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Mortal Kombat: Deception 
Release date: 4 Oct 2004
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Mygamer review
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Mortal Kombat: Deception
In 2002 Midway spawned Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance; a much-needed comeback from the somewhat poorly received Mortal Kombat 4 and offshoots such as Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat Special Forces. Midway is continuing to up the ante, and Mortal Kombat: Deception not only offers new modes of gameplay, but also has the distinction of being the first ever online-enabled 3D fighter; and yes, even the mini-games can be played online.
One of the biggest additions to Deception is the single-player Konquest mode, at least one play through of which is required to unlock much of the game's extra content and hidden features. This quasi-RPG sees you assume the role of aspiring martial artist Shujinko as he travels through the Kombat realms opening treasure chests and running errands for people. Veterans of the series will quickly grow tired of this mundane ‘fetch and carry' routine; as there is very little in the way of fighting and missions soon become repetitive. The clunky controls and mediocre environments don't help either, and the voice work is also somewhat less than stellar.
Konquest is a reasonable story-mode for noobs, such as myself, who need to learn how to play; but most people will find enduring it an annoyance, just to unlock hidden content - a simple interactive tutorial could have been done separately. On the bright side, you can punch anybody for no reason at all! I found myself entertained for a few good solid minutes just hammering little old ladies for the heck of it (Have you no shame? ED).
With the exception of Konquest mode, Deception is graphically comparable to its predecessor (complete with stiff-moving characters) and you'll find plenty of embellished bleeding, puking and discombobulating…so there's something for everyone! Fatalities are gorier than ever and levels are now multi-tiered and include items that can be interacted with and used as weapons. Deadly Alliance lacked the very old-school stage fatalities, but in Deception they're back with a vengeance. Both the Pit stage and Death Pool levels are here and you can utilize their commodities at any time, not just at the end of a fight. The Slaughterhouse meat grinder is particularly pleasing. This is fun and amusing at first, but ultimately you may get sick of repeatedly falling to your death rather than fighting to it. It's impressive to discover there is an option to disable this feature, both on and off-line. Finally, and for the true fatality addicted, you can actually kill yourself with one of the new Hari Kiri moves before your opponent is able to finish you off.
The core fighting engine remains mostly untouched; the strikes consist of weak punch, strong punch, weak kick and strong kick, and all characters can switch between three fighting styles while playing. This time around the styles are slightly better balanced, with no single style greatly overshadowing the others. In order to conquer Deception you'll need to learn exactly how and when to switch styles mid-combo to successfully unleash the strongest attacks. Watch out for the combo-breakers, which can be initiated at any point during combat to disrupt any series of moves. You can only use this a few times during a match though, which adds a new level of strategy to Deception's gameplay. Fighters have been upgraded so as to have two fatalities instead of one, and of course they have the Hari Kiri move whereby you can kill yourself before your opponent can rattle off a fatality on you. Hari Kiri is there primarily to spite your opponent, and it's great for a while, but eventually you'll become frustrated that your approaching (hard-earned) fatalities are constantly circumvented. At the very least it should have to be a close fight before this ability is enabled.
Versus mode is for two-player multi and playing through the game with any character, each one unlocking a different ending. It should be noted that the endings for each character are real treats for long-standing Mortal Kombat fans - most are full of classic, crazy MK storylines. Two new mini-games, Chess Kombat and Puzzle Kombat, are onboard and available for both on and off-line play. While almost paradoxical in nature, Deception's Chess Kombat definitely places more emphasis on Kombat rather than Chess. More than simply Battle Chess with Mortal Kombat characters, two opposing players landing on the same spot are thrown into (quite literally) mortal combat. Making this even more interesting is that the outcome of a Chess Kombat match can go either way if a skilled chess player takes on a skilled Deception player.
Puzzle Kombat places two players in a Tetris-like game where users must match-up the colors on the blocks falling from the ceiling as they stack up on the bottom of the screen. When special items are matched with blocks of the respective color, the blocks break and appear on your opponent's screen - the object being to fill your opponents screen completely. Two contorted fighters on the bottom of the screen react according to the action on the game board. It's much like Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, albeit a slightly dumbed down and bloodier version.
Perhaps the single greatest addition to Deception is the revolutionary online versus mode. So far the servers are amazingly free of lag, which would all but kill this timing-sensitive game. The ability to battle against someone on the other side of the country (or world) adds such value to a title already laden with extras. If you've played Deadly Alliance you will recognize the massive Krypt filled with extras that can be purchased through playing through the various modes.
While by no means a flawless victory, Deception successfully captures the spirit of Mortal Kombat. It also offers tons of unlockable extra content including character endings and profiles, extra costumes and even production art then wraps it up nicely by bringing it online with very little lag - making it the quintessential online fighter. Any gamer who is even a casual fan of the Mortal Kombat series will find a reason to keep playing, and hard-core MK fans will have hope in a long and bloody future to their favorite fighting series.
Review by Dave Kaplan on 17 Oct 2004
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