Mortal Kombat: Deception

"Victory? Yes! Flawless? No!"

Mortal Kombat is probably one of the longest running series of fighting games, and to my knowledge, is the reason yhe ESRB was formed. Like I previously said, Mortal Kombat was the first to push the buttons of the parents of the world to shield their kids from violence, but of course to today standards, Mortal Kombat is the same today and the parents are now fighting games such as GTA and 25 to life. But the history isn't important, its the game that matters, and Mortal Kombat: Deception is a hell of a game.

I personally haven't been with the Mortal Kombat series since the Sega Genesis days, simply because my mother forbid me from playing them, so in short I have been pushed away from the greatness that is MK for awhile.(MK II begin the last game I had.) Of course I have now matured since, and I been in a fighting game mood lately, so I picked a few up. (Soul Caliber II, Street Fighter: AC, Virtual Fighter 4: Evolution, Tekken 4, and of course Mortal Kombat: Deception.) Of all the many games I purchased, MK:D appealed to me the most, mostly because it is fun and has a charm to it that cannot be beaten.

So now, time for the review.

Mortal Kombat: Deception is the follow up to last years Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. In last years MK:DA was a bit of a fan service let down, with the death of Liu Kang and a new fighting system in a attempt to revolutionize the series. The new weapon system gave a whole new world of depth to the MK series with having characters with three styles, and gave a rock, paper, scissors feel to it. But MK:D feels more like the old Mortal Kombat days, and brought back many old faces(Along with some new) to add to that feeling. But the game is not perfect; it has four modes this time along. Kombat (One on one fighting), Puzzle Kombat (Puzzle fighter with MK characters.), Chess Kombat (Archon MK style), and Konquest(Single player open environment). I can't put a score on all these modes, so I am going to rate them one at a time, but I am going to get on the lesser stuff first.

Sound 5/10 - Music 9/10

Once again I can't place a score on two things at once, so I am going to talk about each.

Sound - The sound in the game gives me mixed reactions. The high point is the noises that are made by the fighting. It has a comic style to the sound, and sounds alot like the old MK1 "thwack" and "pow" noises. And of course the sound of someone's limbs being ripped off or a neck being snapped, is quite satisfying. Why give it a 5? A fat percent of the voices are done horribly, as in Konquest mode, every one sounds like they are flat reading their lines, and just simply sounds bad. And unlike a game like Soul Caliber where every character has their own unique voice actor and has a full set of samples, most characters in MK:D share the same in battle vocals, and is really annoying to hear the same things over and over even though you are using different characters. Only a selected few have their own set of voices. (Shujinko, Lui kang, and Scorpion to an extent) The only voice I love is the sinister announcer; I never get tired of him.

Music - The music in this game is superb, its dark, mysterious, and a beat you can kill to. Most of the music in game is remixed from the old school MK games, and there are a few intense new ones. The game even has the music listed in the Kontent section, where you can read the authors comments on the music. Only downfall is that the techno Mortal Kombat movie theme is not here, that would be awesome.

Graphics 8/10

The in game battle models have great detail to them; the moments are realistic and runs at a smooth frame rate. There is a cloth engine that rivals that of Soul Caliber II, and the over exaggerated blood that spews ever where even upon a simple tap adds to the style and charm of the game.

Story 8/10

The story is very interesting, and it is pretty sweet to see how it all ends with each character. But in simple, the story takes off right where MK:DA ended, which was left off with some one having to challenge Shang Tsung and Quan Chi. So it stars off with Raiden fighting Shang Tsung and Quan Chi at the same time. After the fight, Raiden is downed and Quan and Shang both turn on each other, thus ending the deadly alliance, after a brawl between the two, Quan Chi emerges victorious, but his victory only lasts for long as the Dragon King (AKA Onaga) returns to claims his throne in out world. Quan doesn't stand a chance against Onaga, so the fallen Raiden and Shang Tsung get up and form a triple team to take down Onaga. But Raiden realizes that defeat is inevitable, so he sacrifices himself to take down Onaga, but Onaga survives the blast. So now with Raiden, Shan Tsung, and Quan Chi all dead, Onaga needs to be taken down, so its time for another Mortal Kombat.

And now... Onto the game play Review, which will be done in segments.

Kombat - 10/10

This is the heart of the game, the sweet battles. Though it is based on last years MK:DA, they added in (or added back in some cases) a few of the things that made Mortal Kombat, well.... Mortal Kombat! The best addition in my opinion is the return of that uppercut! I remember hitting down 'A' on my genesis controller and winning matches just but doing that alone. The uppercut launches your foe into the air and makes them open for any attack. This is how some combos are started, and of course connect to another returning favorite, the death traps. Most stages have death traps or new arenas hidden inside of them, and by doing an uppercut while near certain spots on the stage will send your opponent into all sorts of insane things. From avalanches, laser grids, meat grinders, dragon's mouth, coconut trees and TONS more including the good old spiked pits. Now in stage there are a few weapons you can pick up, and gives you a whole new fighting style to work with. Midway borrowed a little thing from Killer Instinct (its only fair, KI took some things from MK) called combo breakers, though you only get three in one match, its the perfect way to get yourself out of a tight spot. Now this time around there are two fatalities for each person, which is good for the die-hard fans, and a new 'Self-Fatality" called Hara Kiri. The fatalities are a show to end your opponent in tons of gritty ways, but now with the Hara Kiri, you can steal the glory of a fatality from your friend and commit suicide, thus leaving a shocked impression on your opponent. And on the topic on opponent, with the new online mode, you can challenge people from around the world in Kombat, Puzzle, and chess Kombat.

Puzzle Kombat - 7/10

Capcom released Puzzle Fighter a few years ago, Midway decided to take the fun that is Puzzle Fighter and give it a MK twist, and it is pretty fun and overall is good. Puzzle Kombat lets you pick a character and play a game where you try to keep you blocks at a steady rate and make sure it doesn't go over board. Every time you win, you are awarded a bloody death to the little chibi fighter who lost.

Chess Kombat - 7/10

I never played Archon, I'm not even sure if I'm spelling it right, but chess kombat is a good, fun strategic view on Mortal Kombat, you are asked to select your fighters, then you set necessary traps when you are done. The game is turn based and you get to move your character in certain directions depending on what piece you assign them. (From king to pawn) Normally I don't play this mode very often, so there can be much more to it, but it is fun.

Konquest 4/10

And here I go reviewing Konquest. Konquest is a feeble try at making a open area like maybe a cross between GTA and Zelda. But unlike GTA and Zelda, Konquest is horrible. You play as a young Shujinko, who ages over time, he is on a quest to retrieve the six kamidogu and keep it from the hands of evil. The story of this is actually good, but that good story is buried under the horrid voice acting, sloppy mess of graphics, repetitive texture, unresponsive control and mess of glitches. So in order to experience the story, you have to have a lot of patience. In Konquest, the most you do is recovery missions and go from point 'A' to point 'B'. And the recovery missions get down right silly at times. For example, there is a side mission where a woman's dog is missing, so you have to ask around town for her missing dog. Eventually you find the butcher, who has slaughtered the poor woman's dog. He gives you the chopped up dog, so now you must return it to the woman, who is shocked her dog has been butchered. Then offers you over for some dog stew later that night. its things like this that will have you slapping you forehead, and laugh. Not at the humor, but the amount of nonsense at hand. The bad part about konquest is that if you wish to unlock all the good stuff, you have to go into konquest. its the best way to get money, and the only place you can get keys, to unlock the goodies in the krypt. Konquest is a stake in MK:D's heart, and is the only reason I didn't give this game a 10. But on the bright side of konquest, you can easily get what you want, and Konquest can be rushed through with the help of the Codes/FAQS, you can play Konquest like a burning building. Run in, grab whats of value and get out. But Konquest highest points is the fact that it gives you a little tutorial on most of the characters, and you do have to fight often actually, which does lift the game up. And it does have a little charm to it, such as seeing a guy in a motion capture suit strut about, and you can give him one good punch and he spills content-- I mean Kontent. Now on the subject of Kontent, MK:D has more than enough extra stuff you keep you happy, with hundreds of junk to unlock.

In summary...

Pros
Great graphics
Fitting Music
Death traps
Upper cut is back
A lot whole mess of references and tribute to the older games

Cons
Konquest
Lack of vocals
Horrid voicing
Konquest again for good luck

The heart of this game is the fighting engine, it can be played online and seems just like the old Moral Kombat, and if you are a fan of the series, this game is not to be missed. And if you played past Mortal Kombats, Now is the perfect time to go back.

-Cycoclops

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/12/05