Mortal Kombat, a name well known to many gamers. Known for it's original cast of characters, it's animated gore, and it's endless ammount of death. With such a popularity and such a reputation, gamers immediatly expect a good game when they hear the name mentioned. Even with the streak of bad games being released from this franchise, such as MK: Mythologies, MK 4, MK Gold, MK: Special Forces, and MK: Deadly Alliance, Mortal Kombat still seems to hold it's name with gamers and still has many fans till this day. I, for one, have been disapointed in these games. But still, I was kept interested when Deception was announced. It showed promise that Mortal Kombat can live up to it's name onces again. I gave the game a try once it came out. Played through out all of it's modes, I have given it a chance and had high hopes that this might actually be a good MK game. Let's start out with the Obvious. Graphics: 6 The graphics are "ok". Infact, for a game on xbox in 2004, they're not that great at all. They rival the graphics of Tekken 4... a 2 year-old game. 2 years is about how old MK: Deadly Alliance is. And the graphics of that game aren't that much different of the new MK. As if they just used a slighty modifed MK DA engine for this game. Old graphics for a new game isn't quite impressive. The blood isn't the greatest looking thing either. Most 3d fighters don't have blood. Why? Because blood doesn't look good in 3d fighting games. When you lightly punch someone, and blood gushes out of them. And the character designs, as usual are original, but a lot are just crappy. For example, Sub Zero is no longer the same Sub Zero we all knew and loved, but now he is the nemesis of the Ninja Turtles... Shredder. Sound: 4 A lot of sounds are highly over used in this game. There are the basics, male grunt/attack, male screaming, female grunt/attack, female scream, and lui kangs constant screams. The music isn't anything pleasing, nor puts you in the mood to fight. Most of it is just dark, evil-ish tunes. And the music for the island stage is just annoying. Gameplay: 4 The gameplay is nothing original. First off, it's a slow fighting game. Infact, it's so slow, that a 2d fighting game that uses frames flows more smoothly then this game. It's hard performing combos becuase of the slow speed. Don't even attempt to make up your own combos because you're not going to get out more then four or five hits. Comparing to MK DA, they took some features/moves out of MK DA, and added a few moves as well to some characters. The fighting system is quite unusual. Most fighting games include some type of guard-breaking technique, which allows you to break their guard and stun them for a fragment of a second, long enough for you to start a new attack or combo. There aren't really any Guard-breaking attacks found in this game. Although, you can pretty much beat someone if they're blocking the whole time. If they are blocking, it is some how possible to just beat them down and kill them... even though they are still blocking. It's just mind boggling. A nice new feature added to this game are the Hara Kiri techniques. If you can't remember how to do a fatality against a computer, they can sometimes kill themselves for you. Saves you the trouble of trying to do the fatality. The new chess mode, is quite useless. It's not even chess. People might think "hey, I'm not good at this game, but I'm great at chess!" But this "chess" game requires no chess skills at all. All you need to do is be good at this MK game... that's it. And the Puzzle Kombat. I can write a whole review why this game sucks. But all I'm going to say is this is a rip-off of capcom's Puzzle Fighter game, except this Puzzle Kombat is A LOT worse. You might think Puzzle Kombat might be fun if you play it, but once you play Puzzle Fighter, you realize how bad this MK version of the game is. Replay Value: 8 Even though this game isn't great, it has a lot of replay value. The Konquest mode makes the game take longer for you to unlock everything, especially with the huge Krypt (that's greatly cut down from MK DA). The game isn't aweful to the point that it makes you want to put down the controller right away, but it let's you grab on for a while just so you can complete the game with everyone and unlock everything. The endings aren't as impressive as the intro, but they're something to unlock which gives it more replay value. Overall: This is not as great as people make it out to be. Comparing it to other fighting games for X-Box that came out this year, ie: Dead or Alive: Ultimate, Def Jam: Fight For NY, even Guilty Gear X2: Reloaded (which is just a rerelease of a 2003 game) was a better choice for a fighting game then MK D. My suggestion, rent this game and see if you like it. If you do, you need to try out other fighting games and compare, because this truly isn't more then just a game with the Mortal Kombat name on it.
Other Helpful Reviews for Mortal Kombat: Deception
I absolutely, positively love Mortal Kombat Deception. It's my number one favorite out of all the fighting games that I own. Unlike most fighting games, Mortal Kombat Deception provides quite a challenge while fighting a... Read Full Review
With the series back in its feet, the team went to work on the sequal for Deadly Alliance. In 2004, along with other hits of the same year (Halo2, GTA: San Andreas) Mortal Kombat Deception was released. The Earthreal... Read Full Review
