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Introduction and Background

Danger calls once again, as you take the role of Julie to defend her home, family and friends. To achieve her destiny, she must journey on a quest to rid her world of Gith’s army.

Years have passed since the Julie slew the would-be-god Lord Tyler. After emerging triumphant from that climactic battle, she brought the survivors of the Great War to Eden. There they have rebuilt their lives. As the colonists rebuilt their New World, they discovered something wonderful - the water of Eden is the beginning and end of all life. None of the colonists have aged in the past 30 years. They have protected their world with a powerful energy shield and an orbiting F.A.K.K.2 hazard beacon, alerting all who approach that Eden is a death trap. Knowing that the shield would keep possible attackers at a distance, and with the beacon hiding their secret under the veil of a fatal wasteland, the colonists have become happy and complacent in their comfort and safety. However, in this universe full of would-be-gods, the machines of man alone cannot change the call of Destiny...

A new threat, in the form of Gith Industries, threatens Eden. Mysterious events culminate in an ominous warning, which, ultimately, arrives too late. Eden has something that Gith wants for his mad schemes for ultimate power, and he shall stop at nothing to acquire it. A grim motto to remember - "What Gith wants, Gith gets."

Gameplay and Puzzles

Heavy Metal: FAKK2 is very flexible. With a few basic commands, Julie can walk, run, jump, crouch, hug walls, hang off ledges, and climb walls, ropes, pipes, and monkey bars. She can manipulate her environment; she opens doors, moves boxes, and manipulates levers, valves, cranks, switches, and buttons. The "use" command is a catchall for manipulating all types of objects. All useable objects glow intermittently, and this makes some puzzles trivial. See something glow? Try to do something with it. A quick tutorial at the start of each new game teaches all the commands and possible manipulations. It also includes some combat practice, demonstrating some of the weaponry that will be found later. This tutorial can be skipped, if you so choose.

Short cinematics periodically push the plot along. They will sometimes provide valuable clues on what to do next. The plot itself is compelling, if a bit short. Much of the game involves exploring Eden until Julie finds something she must manipulate, or a monster "boss" that she has to kill. In either case, a cinematic will play once she is done.

The puzzles take some time, but thankfully they do not involve running back and forth several times across the area. Many puzzles require timing, so saving is very important. Quick saves are a convenient feature, but under some circumstances they are worse than useless. When fighting a boss monster, the quick save is guaranteed to get you killed. Julie is always standing still during a quick save, whether or not she was doing anything else. If Julie was blocking with a shield, then you use a quick save, when you restore she is not using the shield yet and it takes a second to bring it back up. This problem is particularly bad while fighting the first boss, the Vymish Mama. EVERY time I used a quick save, Julie's dead as soon as I load.