As a series, Mortal Kombat has had its up and downs. Actually, its ups and downs were some of the best in the industry. Mortal Kombat II on the one side, Special Forces and Sub Zero: Mythologies on the other. Then, in 2002, the formula changed once again and Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance hit shelves. Every fighter featured three different fighting styles and the battle was in true 3D environments. This showcased the fact that MK was constantly changing and adapting to modern times and next generation gaming. However, with something that has been around as long as Mortal Kombat, it is almost impossible not to travel back to the past for ideas and childhood memories. That is exactly what Mortal Kombat Deception did and that is why it was a really really fun and challenging fighter. And probably the best in the series.
At max blood level, even a slap causes bleeding
Deception is exactly what the title implies. A dark tale of violence, lies and deceit. Taking place right after the tournament of the Deadly Alliance, it is revealed that for the first time, the good guys actually lost. Quan-Chi and Shang Tsung defeated all of Raiden's warriors and managed to get their hands on an undefeatable army that belonged to the Dragon King Onaga, the king of Outworld prior to Shao Kahn. The two sorcerers defeat Raiden as well and end up fighting each other over control of the army. Quan-Chi wins in the final battle, but before he can revel on his victory, Onaga (actually being Reptile) appears to reclaim his dominance and fights Quan-Chi, Shang Tsung and Raiden at the same time. Raiden went as far as to detonate himself to stop the beast, but Onaga still survived. With noone on the throne of Outworld (the sorcerers had killed Shao Kahn in the previous game), Onaga took over and went on to assimilate all the realms into himself. So, another tournament was set up, for Earth's remaining champions and defenders to stop this new threat and for the villains to be part of the new universe order.
In MK Deception, you got to choose over 12 fighters at the beginning, everyone with their own strengths and weaknesses. Fighting follows the same premise like in Deadly Alliance. The fighters can move on a 3D plane which allowed for fast pacing and evasive maneuvers. Being able to develop a fighting game that takes full advantage of a three-dimensional movement, Midway really put the pedal to the medal when it comes to interactivity. I have never seen a fighter that features such a variety of ways to dispose an opponent.
This is a dynamic stage. The platform gets smaller and smaller every 15 secs
The stages were about 5 or 6 at first and were divided into two categories. The ones like in Deadly Alliance, where while fighting you got nothing but your fists and weapon and the new ones which featured constructions named Death Traps. These traps can all be described in 3 words: full of win. Once your opponent falls into one, be that a pit full of spikes, a grid of lasers or the bottom-side of a giant statue, you win. That's it. This adds quite a lot of intensity and forces you to always be prepared, especially when going up against another player online. Not to mention that it further justifies the name of the title. Apart from that, there were special parts of the environments that you could get smashed through and tossed from, thus taking the fight to a new place and keeping things even fresher. Finally, some of the stages featured weapons lying around that could affect the outcome of the match if used properly.
Like I said, each and every fighter possesses three different fighting styles, one of them being a weapon based one and you could switch between them with the L1 button. Mastering a character's moves required knowing when to pull off the right punches and kicks, especially with the new 'Breaker' system in play, which allowed players to literally stop an opponent's combo 3 times during a match. There was a lot more strategy involved this time around. Some of the characters' moves were indeed powerful, but left you insanely open if you missed or if they were blocked. Counters played a huuuge part in this title and branch combos were the perfect answer to a foolish maneuver. Branch combos chained all of three of the characters' styles into a devastating array of hits that was even deadlier if the opponent was out of breakers. The badass uppercuts from MKII and IV return and were extremely useful if you needed some space.
SHORY...no. FALCON P... nah. Aw f*** it, just fly.
Every character also had a number of special moves, this being a Mortal Kombat game. Some all-time favorites make a comeback, like Scorpion's teleport, Sub-Zero's ice clone and Baraka's chop-chop blades. The moves were pulled off with your standard down, forward, button system. Some of them can really give you a run for your money, like Ermac's ground pound. Along with that, the fighters had two fatalities each which added to the variety, more or less. Some of the fatalities were better than others by a long shot. Still, in case you lost, you could still pull off newly implemented hara-kiris in order to retain your honor.
This being a blast from the past game, old kombatants like Mileena, Baraka and Ermac got a face-lift and were remodeled for the next generation. Most of the characters were very personalized in every way. Ermac's voice for example really sounds like there is more than one person inside him and Scorpion's moves still have that specter feel wrapped all around them. What also brought back memories were the stages. Deadpool, in particular, was a blast to play and hearing someone say 'aha' like in MKII made me smile even when my little brother burned my butt with acid. And while we are on it, multiplayer was fun as ever. Especially in stages with death traps. You could cut the tension with a knife. The setting changes, instant kills and the freedom to wager the currency you collected in story mode kept things going quite smoothly.
GET OVER HERE...and give me a hug.
Speaking of which, the currency you earn in the game is used in the Crypt. A huge graveyard where every tomb contains unlockables like concept art, characters, videos and new arenas. Some of the tombs could only be opened through keys found in Konquest.
In the atmosphere department, this probably was the entry in the MK franchise that really nailed it. MK IV was kinda jerky because of the silly and laughable howls and screams and Deadly Alliance was less dark. But that was not the case here. The sense of darkness was constant even in the parts that were not such a big part of the gameplay. I got a constant shiver running down my spine every time that main menu popped up. The music really set the tone for the upcoming battle and got me in the mood for another round. It alternated between the kind-of spiritual music that MK is associated with, big drums, flutes etc. with modern day rock guitar solos in some cases. The Slaughterhouse Jive in particular was a really good piece of video game music.
If playing against someone else, choosing the right team in Chess Kombat counts. For example, place a character you are most familiar with as a grunt. That way you get not 1, but 9 Scorpions.
The sound effects of the swords, punches and kicks are top notch and the visuals of the environments and the characters were amazing. Ranging from the sky-high Tower of Raiden to the otherworldly desolate Beetle Lair and Slaughterhouse, you can see rocks rumbling, beetles roaming the halls and shadows and signs of the black dragon logo. This is a true 3D fighter, in both its foreground and background. The animations of the characters were solid and each hit registered very nicely. Blood flowed nicely but facial reactions and face damage could be a lot better.
The opening cutscene was also very nicely rendered. It is just a pity that the characters' endings are text based and do not use the same tech as the intro.
Apart from the main mode, there were 3 additional ones that even though they added to the diversity of the game, they did not stand out as much as the arcade. Chess Kombat featured the well known game with a twist: every pawn had to kombat the other in order to take the square. Every pawn could move a certain number of squares and every one of them had different abilities. There were spells, traps you could set and shape-shifting. The board also had 2 power cells that boosted a pawn's health meter, since none of them began with full power. Then, Puzzle Kombat. Your typical Tetris-like game. Blocks fall, you break them while the character you chose engages the CPU in Mortal Kombat. At the bottom line, both of them were more fun when played with someone else. Finally, the Konquest mode. We will get into it in the cons section. These 3 modes also added currency to your wallet for the Crypt.
I do not know what to look at first here. The blocks or the fighters. Schizo.
Even though I consider Deception being the best in the series, there were some issues that prevented it from being truly amazing. First of all, not all characters were balanced. Sub-Zero and Scorpion are a beginner's choice and are quite powerful, but characters like Ashrah, Kobra and Bo' Rai' Cho suffer from both moves and originality. That last thing about adding something new to the roaster was also a double edged knife. Some characters in particular, were quite poor in personality when compared to others. For example, Darrius and Havik (original name) are different sides of the same coin: rebellion. But while Darrius is a rebel with a just cause and uses chaos because he must, Havik embraces further the concept of chaos and worships it as his religion. Kobra, Kira and Dairou on the other hand are your every day thugs. Nothing new whatsoever. Not to mention that all three of them first appear in this title. Deadly Alliance had much more new faces that were better characterized.
Some of the strikes were also a bit unrealistic, but frankly, this is not a fighting sim. You are not playing this for realism but for the violence. Violence being MK's main attraction, there is lots of it. Fatalities are here with 2 per character, although some of them are a bit unimaginative. Hotaru's 2nd fatality for example does not even compare to Sub-Zero's.
Another problem was the final boss. Onaga, not only wasn't available as a character, he was as cheap as they come. To the point where later on in the game, once I finished the game with my preferred fighters, I quit every time I got to fight him because there was simply no point. Onaga was huge and your hits would have to be very precise. Not to mention that he has the tendency to grab and toss you quite often, which is annoying cause grabs cannot be blocked. In addition, some of the stage weapons are kind of sluggish as well and the fact that each and every character has their own weapon style kind of defeats the whole purpose.
Finally, my main gripe with the game was Konquest. It was basically an RPG-adventure game taking place in the MK universe, following the adventures of Shujinko, a kid and a very important cog to the game's story. Along with that, several keys were hidden in the six realms of this mode that helped you unlock content like characters, arenas, concept art, bios and videos. The gameplay here was crossed between exploring (you got to do A LOT of walking) and fighting.
In Konquest, you will stumble upon each and every MK character ever created.
While Konquest did add something different in a fighting game, it did not deliver. There were a lot of reasons for that. To begin with, the voice acting in most cases was not the best. I started to notice the same voice in different tones from a point on. Even Onaga spoke with the same voice as Shao Kahn at the end. Also, with Shujinko able to mimic the fighting styles of every MK character he encounters, you could play as any of the 26 characters. But there lies the second problem: the character that Shujinko will copy in a fight is picked by chance. This kills the game, big time. You have to quit the fight and try again if you get stuck with a fighter you do not how to play with.
Then, some of the chests containing the keys to the Crypt were hidden in a truly infernal fashion. There is a HUD displaying the day, month and time which can be accelerated by simply pressing circle, but that doesn't make up for the fact that some of the chests only appear at a specific time interval and on a specific day! When I found out about that I was really disappointed, knowing that the chances to find all the chests by myself are quite thin. Some of the environments in Konquest were also a bit unimaginative, Orderrealm being the main culprit here. Feels like you are trapped in an architecture expo. And not a very good one.
The dark prison level has a very strange feel to it. Cause of the showers maybe.
All things aside though, while not the best fighter out there, MKD is one of the many definitions of a truly fun and immersive game. It introduced a lot of strategy to the genre, especially due to the cheapness of the final boss. Multiplayer was a blast to play and the amount of unlockables will keep you occupied for a long time. The atmosphere was amazing and set the tone for a fighting game that had a truly dark personality, the music gave me goosebumps every time it reached my ears and the gameplay was Deadly Alliance on steroids thanks to the death traps. Despite its problems with Konquest and character balance, it truly stood out for me because it took full advantage of the 3D aspect and that is hard to find when you are talking about a fighting game. A title where a wrong step could literally change the balance of the match, Mortal Kombat Deception always manages to win me over every time I play it. It was the penultimate title of the series and the sixth installment of the franchise (in both cases canonically) to be released on the PS2 and Xbox and was followed by MK: Armageddon. It was spectacular . . . and it WILL konsume you.
On a personal note, Noob and Smoke were incredible. ''Cough''