Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance

"2nd Best MK Game Ever!!!"

Graphics:
Blood, blood, and more blood. If you’re looking for the most brutal fighting game ever, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance is it. MK:DA is also the first fighting game to feature a semi-realistic blood physics engine. When you punch your opponent in the face you can see the blood slowly slide down his/her face and slowly sink into the ground. Another feature in the graphics department of MK:DA is facial damage. After two to five rounds of “kombat,” you’re character’s face will look like it’s been ran over by a car.
Besides blood , MK:DA does an excellent job on the character models, although it seems that Midway focused more time on some characters than others. The appearance of the combatants are great. They would look a lot better though if there were not so many clipping problems.
The backgrounds in MK:DA are awesome to say the least. For example, in the “Portal” stage, the background consists of a vortex linked to “The Neatherealm” while tons of stuff is being sucked into it while the fight is in motion. You really have to see it in order to understand are great it looks.
Xbox and Gamecube owners will get the advantage when it comes to graphics due to the horrible anti-aliasing capabilities of the PS2. Another advantage is that higher-resolutions and more vibrant textures are supported on the Gamecube and Xbox
Overall, MK:DA is the best looking Mortal Kombat game ever. But, if you’re used to the breath-taking visuals of Dead or Alive 3, MK:DA might be a let down in the graphics department.

Sound:
As I play Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, the music always seems to remind me of Mortal Kombat II (which is a good thing). The dark and sometimes creepy music really fits a game like MK:DA. Every level has a different BGM track that fits the theme of the level. If you listen closely, you can tell that Midway have remixed some of the classic MKII tunes and put them in this game.
Then there is the sound effects. When you choose the weapon fighting style (more on that later), the weapons sound accurately when they hit each other. Not only do the moves look painful, but they sound disgusting as well. Also, if you’re an Xbox owner with a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround system, you’re in for a real treat. Excellent job Midway!

Gameplay:
This is the aspect of Mortal Kombat that sets it apart from, and resembles every other fighting game. It seems that Midway have “borrowed” ideas from all of MK’s competitors. Examples: The weapon fighting closely resembles that of Soul Calibur ; The fighting style changing like Street Fighter Alpha 3.
In previous MK games, every character had the same basic moves (uppercut, roundhouse, etc.) and a few distinct special moves. Not in this game. In Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance each character has three completely different fighting styles. The combo system, although, is still based on juggles and the fast tapping. This adds a great deal of depth to the fighting engine of MK:DA while keeping the basis intact.
Speaking of depth, there is the “Krypt” section of MK:DA. In this part of the game, you spend the money you earn by winning matches on “Koffins” which contain extra content (hidden characters, levels, concept art, and more money). This is merely false depth. Half of the items in the coffins are just half-done concept sketches. It really sucks when you play the game for a half-hour just to spend your currency on picture of one of the programmers.
Besides the Krypt section of MK:DA, there is Arcade, Practice, Kontent, Konquest, Versus, and Options. Arcade is your standard mode of play in which you fight your way up to the near impossible sub-boss Moloch, only then to fight two more fighters. Konquest resembles the Kumite mode in Virtua Fighter 4. Kontent is where you get to look at (sarcasm) all the cool things you unlock in The Krypt (end of sarcasm). Versus and Practice are self-explanatory.
As long as you don’t play MK:DA in large amounts of time, the game will never get old. One day, a friend and I played it for 9 hours straight and unlocked everything, needless to say I became sick of the game for about a week.
All in all, Mortal Kombat: Deadly is one of my top five favorite fighting games ever. I don’t recommend it to anyone, but it’s a definite rental.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/13/02, Updated 12/13/02