MDK2: Көшбасшылардың қайтысы және Ғарыштан келген жаулар

MDK2 is a 2000 third person shooter, action adventure video game developed by BioWare and published by Interplay Entertainment for the Dreamcast, Windows and PlayStation 2. It is a sequel to the 1997 game MDK. First released for the Dreamcast in March 2000, it was later released for Windows in May, with newly selectable difficulty levels and the ability to manually save. In March 2001, a slightly reworked version, featuring level design modifications and gameplay tweaks, was released for the PlayStation 2 as MDK 2: Armageddon. The PC version was released on GOG. com in September 2008, and on Steam in September 2009. A port of the PlayStation 2 version was released for Wii via WiiWare in 2011. Also in 2011, a HD remastered version was released for Windows. Called MDK2 HD, this version features new 3D models, textures, improved lighting, and remastered music, and was released on Beamdog in October, and on Steam in July 2012. The game begins moments after the end of the original MDK. Believing they had vanquished the alien invaders, Kurt Hectic, Dr. Hawkins and Max are shocked to find a single Minecrawler remains. Kurt heads to destroy it, but upon doing so, encounters a massive alien called Shwang Shwing, who reveals the invasion of Earth is far from over. The main difference between MDK and MDK2 is the ability to control three playable characters (Kurt, Hawkins and Max), each with their own strengths and weaknesses. As such, the gameplay in the sequel is more varied than in the original game, with more emphasis on platforming and puzzles than straight run and gun shooting. MDK2 received generally positive reviews across all systems, with critics praising the graphics, variety of gameplay styles, level design, boss fights, the game's sense of humor, and its fidelity to the original MDK. The most commonly criticized aspects of the game were the difficulty level, which was felt to be too high, and the platforming sections, which many critics found frustrating and too exacting. Hawkins' levels in general were seen as inferior to Kurt's and Max's. In 2007, Interplay announced plans for a third game, but it was never made.

The game begins moments after the conclusion of MDK, with Kurt, Max, and Dr. Hawkins celebrating their victory over Gunther Glut, and thus saving Earth from the alien invasion. However, in the midst of their celebrations, they discover a remaining Minecrawler heading towards Edmonton. Kurt destroys it, but as he awaits to return to the Jim Dandy space station, he is taken prisoner by a massive alien. Meanwhile, on board the Dandy, Hawkins discovers that communications with Kurt are being jammed by a nearby alien ship. Max heads to the other ship to free up the communications. However, upon doing so, he too is taken prisoner by the same alien. The alien then contacts Hawkins on the Dandy, telling him his name is Shwang Shwing, and the invasion of Earth is not over. Shwing sends a group of aliens onto the Dandy, but Hawkins is able to fight them off and teleport Kurt back to the ship. He then sends Kurt to the alien ship to save Max. However, shortly after Kurt's departure, Hawkins is taken prisoner by the aliens still on the Dandy. Kurt frees Max, and together they fight Shwing. During the battle, they learn Hawkins has been taken prisoner. Shwing initiates the auto destruct sequence, and jumps into an energy stream, followed by Kurt, whilst Max heads back to the Dandy to save Hawkins. Upon destroying a robotic dog constructed by the aliens, Max frees Hawkins, and uses a device on the dog to open a portal into which he heads. Meanwhile, Hawkins remains behind to take back control of the Dandy. After finally ridding the station of aliens, he finds the co ordinates of their home world and sets course. Meanwhile, Shwing emerges from the energy stream on the home world, Swizzle Firma, with Kurt following close behind. Kurt destroys his ship, and an injured Shwing tells Kurt the attacks on Earth have been ordered by Emperor Zizzy Ballooba. Meanwhile, Max emerges from the portal on Swizzle Firma, and learns Ballooba plans to launch a doomsday device at Earth which will obliterate the entire planet. Max kills Shwing as he attempts to launch the device, and then destroys the device itself. He then meets up with Kurt and heads to Ballooba's palace. Meanwhile, Hawkins pilots the Dandy to Swizzle Firma and contacts his colleagues. Aiming the station's guns at the palace, he attempts to teleport Kurt and Max back to the Dandy, but accidentally teleports himself to the planet, and so heads to meet with Kurt and Max. The three storm Ballooba's palace. Upon confronting Ballooba, he admits he's only trying to destroy Earth for his own amusement, because, since he mastered space and time, he has become bored. A battle ensues between the three heroes and Ballooba, with the heroes emerging victorious. The closing sequence depends on which character the player uses for the final battle. Kurt resumes his duties as janitor of the Dandy, perturbed by the idea of becoming a celebrity. Max becomes the new emperor of Swizzle Firma, forming an interplanetary alliance with Earth. Hawkins is welcomed back to Earth, no longer shunned by his peers, and gets to work on his lifelong ambition creating an atomic robot zombie army.

Immediately after the critical and commercial success of the original MDK, publishers Interplay wanted to begin work on a sequel. They approached Nick Bruty, who had written and co designed the first game for Shiny Entertainment. However, Bruty was reluctant to go straight into another MDK game, explaining "I hadn't liked rushing from Earthworm Jim to its sequel without a creative break, and I felt the game suffered because of that." In any case, his new development studio, Planet Moon Studios, was already working on Giants: Citizen Kabuto. Bruty asked Interplay if they would consider waiting until he was finished on Giants before beginning on MDK2, but they chose to press on without him, handing development over to BioWare. MDK2 was officially announced on October 18, 1998 when Interplay confirmed BioWare was developing the sequel for Dreamcast and Windows, using its own game engine, the Omen Engine. At the time, BioWare was thought by some to be an odd choice to take over the franchise, as they were still a relatively young company (having been founded in 1995), and had yet to release their breakout game, Baldur's Gate, which was in the final stages of development. Greg Zeschuk, co founder of BioWare, stated "our aim with MDK2 is to explore new directions and expand beyond the constrictive environments established in other 3D games." In July 1999, IGN interviewed Zeschuk. He emphasised the development team's relative inexperience with 3D action games was not a handicap;

Addressing the similarities between MDK2 and the original game, he explained "The key characteristics we retained in MDK2 were the humor and the light hearted style of the game. The reasoning is pretty straightforward the humor and style of MDK set it apart." Unlike most other PC games released at the time, the PC version of MDK2 requires an OpenGL compliant graphics accelerator to run. the PC version of MDK2 also support for the EAX Version 2.0 3D positional audio technology by Creative Labs, as well as Hardware T&L technology found in GeForce 256/GeForce 2 series and Radeon R100 series out of the box. Faulkner and Randall explained the game was still utilizing the Omen Engine, with Faulkner saying of programming for the PlayStation 2 "The PS2 is certainly good at pushing polys, no doubt about that. And the two vector processors can handle the physics and geometry we have with room to spare. The trick is the video memory, mainly. All of the cool visual features, like a high res framebuffer, FSAA and high res textures all take a lot of video memory. It's a real juggling act trying to get it to do all that at once." Speaking of his earlier problems with video memory, Faulkner said "the video memory situation has improved dramatically since last time. The problem was that there was too little video memory to fit all our textures, and the machine can't use a texture unless it's specifically in video memory. What we've found since then is that the PS2 has enough bus bandwidth to transfer each texture from main memory to video memory as it's needed. That's on the order of hundreds of MB per second. We hadn't anticipated that the PS2 had that kind of brute horsepower on its bus. We had to reorient our thinking after that. So now we have almost more texture memory than we know what to do with."

On June 25, 2010, Interplay announced it was partnering with Beamdog to release a port of MDK2 for the Wii through WiiWare, and a HD remastered version for Windows through Beamdog. The Wii version features brighter graphics, and the game has been optimised for control with the Wii Remote and Wii Nunchuk. Essentially a port of MDK2: Armageddon, the game features no new content. Due to the limited space available for the title on WiiWare, the audio has been compressed, and graphically, shadows have been removed to maintain a constant framerate. The game was released on May 9, 2011. The HD version was developed by Overhaul Games, although several of the original developers consulted on the project. Programmer, co producer and co designer of the original game, and COO of Overhaul Games, Cameron Tofer stated, "MDK2 holds a special place in all our hearts – the team was really close, and it was the first time many of us were able to create an action game at BioWare. We think MDK2 HD has the sort of visuals, humor and great gameplay that can draw in not only existing fans of the game, but a brand new audience that just wasn't able to experience its magic the first time around." MDK2 HD was originally released exclusively on Beamdog in October 2011, and was later released on Steam in July 2012.

MDK2 received mainly positive reviews across all systems. The Dreamcast version holds an aggregate score of 88% on GameRankings, based on twenty six reviews.

Eurogamer's Tom Bramwell scored the PC version 9 out of 10, praising its fidelity to the original, but also lauding BioWare's willingness to try new things. He called the graphics "simply breathtaking," and concluded, "With so many interesting things to do and unique puzzle driven gameplay, the fact that it still harbours a linear style of play can be discounted to a certain extent. Reinvigorate your childhood fantasies of living in a cartoon and pick up MDK2 there ain't much better in the genre."

IGN's Chris Carle scored the PlayStation 2 version 8.7, giving it an "Editor's Choice" award. Although he felt the graphics weren't as good as the Dreamcast version, he did feel the particle effects were better. He praised the sound, voice acting, controls and level design, arguing "MDK 2: Armageddon is a great action title that is certainly worth twenty hours of your time."

Nintendo World Report'''s Jared Rosenberg scored the Wii version 8.5 out of 10, praising its use of the Wii's controls, but criticizing the graphics, writing "It is obvious that the game is over 10 years old. Character and enemy models are noticeably low polygon, and the textures seem muddy and N64 like at times." However, he concluded "MDK2 is a well designed action platformer that will take quite a bit of time to get through its 10 levels. Varied play mechanics keep the shooter fresh and the humorous story should occasionally put a smile on your face. It can be challenging and at times frustrating, but overall, it is a fun romp." In 2008, Interplay confirmed a "two pronged growth strategy" which would see the company leveraging its portfolio of gaming properties to create sequels and raise money for the Fallout MMOG. The same four games were again mentioned, with CEO Herve Caen stating "2007 set the foundation for our growth strategy. Going forward, we have the vision, unique intellectual property, and low debt and operational costs to help us pursue financing for our various projects." However, nothing further was heard about any of the possible sequels, which have presumably all been cancelled. In 2010, following the release of Mass Effect 2, IGN asked BioWare's Ray Muzyka if they had any plans to make MDK3'', to which he replied "You'll have to ask Interplay, they have the license for that." A poster for the game featuring Dr Hawkins can be seen in the 2001 TV movie How to Make a Monster.