MDK. What does it stand for? Originally penned as Murder Death Kill, Interplay had to change the name for some tedious reason which we haven’t the space nor inclination to explain. We’ve been waiting an awfully long time for this PCinspired gem, and other than some tiny, weenie criticisms, it’s everything we could have expected.

Sometimes a game comes along which literally leaves you lost for words. MDK is such a title. For once it’s the whole concept that grabs the attention and not the graphics.

MDK is unlike any game we’ve played before. Set on Earth in the future, a phenomena (not John Travolta) is discovered called ‘Streams.’ Earth decides to tap into these tubes of pure energy found throughout the galaxy until an alien stream rider arrives sat atop a huge rumbling city which destroys everything in its path. Only you (playing as Kurt), Max the dog and Dr Fluke Hawkins can save the day.

Developers Shiny Entertainment must be commended on the sheer number of gameplay styles within MDK. At its heart, this game is a vicious 3-D shoot-’em-up, but at the start of each of the eight enormous worlds, you freefall to earth collecting as many pick-ups as possible, while avoiding deadly homing missiles and radar tracking beams. A totally new game style.

MORE DONER KEBABS?

After this short, exhilarating taster, you barely have time to draw breath before you’re running through enormous futuristic arenas and engaging hostile metallic robots in mortal combat. Your default weapon is a machine pistol, which never runs out of ammo, but either by collecting add-ons in freefall, or scouring the surface of each city trawler, you can acquire heaps of amusingly-named devices.

By far the tastiest weapon power-up is your head-mounted sniper gun which can zoom in for ridiculous levels of accuracy and take out enemies who are totally unaware of your deadly intentions. When you learn to use this weapon quickly, the satisfaction of making a kill from long range is unparalleled. Even if the tiniest section of the body or weapon is sticking out, you can reduce their visible power bar until they blow apart spectacularly. This is very clever programming, and you soon learn that if a baddie is taking pot-shots at you, all you need to do is strafe left or right until he can’t see or shoot you, but you can just see a bit of him. Inspired.

MY DROWNED KITTEN

MDK rarely let’s the player get boggeddown with overly complicated puzzles which tend to piss people off either. Sometimes your objectives are quite obvious. For example, at one point you must aim mortar shells (via your sniper gun) into oddly-shaped chimneys to kill the occupants who wave smugly behind unbreakable red glass. This seems easy at first until you realise that you have to position yourself on different pedestals to achieve it.

Another beautifully-designed idea is the ribbon chute; allowing Kurt to float on pockets of air or briefly along the ground after jumping. It looks stunning and added to the beautifully designed backgrounds (which vary from rusting futuristic cities to visually stunning reflective domes) amounts to a truly original game in every sense of the word.

… continued