Good Kombat Mode, Bad Adventure Mode.
GAME PLAY
Mortal Kombat is a fighting game, with a deep combo system. You basically string together the biggest combos of moves to kill your enemy. You have three combat styles for each character, with a few exceptions. Its fun, and sometimes engaging, but a lot of times I find myself stunning the enemy, and using the same combo over and over again. There are combo breakers, but they are used with limits, and don't really make much of a difference. The final boss is an exception, because you can't stun him, but he has his own weakness which makes him just as easy, if not easier to beat.
Then... there is the adventure part. I've played games many great adventure games (Such as any Wind Waker, Elder Scrolls 3), though none are quite like this. The games I mentioned are very different, but they provide the same points of game play. You run around, talk to people, get items, fight people, learn skills, etc. Those games are so much better in every way than this aspect, I just feel like giving gameplay a 1 because of this, but the fighting kind of balances it. Basically, you run really really fast... WAY to fast, collide with stuff, punch people for information, get beat up and much more. Its not like normal adventure games though. It points you in the exact direction of the next goal, not by telling you what it is through text or story, but with a green marker. You have no idea whats there, but you know where to find it. Example, you are told to look for Ermac, but rather than asking around, or searching yourself, the green marker leads you right to him.
And there is more even. You learn other characters fighting styles throughout the adventure mode, but you do it through a very boring, repetitive training battle, where they make you do almost every move for that character, many being useless and time consuming. I remember nothing from them, so I can't say that they were worth while.
Two bonus modes also are available. Chess Kombat and Puzzle Kombat.
Chess Kombat is like Rome Total War in a sense, you have a battle map, and a overworld map. When two units collide, they fight on the battle map. Some spells can change the tide of things, but its overall a way to change up the in game battles. Better players in the kombat mode will usually win, not matter how good at strategy games you adversary is.
Puzzle Kombat is an average puzzle game you'd probably see for free on the internet. Nothing really jumps out. Might be fun for a dozen or so games, but no more, because there is no endless mode.
GRAPHICS
In kombat graphics are gory, just like I like it. Characters move fluidly usually and animate nicely... usually. Some clipping will occur, but its not game breaking stuff. Characters look good too, not as good as some other GC games, but still above average. Stage backgrounds look very good and are a overall boost to the quality of the graphics.
Then, once again, there is the adventure mode. The draw distance is so short, that you have to be feet away from a mountain before it appears. You can't see buildings 10 yards away from you in some cases, and the fog is blindingly close to your view. Horrible... horrible. Most non-essential characters look like an utter mess. Low polygon, and such a low texture resolution that you can barely make them out as people in this day an age. I've seen better NPCs in N64 games.
SOUND
The good news, the game is fully voice acted. The bad news, the game is poorly voice acted. The voice acting is so bad at times, that I've laughed out loud at how emotionless and drab the lines are. Some seem like they'd need to be pouring with emotion, but you get some Microsoft sam wannabe reading the lines. The music is largely forgettable. The saving grace is the kombat sounds, punching, kicking, screaming, get over here-ing, is all intact and sounds great.
VALUE
For a fighting game, its value is pretty good. You do get a long adventure mode, deep fighting system for a pretty good price. Just be warned at the quality of the adventure mode before you dive in for a purchase.
TILT
I base my tilt on my overall enjoyment of the title, and how engaged I was in the game. The story is in a game to engulf the player in the world of the game. If fails miserably in this game. Midway should have asked a more experienced adventure game studio to help them out in the story, or got someone else altogether to develop the adventure mode (if they didn't that is). I never felt an urge to help the elder gods, I didn't care if that guy died. I've played too many games with great stories to be fed this crap.
OVERALL
If your a big kombat fan, you'll enjoy the regular kombat mode. If you like adventure games, but not kombat, stay the heck away from this game, you will get nothing out of it. If you find it for a good deal, and you want a game with plenty of blood, gore, and fighting, you really can't go wrong for a weekend romp through the kombat modes.