Mortal Kombat: Deception

"Where your head at?!"

If you're new to the Mortal Kombat series then you don't know of the games earlier simplistic style. In the beginning Mortal Kombat was just a simple button masher with not much variation in terms of fighting. Our MK series has really stepped up its fighting and is slowly starting to reclaim the magic it once had with the original first 3 games. If you love fighters then this game is not one to miss, now, let's get on with the review shall we?

Gameplay

The gameplay in Mortal Kombat can be best described as frustratingly fun. This game's timing on combos can be irritating to pull off. However this frustration never really takes place anywhere other than Konquest mode due to the training needed to continue. The over all fighting is good and the special moves and fatalities are to die for (no pun intended). The characters you use have a difficulty level attached to them. This is best used to describe how difficult the character is to use. 5 being the hardest difficulty, while a 1 is simplistic and easy to use. For people not so great at fighting games like me, you like the idea of an easy learning curve, but outside of memorizing special moves for each character you will have difficulty in memorizing the combos. But never fear all that is needed is some practice and dedication! Well don't fret it does after all have a move list covering everything except for Fatalities (finishing kills) and Hara Kiris (suicides).

Now there are two new additions to the regular arcade fighter named Kombat. They are called Puzzle Kombat (similar to Tetris) and Chess Kombat. I must say the Puzzle Kombat is pretty fun, but for chess fans like me you will be appalled by Chess Kombat. It's nothing like real chess and all piece taking results in a one on one Kombat battles. It seems that pieces no longer have any significance. For a pawn can easily win the whole game for you. The MK team shouldn't have brought this into the MK games; it just ruins something that was turning out rather great. But when it all comes down to it in the end we bought this game for the Kombat and Fatalities. For that is the backbone of this game series.

Overall 8/10

Story

Now the MK series has never been much for story, but with Deception they establish a decent one with the mode called Konquest. In Konquest you control a character named Shujinko, who wants to be a Kombatant in the MK tournament. He seeks to learn the great martial arts and become a hero. Well the Konquest mode is quite an entertaining adventure and you can meet all the Mk characters of old. The Konquest mode requires you to learn a lot of skills along the way so you have to be prepared to handle the frustrations of combos and some seemingly pointless missions. By doing all these things you earn Koins which can be used in the Krypt to unlock characters, arenas, etc... But overall it's just fun to play you can't put the game down, and it will force you to play hours on end.

Now outside of Konquest we have Kombat mode's end story when you beat the arcade game. Overall the story portions of the game are far beyond on that of any previous Mortal Kombat, and are above that of most fighting games out there. I might make an exception to Soul Calibur 2 because that game is just so awesome.

Overall 9/10

Graphics and Sound

This game is just so beautiful the levels, the characters, even down to the most unimportant of aspects in this game look great. The NPC's and some of the level layouts for the Konquest mode are below the standards of the rest of the game, but they are still really good considering how miniscule of a role they play. Overall the graphics are very impressive and the use of special fighting techniques will only make you want to hang your mouth open and scream: "That was cool!”

Now onto the glorious sound of Mortal Kombat... The background music, the video music, even the fighting grunts that the characters make is well done. A great thing about the sound is that you can unlock the soundtrack of the game when you accomplish certain tasks. Now the sound is basically just musical scores by the teams' orchestra. Overall the sound is one of the best parts of the MK series. No one will ever forget Scorpion's classic saying: "GET OVER HERE!”

Overall 9/10

Play Time and Replayability

Overall this game will consume your life for 100% completion of objectives, unlockables, and just the overall feel that you have actually beaten this game to the brink of death. But since this is a Mortal Kombat game it has different levels of completion. To complete Kombat mode it can take anywhere from 15-30 minutes, and sometimes more depending on your talent as a fighter, and the difficulty level you are playing on. Konquest mode takes around 5-10 hours to complete and that's whizzing through the game performing little to no side quests. Chess Kombat can take anywhere from a half an hour to 2 hours depending on how well you play this mockery of a game. Puzzle Kombat well this game tends to take a very long time as facing opponents can last up to around 10 minutes each. You have to work yourself up the tower to the boss by beating opponents in this game of MK Tetris. I'd say it can take up to an hour tops.

Replayability well it pretty much can last forever. As long as you are playing arcade opponents or a friend in vs. mode you'll never lose interest. The replay value of this game, like any good fighter, is very high.

Overall 9/10

Buy or rent or neither?

I am very satisfied with this game despite its flaws; it is a very solid fighter. This game is not to be missed by any fan in the fighting genre or by someone just looking to kill some time. I say buy this game, you will definitely enjoy it on some level if not all.

Final Score - 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/20/04