’t prove one of his theorems, decided to stay on his space station until he accomplishes something. He is the first to detect the coming of the Steamriders (a group of aliens who use massive “minelayers” to strip planets of their resources). Dr. Hawkins attempts to warn Earth, but he is ignored. Earth’s military is destroyed and the only hope to defeat the aliens is Dr. Hawkins “Coil Suit”, but given his age and Max’s extra legs, Kurt is the only one who can use it. The funniest part is how literally none of this matters at all to the gameplay. I, as a kid, saw the machine gun arm and I was sold.
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Each mission opens with a one sentence crawl about where the Minecrawler is headed. You drop out of the space-station to land on the Minecrawler, picking up items and dodging missles as you go.
To say that MDK looks interesting is like saying that Dali painted odd paintings; it’s true, but you’re understating things. The graphics from 1997 show their age, but the overall look is still stunning in terms of its imagination. Each Minecrawler is a whirl of color, shapes, and music. MDK didn’t ape Quake’s brown hues; instead it explored every color in the rainbow, and then made every surface reflective. The music compliments the visual style. Each song on the soundtrack is clamoring, odd, and cyberpunk-y.
As for level design, MDK’s designers didn’t bother with labyrinths found in Doom or Quake, but featured a straightforward layout for each level. There are few, if any, branching paths throughout each level, though you can find hidden secrets. Most levels are made up of corridors and one or two wide open spaces. Wind-tunnel like segments add a verticality you wouldn’t expect from such 2d focused game. While the levels are all linear, each Minecrawler has a unique look that makes going through the level fun.
The combat in MDK is as strange as the rest of it with no vertical aiming, ala Doom, and only one weapon. Your machine gun arm has two modes: spray’n’pray and sniper. You can hold down the shoot button and you’ll hit anything in front of you within a certain range (with the closest enemy hit first), or you can activate the sniper mode to fire off three precise shots at a time. You have one ammo variety for the spray’n’pray, which does more damage, but several varieties of sniper fire including, mortars, smart bombs, and homing bullets. If you can headshot a non-boss enemy in sniper mode, you’ll take their head off in a shower of green blood. You can also pick up a variety of throwable weapons, including an inflatable dummy, grenades, and “The World’s Smallest Nuclear Explosion.” The grenades come in handy for the larger enemies you fight. You only use the World’s Smallest Nuclear Explosion to open doors, which is an odd twist on the old “I might need it later” weapon conservation strategy.
Enemies fall apart as you whittle down their health; it's entertaining but can be distracting when you're swarmed.
Some parts of a game age like fine wine and some age like milk. The graphics and visual style of MDK still hold up, but man, combat has come a long way since 1997. In the 1st level you have to fight an enemy who jumps between ledges in a vertical wind tunnel which is pretty fun, but most fights devolve into “hold down shoot button because you never run out of ammo, jump straight up to dodge any laser blasts, and rinse/repeat.” Things go faster if you’ve got the super chaingun ammo, but you never have enough to last the whole level.
A stronger combination of the platforming and shooting mechanics would result in more dynamic combat. The vertical segment in the 1st level is fun because you have to manage your aim, movement, height, as well as dodge your enemy’s attacks. Otherwise you’re just holding down the shoot button and waiting.
Trying to use sniper mode is impossible unless your enemies can't hit you. Every large hit you take knocks you down and brings you back to 3rd person mode.
The controls are very similar to Doom’s, arrow keys for movement, control for shooting, but they are awkward at best. Mario 64 came out in 1996 and practically wrote the book on running and jumping, but it looks like the makers of MDK weren’t overly fond of Mario 64. You can jump with the Alt key, use items with the enter key, and if you hold the “x” key you can sidestep by pressing left or right (which normally just turn Kurt). Getting anything done quickly in MDK is challenging, and more so when the game throws dozens of enemies at you. I think default mouselook and a WASD scheme would have made movement a lot less annoying.
Worth Playing?
No.
MDK requires context to really enjoy. If you could go back in time and play this game when it came out the visuals would be stunning and the combat/movement would be par the course. If you play it now, the visuals are still interesting as hell, but the movement is annoying and the dull combat can’t hold your interest. The sniper mode the game would be a fun addition to lots of FPS, but it doesn’t make MDK worth playing now.
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