There are some people in the world who will tell you the most intense pain is having your heart broken by a loved one. These people are mostly ladies, and to a certain extent its true. However, the TRUE most intense pain a man can feel, due presumably to his lack of a heart, is a flat out kick to the balls from a loved one. This is exactly what Mortal Kombat: Special Forces did to me. Special Forces is a somewhat bland adventure game based around the franchise's (arguably) worst character, Jackson "Jax" Briggs. It was the second venture into a non-fighting game using Mortal Kombat characters and, to be honest, it really looks like they didn't learn their lessons at all. Before I go on, I want to point out that the FIRST Mortal Kombat non-fighting game was based on Sub Zero. The Original Sub Zero that Scorpion killed in the first tournament. Sub Zero is right up there with the dragon logo as one of the most recognisable symbols in the world of Mortal Kombat. Mostly because he's been a fan favourite since day one and he kicks more arse than five hundred people bent over in front of an armless Chuck Norris. Somehow they managed to turn a game based around Sub Zero into a pile of dog shit. I guess they thought that using a lamer character would improve the game somewhat. Did it work?
Hell no. HELL NO! Lets have a look at the game. For starters, you play as Jax. Jax, as far as Mortal Kombat characters go, is about as colourful as a polar bear in a snow storm with its hands over its face. He's a military strongman from the same unit as Sonya Blade who for some unexplained reason is out to get Kano. In the first game, and for that matter movie, it was explained that Kano killed Sonya's partner, which I assume is her motivation to go after him. Jax, as far as I can tell, has nothing against Kano despite him being a murdering scum bag criminal, and is just tagging along in the vague hopes of one day being able to dick Ms. Blade. However, in this game he's got a big ol' personal vendetta. So when he, with the assistance of his clan of criminals, bust out of prison, Jax makes it his mission to bring them back. What followed was an incredibly violent adventure consisting entirely of beating up bad guys and solving kindergarten puzzles. The words "Excessive Force" spring to mind as you watch Jax take town an army of ninjas with a machine gun, but hey if it wasn't ultraviolent, it wouldn't be Mortal Kombat, so I can't be too angry about that.
There are a few charms to this game, Namely the bad guys we haven't seen before (or for that matter since) No Face and Tremor. There are Five bosses in the game, the other three being "generic evil girl character", who was so bland I don't even remember her name, Jarek, Kano's replacement for Mortal Kombat 4, and Kano himself. No Face and Tremor were instrumental in my decision to rent the game, so you can blame them, but really they were the sparkling diamonds in the never ending black sea of shit that was this game. They were, respectively, a maniac with a flamethrower and no face, and a Lin Kuei ninja with earthquake powers. In the game, due mainly to the lack of development on all characters sides, including that of the protagonist, i know NOTHING about these two. What i have been able to acertain is that Tremor's move set is nearly identical to Jax's. Let me just reiterate that, Tremor is really just Jax in a Ninja Costume. Jax, in a game where he is the main character, goes up against a cooler, more colourful version of himself. I have no idea why they didn't stop development then and there.
What hurts the most about this game is it made total sense on paper. We delve into one of the back stories of MK in an attempt to get an audience to appreciate them all the more. MKM:SZ had the same idea behind it and on paper it should work, ESPECIALLY with a character like Jax who is less than popular. If we learned about him deeper than his little 2 page bio from MK2 then maybe we would think he was cooler or something. Of course, this turned out to be bollocks because if this game is anything to go by, Jax is just a muscle bound Sonya with a cock and black skin, which actually makes him LESS interesting. I mentioned at the top that I feel this game kicked me in the balls. Mainly I feel this way because I have come to expect a fairly reasonable standard out of Mortal Kombat games. More often than not they live up to it in terms of gameplay, depth of character, sense of mysticism and most importantly, fun. This game let me down in ALL of those areas. So, I'm going to weigh the game up now, not as a part of Mortal Kombat, but as an ordinary 3d Beat em up.
The controls suck. Jax handles like a shopping cart and they have a move system similar to that of the other MK games where you hit a few buttons and launch into a special attack, but every time you hit a directional button you move. What that translates to is you dialing special moves, only to have them miss because they were aimed wrong. This would be a problem if the AI on the drones didn't suck so hard that all the time you would have missed, they actually move forward and try to hit you and get hit accidentally by your attack, meaning that rooms of bad guys are dispatched instantly, even if you tried not to hit them. The voice acting sucks, the puzzles are about as difficult as Britney's younger sister and, even though I by no means think graphics maketh the game, it looks like they didn't think they needed to put any different patterns on the wall, and its ok that bad guys can be essentially black, vaguely human shaped blobs.
While researching this game I found out that one of the two fathers of MK had left Midway, um, midway through production. Apparently the game was going to be more than a slugfest, and go into Sonya's relationships with both Jax and Kano. Cameos would include Raiden and a few of the other MK favourites, This would have a better game. It would have ACTUALLY told a story, it would have shown relationships with the other characters and originally do what THIS game set out to do, make Jax an interesting character. It' a shame that a game with such noble intentions turned to a pile of crap before everybody's eyes. I should point out that since this little journey downShit Bvd, They released another adventure/beat-em-up based on Mortal Kombat called Shaolin Monks, starring Liu Kang and Kung Lao. Now I haven't played this game myself, but all reports suggest it's 1000% better than Special Forces. I would like to play it, if for no other reason than to reiterate my love for Liu and Kung, but to be honest, when it comes to MK I don't care anymore unless its 1 on 1.
Dont Touch It
Hell no. HELL NO! Lets have a look at the game. For starters, you play as Jax. Jax, as far as Mortal Kombat characters go, is about as colourful as a polar bear in a snow storm with its hands over its face. He's a military strongman from the same unit as Sonya Blade who for some unexplained reason is out to get Kano. In the first game, and for that matter movie, it was explained that Kano killed Sonya's partner, which I assume is her motivation to go after him. Jax, as far as I can tell, has nothing against Kano despite him being a murdering scum bag criminal, and is just tagging along in the vague hopes of one day being able to dick Ms. Blade. However, in this game he's got a big ol' personal vendetta. So when he, with the assistance of his clan of criminals, bust out of prison, Jax makes it his mission to bring them back. What followed was an incredibly violent adventure consisting entirely of beating up bad guys and solving kindergarten puzzles. The words "Excessive Force" spring to mind as you watch Jax take town an army of ninjas with a machine gun, but hey if it wasn't ultraviolent, it wouldn't be Mortal Kombat, so I can't be too angry about that.
There are a few charms to this game, Namely the bad guys we haven't seen before (or for that matter since) No Face and Tremor. There are Five bosses in the game, the other three being "generic evil girl character", who was so bland I don't even remember her name, Jarek, Kano's replacement for Mortal Kombat 4, and Kano himself. No Face and Tremor were instrumental in my decision to rent the game, so you can blame them, but really they were the sparkling diamonds in the never ending black sea of shit that was this game. They were, respectively, a maniac with a flamethrower and no face, and a Lin Kuei ninja with earthquake powers. In the game, due mainly to the lack of development on all characters sides, including that of the protagonist, i know NOTHING about these two. What i have been able to acertain is that Tremor's move set is nearly identical to Jax's. Let me just reiterate that, Tremor is really just Jax in a Ninja Costume. Jax, in a game where he is the main character, goes up against a cooler, more colourful version of himself. I have no idea why they didn't stop development then and there.
What hurts the most about this game is it made total sense on paper. We delve into one of the back stories of MK in an attempt to get an audience to appreciate them all the more. MKM:SZ had the same idea behind it and on paper it should work, ESPECIALLY with a character like Jax who is less than popular. If we learned about him deeper than his little 2 page bio from MK2 then maybe we would think he was cooler or something. Of course, this turned out to be bollocks because if this game is anything to go by, Jax is just a muscle bound Sonya with a cock and black skin, which actually makes him LESS interesting. I mentioned at the top that I feel this game kicked me in the balls. Mainly I feel this way because I have come to expect a fairly reasonable standard out of Mortal Kombat games. More often than not they live up to it in terms of gameplay, depth of character, sense of mysticism and most importantly, fun. This game let me down in ALL of those areas. So, I'm going to weigh the game up now, not as a part of Mortal Kombat, but as an ordinary 3d Beat em up.
The controls suck. Jax handles like a shopping cart and they have a move system similar to that of the other MK games where you hit a few buttons and launch into a special attack, but every time you hit a directional button you move. What that translates to is you dialing special moves, only to have them miss because they were aimed wrong. This would be a problem if the AI on the drones didn't suck so hard that all the time you would have missed, they actually move forward and try to hit you and get hit accidentally by your attack, meaning that rooms of bad guys are dispatched instantly, even if you tried not to hit them. The voice acting sucks, the puzzles are about as difficult as Britney's younger sister and, even though I by no means think graphics maketh the game, it looks like they didn't think they needed to put any different patterns on the wall, and its ok that bad guys can be essentially black, vaguely human shaped blobs.
While researching this game I found out that one of the two fathers of MK had left Midway, um, midway through production. Apparently the game was going to be more than a slugfest, and go into Sonya's relationships with both Jax and Kano. Cameos would include Raiden and a few of the other MK favourites, This would have a better game. It would have ACTUALLY told a story, it would have shown relationships with the other characters and originally do what THIS game set out to do, make Jax an interesting character. It' a shame that a game with such noble intentions turned to a pile of crap before everybody's eyes. I should point out that since this little journey downShit Bvd, They released another adventure/beat-em-up based on Mortal Kombat called Shaolin Monks, starring Liu Kang and Kung Lao. Now I haven't played this game myself, but all reports suggest it's 1000% better than Special Forces. I would like to play it, if for no other reason than to reiterate my love for Liu and Kung, but to be honest, when it comes to MK I don't care anymore unless its 1 on 1.
Dont Touch It