Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance

"Good But Not Great!"

Seven is a fair score to give this game. It feels and plays just like a Mortal Kombat game, but with different fighting styles and combos. The game gives you plenty of alternatives to fighting, but it lacks true depth, which keeps the game from getting a much higher score.

Graphics - 9 - The graphics are clean. The animation keeps a steady frame rate, and blood pours from every faucet of the game. The blood even remains on the arena floor in between rounds, and the fighters are large and fairly detailed. The problem comes in the opening cinema... Never in my life has there been a game with a better in game animation than opening CG... That's completely shocking. The other problem with the graphics is the facial animation and it's complete lack of detail. Without pictures to tell what the faces of the character look like it's impossible to distinguish any facial details. The damage system is good because clothes and body damage add up doing the round, but those things stop it from getting a higher score.

Sound - 5 - The sound is pretty good, but a lack of an overall theme leaves a lot to be desired. The same problem could be said for the Spider-Man soundtrack. There are a lot of grunts and groans in this game, but no tracks are truly outstanding. All the music recycles during battles and game play, and it sounds like this badly arranged low hymn that's truly annoying. Leaving very few differences between the way Johnny Cage sounds and Scropion or Sub-Zero. The women sound the same as well. Kitana and Lei Mei sound the same as well. With all the graphical upgrades one would think the sound would get an upgrade as well.

Game Play - 8 - This is what truly saves the grace for the game. The game looks game good and it flows with a great deal of speed. The three style system is good, but needs a lot of tweaking because some styles with characters are pretty bloody useless. Even with the combo training exercises that are available some styles are worthless, and some weapons are even more worthless. Making the game balanced and unbalanced at the same time which creates a great deal of replay value. The problem with the system is that combos for styles are the same, and you'll be using the same ones over because they work. You really don't have to experiment. Also, the test your might and sight are good additions, but only serve to distract you from the blaring problems with the game.

Replay Value - 10 - If you find a way to overlook a lot of the problems then you find that there is a lot of depth to the game. Unlocking coffins in the krypt to get characters is fun, but some of the coffins have nothing in them and others have stupid stuff you really don't need. It's really annoying to fight in the Arcade mode for hours for coins, and then waste them on empty coffins. However, with Konquest, Practice, Arcade, Versus, and a host of unlockables you'll be playing the game for months on end.

Overall - 7 - It's a fair score for all the problems with game play and sound. With a lot more depth added to the fighting system and a lot more time spent of unlockable features the game would get a higher score. Improve facial animations and the fighting system and it could have been game of the year... Instead we get a good game that strives to be great.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/02/03, Updated 01/02/03