I'm gonna start the review by saying that Mortal Kombat Deception is my favorite MK game from the entire series.
It's the first MK game I have ever played and I still hold it in high regards.
Mortal Kombat Deception is a follow up and a major improvement of Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance. More characters, more content and most importantly a lot more fun. You have your standard versus mode, arcade mode and practice mode as well as new additions like Chess Kombat, Puzzle Kombat and the revamped Krypt and Konquest mode completely built from the ground up.
The gameplay is a natural evolution of MK Deadly Alliance. Each Kombatant still has 2 hand to hand styles and 1 weapon style. It feels smooth and satisfying to pull off a long combo string as well as using the newly introduced death traps and enviormental interaction in general.
Let's now address the new version of the Konquest mode. Instead of being a tutorial that taught the player how to play the game while also explaining backstories of characters, it is now a fully playable adventure mode telling the story of Shujinko. Because it's a spoiler free review, I won't talk about the plot itself. Konquest mode is mostly about exploring locations and realms while major fights are done in the game's default fighting engine. However it features voice acting that rivals MK4 in terms of how awful it is. However the tone of the game is the darkest MK has gotten without being ridiculous.
The game still has the usual Mortal Kombat aesthetic as well as some of the best costumes the characters have ever had. Mileena and Sub-Zero both have some of my favorite costumes in the series as they both fit what the character is all about as well as their personalities.
People like to discredit the game for having an unmemorable cast of new characters, but in my opinion only Kira and Kobra are forgettable and on the memorable side we get Shujinko, Onaga and Havik for example. The fan favorites return, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Ermac, Mileena and many others are featured in the roster of MK Deception. Among them are two very controversial ones; Dark Raiden and Zombie Liu Kang. In the intro cinematic, Raiden blows himself up along with the Deadly Alliance in a desperate attempt to stop the Dragon King Onaga to reclaim his army. In the game he reincarnates as Dark Raiden who is shown to be an extremist version of Earthrealm's protector who is willing to do questionable things to say the least to protect Earthrealm. While Liu Kang becomes a Zombie after Dark Raiden brings only the body back to life, but not the soul making him a mindless puppet with talent and fighting skills of Liu Kang.
Visually the game looks great for the PS2 era and some models and enviornments still hold up to this day.
The soundtrack is my personal favorite in the series. Tracks like "Chamber of Artifacts: Red Dragon" are ones that come to my mind when I think of Mortal Kombat. Even the Character select theme is quite catchy.
I previously mentioned Chess Kombat and Puzzle Kombat. Chess Kombat is a game of virtual chess. You can assign characters to represent the chess pieces and once they meet on the board they fight over who takes the spot on said board.
As for Puzzle Kombat; It's a Tetris clone with an MK twist on it. While destroying blocks your character attack the other pushing them to their doom and whoever has their board full, dies.
This game was the first MK game to have online functionality, however the Gamecube version didn't have it and instead Midway gave Gamecube owners two characters exclusive to that version of the game; Shao Kahn and Goro.
Overall Mortal Kombat Deception is my favorite game in the MK franchise and I think everyone should give it a shot before jumping on the bandwagon and mindlessly bashing it.
It's the first MK game I have ever played and I still hold it in high regards.
Mortal Kombat Deception is a follow up and a major improvement of Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance. More characters, more content and most importantly a lot more fun. You have your standard versus mode, arcade mode and practice mode as well as new additions like Chess Kombat, Puzzle Kombat and the revamped Krypt and Konquest mode completely built from the ground up.
The gameplay is a natural evolution of MK Deadly Alliance. Each Kombatant still has 2 hand to hand styles and 1 weapon style. It feels smooth and satisfying to pull off a long combo string as well as using the newly introduced death traps and enviormental interaction in general.
Let's now address the new version of the Konquest mode. Instead of being a tutorial that taught the player how to play the game while also explaining backstories of characters, it is now a fully playable adventure mode telling the story of Shujinko. Because it's a spoiler free review, I won't talk about the plot itself. Konquest mode is mostly about exploring locations and realms while major fights are done in the game's default fighting engine. However it features voice acting that rivals MK4 in terms of how awful it is. However the tone of the game is the darkest MK has gotten without being ridiculous.
The game still has the usual Mortal Kombat aesthetic as well as some of the best costumes the characters have ever had. Mileena and Sub-Zero both have some of my favorite costumes in the series as they both fit what the character is all about as well as their personalities.
People like to discredit the game for having an unmemorable cast of new characters, but in my opinion only Kira and Kobra are forgettable and on the memorable side we get Shujinko, Onaga and Havik for example. The fan favorites return, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Ermac, Mileena and many others are featured in the roster of MK Deception. Among them are two very controversial ones; Dark Raiden and Zombie Liu Kang. In the intro cinematic, Raiden blows himself up along with the Deadly Alliance in a desperate attempt to stop the Dragon King Onaga to reclaim his army. In the game he reincarnates as Dark Raiden who is shown to be an extremist version of Earthrealm's protector who is willing to do questionable things to say the least to protect Earthrealm. While Liu Kang becomes a Zombie after Dark Raiden brings only the body back to life, but not the soul making him a mindless puppet with talent and fighting skills of Liu Kang.
Visually the game looks great for the PS2 era and some models and enviornments still hold up to this day.
The soundtrack is my personal favorite in the series. Tracks like "Chamber of Artifacts: Red Dragon" are ones that come to my mind when I think of Mortal Kombat. Even the Character select theme is quite catchy.
I previously mentioned Chess Kombat and Puzzle Kombat. Chess Kombat is a game of virtual chess. You can assign characters to represent the chess pieces and once they meet on the board they fight over who takes the spot on said board.
As for Puzzle Kombat; It's a Tetris clone with an MK twist on it. While destroying blocks your character attack the other pushing them to their doom and whoever has their board full, dies.
This game was the first MK game to have online functionality, however the Gamecube version didn't have it and instead Midway gave Gamecube owners two characters exclusive to that version of the game; Shao Kahn and Goro.
Overall Mortal Kombat Deception is my favorite game in the MK franchise and I think everyone should give it a shot before jumping on the bandwagon and mindlessly bashing it.