If you want an easier time with MDK (as in...disgustingly easy), it is possible to change the controls to the WASD+mouse setting. You can't really look up or down (moving the mouse up or down will cause you to run forward/backward), but it makes fighting in a flat area (as most combat takes place) VERY EASY.

The mouse doesn't need to move you back and forward. Just go into the game's mouse options and turn the Y axis off. I already have mine configured that way and its not perfect, but it is a damn sight better than the game's default controls.

anybody know of anybody else who might have modded the game to actually use the mouse for looking only?
I've done these modifications to the controls already but it looks like a real hack will need to be applied to get what we are all looking for!
somebody please!!

It's just as codagh said. Looking up/down isn't possible in MDK, perios. One of the options was for kurt to be a 2D sprite, for instancem plus you don;t NEED to aim up/down, as Kurt does that for you.
So disable the Y axis in the mouse options. this way moving your mouse up and down won't do anything, but it will work as expected in sniper mode (you will be able to aim up and down). Simple as that.

Just bought both MDK titles and came looking if you guys had cracked the case. I can't say I did either but if the bit I'm quoting is really saying what it seems to be saying, well, that's simply not true. There are keyboard bindings for looking up and down, and they work. The remaining issue is getting the mouse to do that. If that's what you indeed meant, I'm sorry, didn't mean to be a cheeky gibbon.
I have to have a look at it when I'm actually starting to play the game again. Now I'm more interested in how the game plays with an Xbox360 controller. Off to find out..
EDIT: Ok, I can report looking up and down, while functional, is something you don't want to assign to the mouse or an analog stick WITH looking left and right because while Kurt looks up or down, that's all he does. You can't move or shoot at the same time. Basically you can use it for sightseeing and planning an attack but you don't want to accidentally start looking around (up/down) during combat because Kurt will stop dead in his tracks to admire the scenery and to be blown to bits.

so it was never the intention to be able to have vertical shooting?

I noticed the default controls are wack. It took me a few minutes to figure out I could set up everything as someone would want it in this day and age.
Kurt's concerns for vertical aiming are precisely similar to an old school space marine's concerns for vertical aiming. What I mean is that they don't have any. In whatever reality they exist in, all bullets automatically become at the correct elevation to hit whatever is... in that general... path, or, like... something.

So I know that when running around fighting there's no reason for vertical aiming, but what about when using the sniper scope? Can that be set to use mouselook? I can't remember. Pretty sure that when I originally played this long ago I used keyboard only though.

Yea, throwing the game over to wasd helps make it better for modern gamers.

Also, if you figure out how to toggle run, the game is a lot better, too. it took me two levels to figure that out and it made the game click. Such a blast to play.