A unique way to end the series...
I heard that they had combined the Shaolin Monks engine and Deception. I was intriged, but wasn't expecting too much.
The combat system in MK:SM was unique and interesting. It was easy to string combos and the fatilities weren't ridiculously long unfortuntaely SM had absurd rubberband AI (at least on hard). Deception was horrible in my opinion. The comabt was sloppy and real blocky. The weapons did an absurd amount of damage and of course there were favored characters the computer just loved to make ridiculously hard.
Armageddon has its ups and downs. I like the way they improved konquest mode. The fatality system is customizable and it is more personalizable just as the kreate a kombatant feature. I love the personal feel. It gives great freedom to the user in the game. The combat is still a little blocky making large combos hard to pull off. Weapon styles tend to only allow one hit combos with extreme recover times after striking (at least in kombat mode). The sound is rather sad. The voices consist of a lot of yelling during combat. Sometimes during customization I hear what sounds like dogs barking coming from the television (and as a martial artist it is rather offensive because not all martial arts emphasize yelling when striking).
The value of the game is good for mortal kombat fans and a rent it first for any fighting game fans. I like the game, yet it has some pit falls. I see why gamespot only gave it a seven. It was a good final attempt for Mortal Kombat; this game will provide a great keepsake for any MK fan and will hopefully provide closure to the long running series.