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O PS2 Mag, Mortal Kombat: Deception (PS2, Midway): 6 / 10
´Xbox Nation Magazine
Mortal Kombat: Deception (Xbox, Midway): 5/10
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Dont Be Deceived.
Mortal Kombat defies the criticism. From the series humble beginnings as a Street Fighter clone more than a decade ago, Kombats appeal to the lowest common denominator has persevered. No doubt the games populist approach, with its gaudy spray of ketchup gore and spandex superhero character designs, has led to massive commercial success, giving the series instant tenability as a good fighting game. After all, a million fanatics cant be wrong-can they? (Hint: Yes they can)
Strip away all the bonus activity in Mortal Kombat: Deception, the latest chapter in the series convoluted saga, and what you get is a 3D fighting amalgamation thats no better than the sum of its borrowed parts. Gameplay, for the most part feels like its predecessor, Deadly Alliance.
Unlike More subtle fighters such as Soul Calibur, where even seemingly simple moves serve great strategic purpose, winning matches here is simply a matter of watching for openings in your opponents defense (usually after he throws out a string of missed hits) and then unleashing a six-to-eight hit combo string.
As a result, and consistent with the long lineage of Kombat titles, Deceptions melee feels more canned than intuitive-stilted rather than fluid.
As with the previous game, youre afforded the three distinct styles of fighting per character, yet with next to zero background interaction (save for the occasional death trap you shove your opponents into) theres little motivation to switch styles or context as to when you should alter the fighting techniques. Spend any time with the game and youll soon realize there are only a handful of useful moves any skilled player will need time and again to be effective. So whats the point of memorizing attacks from all 3 move lists?
If nothing else, these characteristics are just more symptoms of Kombats quantity-over quality mentality. To its credit, however, Deception does attempt to evolve the series with new features. The first, a reversal system (called combo breakers) introduces more balance and skill to the proceedings, but sadly, youre only limited to three uses per match.
Another curiosity is a meter next to your health bar comprised of different colored lights; theyre supposed to tell you when to attack and where to block, but theyre so abstract and tiny, no one but the most ardent Kombat disciple will take notice.
More significantly, Deception brings the series online for the first time. The results are solid, though unspectacular. You get on Xbox Live, set up a game, and let the carnage begin. Yet for all its net ambition, Deception half-bakes a lot of little details that would have made the difference between good and merely mediocre.
Theres an alarming lack of customization options for both online and offline play, and you can hardly call each of the minigames (see sidebar) stand-alone.
The worst of these bonus modes is the ´new and improved´ Konquest mode intended to flesh out the Kombat universe through an RPG-like inteface. What you get instead is a shambling mess of an adventure made up of ridiculous fetch quest and crap voice acting.
Deception will undoubtedly please those who are less picky about which venue to hone their skills in. To be sure, fans of the series will once again lap up the hundreds of unlockable items purchased with ´koins´ earned through playing the game. But if youre a fan of the fighting genre, theres nothing here to recommend. Dont be deceived by the hype.
1UP - 80%