Mortal Kombat: Armageddon

"Midway had innovative ideas, but they left out a lot of what made Deception great"

Intro: Mortal Kombat: Armageddon is a good game with innovative ideas, but it leaves a lot out of what I loved from Mortal Kombat: Deception. It seems that they rushed the game and worked to hard on certain aspects. It seems they focused too hard on stocking the game with all the characters from Mortal Kombat's history. This detracted from other parts of the game such as the krpyt, which now has a limited amount of content and is not as cool as it used to be.

Graphics (7/10): The graphics are decent for the versus/arcade stages and for the konquest, but the graphics seem to be lacking on the character models. Some of the characters have awesome, well-designed, intricate costumes, but others have dull costumes and, in some cases, old costumes. Scorpion's costume is the same costume as the alternate costume on Deception. The gore aspects of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon certainly do not disappoint at all, though. The blood and gore are beautiful as always and the death traps produce some gruesome episodes.

Gameplay (7/10): The fighting is still pretty good, but it seems clunkier than previous Mortal Kombat games. The combos are far less intricate and less varied than the previous 3-D installments and the characters are now limited to one fighting style and one weapon style. This may disappoint the hardcore gamers that are looking for a more complex fighter. The gameplay now seems to rely more on strategy than waiting for that opportunity to pull off a huge combo spanning three fighting styles. Now, it seems that gameplay focuses more on defense and pulling off the right move at the right time.

There are innovative ideas, though, that bring the gameplay up a bit. The aerial kombat is a nice addition. You can string many moves together with aerial kombat and perform an intricate combo on your opponent. The aerial kombat gets old, though, because there does not seem to be much of it. The aerial combos are not varied. There is also kreate-a-fighter, which is a very nice addition. You can create your very own fighter unique to you and the options for doing so are very numerous. You can customize the character's headgear, costume, and fighting styles. Motor Kombat is a nice addition. It is not as good as chess kombat, but it is good for a small amount of fun.

There are also innovative ideas that bring the game down a tad. You can now create your own fatality at the end of matches by pressing buttons. The only problem is that the fatalities are not cool and unique to the character anymore. All you do is rip their arm off or smash their head every time. Hara-kiris are also gone. Also, the large characters in the game are too clunky to be fun. They are implemented better than I expected, but they are very slow and some have very cheap, overpowered special moves.

Konquest (7/10): Konquest is fun and this game and has a good storyline, but it is nothing compared to Deception. They designed the konquest to be more like Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. Konquest is no longer open-ended and quest-filled. It is now just a bunch of mediocre fighting in every area you walk through and is extremely linear. I much prefer the open-ended, quest-filled konquest of MK: Deception. I also followed the storyline and characters less in Armageddon. The konquest is still fun in MK: Armageddon, but it lacks that freedom and character development that Deception captured so well.

Music/Sound (8/10): There isn't much to say here. The music is traditional Mortal Kombat style. It doesn't annoy me, and I don't really notice it as much as I do in other games. The sound effects get the job done well. They are good for a fighting game. Every groan, scream, punch, kick, and special move sound great.

Environment (8/10): The environments are beautiful in this game. The fighting stages are designed extremely well and they even included some old favorites. It seems like they really put some time and thought into the fighting stages. They all convey a different atmosphere and the atmospheres are beautiful. Konquest also has some beautiful environments. I particularly noticed a waterfalll in one area that I stared at for a while.

Replay Value (8/10): This game does have a lot of replay value. I stayed up all night fighting a friend in this game. it is definitely worthy of all-night and all-day playing for a while. The vast supply of characters will keep the game fresh too because they are all different and you will want to use them all. You may not want to play konquest more than once or twice though.

Conclusion (7/10): This game is worthy of purchasing. You will play it for at least a week or two and will come back every now and then for versus mode with a friend. They left out a lot that was in previous 3-D installments, but they implemented some fresh ideas.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/23/06