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Halo 2
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Pub.: Microsoft
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Dev.:
Bungie
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Score: 9.8 |
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Mortal Kombat: Deception Review
by 007
Mortal Kombat has the history of pushing the envelope to the max with its physical, brutal, and gory style of gameplay. Dating back to the day where you could only find the game in a crowded arcade, Mortal Kombat was sure to give you your dose of blood and gore. The game never really changed as the series got older, but these past two releases have given longtime fans fresh innovations and more replay value in the Konquest mode. It’s not only that, we’ve also seen old characters move on and new ones appear. Whatever is done with the game, fans of the series can’t seem to get enough of Mortal Kombat.
Features:
-1-2 Players
-Xbox Live Enabled
-Downloadable Content
-480 Progressive Scan Input
-5.1 Digital Surround Sound
Gameplay:
For year’s now gamers have seen their fair share of Mortal Kombat games. From console to console Mortal Kombat continues to flourish on consoles, and now the Xbox has its second installment in the longtime series. During the few years the Xbox has been out on the market, gamers have gone through numerous fighters such as Tao Feng, Dead of Alive, Def Jam, Soul Calibur, and many others. However, when Mortal Kombat is said the game always seems to gather a significant amount of attention simply because the game delivers when it comes to blood, gore, and ruthless fighting. The latest installment in the series, Deception, successfully makes this fighter one of the best in the franchise. Most importantly, Deception is one of the best fighters on the Xbox.
Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (the previous installment) brought forth many new innovations and features but the game didn’t really seem to be polished on the level many would expect. Deception fixes many of the annoying problems from Deadly Alliance and does even more. Deception features five modes that will offer gamers quite a bit of selection:
-Kombat
-Chess Kombat
-Puzzle Kombat
-Konquest
-Xbox Live Play
The basic mode of gameplay is the Kombat mode which allows you to play the game arcade style, play against a friend, or just practice against the computer. The arcade mode is just vintage Mortal Kombat – selecting your fighter of choice and competing against numerous fighters until you reach the top. The versus section simply allows you to take on a friend while the practice mode enables you to put on your combat skills for show and test out multi-combos and special moves.
Chess Kombat is one of the completely new modes and is pretty much a game of its own. Like it’s called, you play a game of chess…Mortal Kombat style. You’ll have the ability to create your own team, which is basically designating fighters to specific positions on the chess board (Scorpion would take the role of the Peon, Sub Zero the King, Mileena the Queen, etc). The game doesn’t follow the rules of chess, but those of Mortal Kombat’s. They’re be traps, fighter advantages, and other options that make Chess Kombat a great mode that offers many twists and spins.
Puzzle Kombat is yet another completely new mode added to the game. Puzzle Kombat looks just like a simple game of Tetris, but don’t forget we’re playing Mortal Kombat here! While the object is to pile up the points and get your opponent to fill their pieces up to top, there are some additions that make Puzzle Kombat more enjoyable. Instead of lining up rows you’ll have to eliminate colors with breakers that match with the color. For example, if you have a red breaker you’ll want to connect it with red pieces to get rid of them. Now you’ve just got rid of 7 red pieces, those 7 pieces will then drop into your opponent’s side to cause problems. There will also be bombs that will occasionally drop into play. You can connect those bombs to any color (lets say a blue piece) and that bomb will eliminate all the blue pieces (no matter where they are located) and clean things up for you. While the bomb does come in your favor, those pieces deleted will not go to your opponent.
The core of the game lies within the Konquest mode. Those who played Deadly Alliance will recognize this mode but will be very surprised to seem many different changes. This time Konquest offers a story that kind of is a tutorial at the same time. You’ll assume the role of the young fighter Shujinko who is training in the hopes of being a great fighter. He is persuaded by “The Elder Gods” to complete a lifelong mission that will teach him much. Throughout his long journey he will meet just some of the following characters (all playable) in the game:
Character List –
-Ashrah
-Baraka
-Bo’ Rai Cho
-Dairou
-Darrius
-Ermac
-Havik
-Hotaru
-Jade
-Kabal
-Kenshi
-Kira
-Kobra
-Li Mei
-Liu Kang
-Mileena
-Nightwolf
-Scorpion
-Shujinko
-Raiden
-Sindel
-Noob-Smoke
-Sub-Zero
-Tanya
Many of these characters will guide and teach him new fighting styles and play as different Mortal Kombat fighters. Shujinko will travel through numerous realms training with different fighters and helping “The Elder Gods.” The Konquest mode also scatters many chests in realms that will either contain a large amount of Koins or an unlockable item or character that can be obtained in the Krypt.
Controls –
Left Thumbstick: Move fighter
Right Thumbstick: N/A
Left Trigger: Change fighting style
Right Trigger: Block
Directional Pad: Move fighter
A Button: Attack
B Button: Attack
X Button: Attack
Y Button: Attack
White Button: Pick up weapon
Black Button: Throw
Mortal Kombat has never been known to have a control design that allows to you “button mash” your way to victories. If that’s how you play your fighter then you’re in for a rude awakening with Deception. Button mashing will not get you through fights, technique and skill will. With that said, Deception offers a full arsenal of combos, special moves, and fighting styles to get you through fights. The best idea is to stick with a fighter that you feel most comfortable with, because you’ll only end up getting better with that fighter. Each fighter will have three fighting styles (two regular contact, one weapon contact) that will offer more than enough depth for fighters. A new and welcome addition is the breaker option (press block and move forward) which allows you to break up any combo attack your opponent puts on you. While this works flawlessly, you’ll only get to use three per fight.
It took some time, but now Xbox Live gamers will finally be able to experience the Mortal Kombat series online. Deception will also include downloadable content (to be released at a later date) and has online scoreboards. The most important factor is that the online experience is smooth and enjoyable. There haven’t been many online fighters for Xbox owners to cheer about, but Deception runs flawless online.
Graphics:
Mortal Kombat: Deception is clearly one of the best looking fighting games at the moment. The character models are fantastic, the weapons are extremely detailed, and the level design is really gorgeous. There are some levels where you’ll be able to knock your opponent down into another level. The animations are superb, with each character having a unique swagger in their step due to the many different fighting styles. The levels are really done well, but it would have been better if they were more interactive. Honestly, only being able to send your opponent down onto another is disappointing. I was hoping to knock an opponent through objects or just have more interaction with actual level – not have that invisible barrier in the way. 480 progressive scan input is featured and for those that have an HDTV, you’re in for a real treat visually.
Audio:
The audio section of Deception is just as polished as the rest of the game. The soundtrack fares really well, with the background music appropriately tying in with the actual game. The character dialogue is surprisingly good, with each character having their own personal dialogue that makes them each unique. The sound effects, from the weapons clashing to the characters yelling in pain, are done extremely well (I can’t tell you how enjoyable it is to hear “Finish Him”). To top it all off, Mortal Kombat: Deception features Dolby Digital 5.1, which really makes the game excel in the audio department and overall score.
Overall:
007’s Take – Mortal Kombat: Deception is clearly the best installment in this long running franchise and it clearly one of the best Xbox fighters as of late. Midway has much improved from Deadly Alliance and has added in much more depth and replay value that will have gamers coming back for more and more. Xbox Live is a fantastic addition to the series, and who know what downloadable content will be in store for gamers. I for one would greatly welcome another Mortal Kombat installment in the years to come. You just can’t pass up on this marvelous fighter.
Ryan's Take - When I first heard that another Mortal Kombat game was coming out I must say I wasn’t loosing sleep over the anticipation. Being a huge MK fan since the original arcade game, I have been somewhat disappointed with the series lately. Deadly Alliance didn’t really impress me that much so I just figured that the MK series had run its course as being a powerhouse franchise. That was until I played MK Deception.
I’m not one to believe a ton of hype and advertising fanfare that leads up to a game’s release, so I tend to wait till I actually play a game thoroughly before I form an opinion. Let me just say this game rocks! The gameplay is fast, furious, and bloody, like an MK game should be. There’s a good mix of old and new characters to play (where’s Kung Lao?), and a lot of them at that. The new chess and puzzle combat modes are actually pretty sweet and are more than just little mini-games that Midway threw in to try to get your $50; you’ll be playing them more than once. You can also play a story (Konquest) mode that adds about 20 extra hours of playability to the game. The graphics are the best I’ve seen in an MK game yet and the sound (screams and creepy music) are chilling. Fatalities look more realistic than in previous MK games and I love how you can pull a Hara-Kiri (suicide) fatality before your opponent has a chance to pull one off on you. Wonderful level design (love those death traps), easy interface, a slew of extras and unlockables, this game has it all.
The best feature though, has to be the inclusion of Xbox Live play. Playing MK, or any fighting game for that matter, is always better against a human opponent. Now I can play MK on Xbox Live at anytime? Wait I can also play the chess and puzzle modes online as well? Sign me up. As for the online play, I’ve only experienced minimal lag at times and at no time did I experience lag when I hosted a match. Xbox Live and MK should make great companions.
One last thing, if you love MK like I do, spend the extra duckets and get one of the collector’s edition copies. It comes with a bonus DVD packed with goodies such as the history of MK and an arcade perfect version of the original Mortal Kombat. It’s every MK junkies dream come true.
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| Rating |
| Gameplay: | 9 |
| Graphics: | 9 |
| Sound: | 10 |
| Value: | 10 |
| Tilt: | 9 |
| Overall: 9.4 |
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