MDK2

MDK2 is a 2000 third-person shooter developed by BioWare and published by Interplay, released for Dreamcast in March 2000 and Windows that May, with a reworked PlayStation 2 version — MDK 2: Armageddon — following in March 2001. The sequel to Shiny Entertainment’s MDK reviewed in the low-to-mid 80s on Dreamcast and PC (the PS2 revision landing in the mid-70s), and holds one of the strangest lines on any studio résumé: made between Baldur’s Gate and the RPGs that defined them, this is BioWare’s only pure action game — a fact reviewers marveled at in 2000 and retrospectives still open with today. Engadget’s later phrase captured it permanently: “a funny, frivolous and uncluttered action game from BioWare. Yes, that BioWare.”

Where the original starred Kurt alone, MDK2’s masterstroke was splitting the cast: three playable protagonists in rotation, each effectively playing a different game.

Technical Specifications

One Minecrawler Too Many

The story opens minutes after the original’s ending: celebration aboard the Jim Dandy cuts short when one last Minecrawler surfaces, and Kurt’s mop-up mission introduces the towering alien Shwang Shwing — herald of an invasion far from over. What follows sends janitor Kurt Hectic, the six-legged robo-dog Max, and mad inventor Dr. Fluke Hawkins across ten levels spanning Earth, alien worlds, and the Jim Dandy itself, in a plot whose gags escalate all the way to an epilogue that finally welcomes the Doctor back to the Earth that once shunned him — and confirms he really is mad.

Three Characters, Three Games

The rotation is the design: Kurt plays the original MDK — coil suit, ribbon chute, the signature 100x sniper head. Max is the action id unleashed: four arms, four guns akimbo, and an atomic jetpack — the levels the game’s reddit threads still lead with. And Dr. Hawkins is BioWare’s future peeking through: adventure-game logic in action-game clothing, combining held items into tools and weapons — pipes plus duct tape into a ladder, an atomic baguette missile, a tutorial on eating toast off the floor. Jesper Kyd’s big-beat electronica drives the whole thing (the Dreamcast disc even plays as a music CD). The consistent criticisms then and now: a genuinely punishing difficulty — spikes the Windows version’s added difficulty select and manual saves existed to tame — and Doctor levels that pace-brake for players who came for Max.

Versions, Armageddon, and the HD Remaster

The Dreamcast original is the purist’s version; Windows added difficulty options and manual saving; Armageddon on PS2 reworked levels and tuning to a cooler reception. In 2011 the game had a second life through Beamdog — the studio co-founded by BioWare veteran Trent Oster — which shipped a WiiWare port and MDK2 HD (via its Overhaul Games label): new models, textures, lighting, and remastered music over the original’s bones, landing around 70 with critics who enjoyed the time capsule while noting the seams. Interplay’s 2007 tease of an MDK3 never became a game, leaving this as the series’ final chapter.

Where to Play It Today

MDK2 is sold on Steam in both flavors — the 2000 classic and MDK2 HD as separate listings — and on GOG (classic version, in the catalog since 2008), all for a few dollars and routinely discounted. Armageddon survives on physical PS2 discs via the secondary market. The honest buying note: HD modernizes the look but keeps the 2000 difficulty philosophy intact — pair it with the original MDK for one of the strangest, funniest double bills in shooter history, complete for under ten dollars.