Mortal Kombat: Deception

The Mortal Kombat series has been going strong for more than a decade and the latest entry is Mortal Kombat: Deception. It keeps the gameplay from 2002’s Deadly Alliance and adds a ton of new modes and features. This is a big game and stands as perhaps the best game in the series and it is at least the best one that has been released in the last 5-6 years. It isn’t without problems, but the experience as a whole is enjoyable.

Combat is Much Improved ...

The fighting in Mortal Kombat: Deception is pretty much identical to the combat in Deadly Alliance. The only real differences are that uppercuts make a welcome return after being absent in DA, you can now execute combo breakers 3 times per match, and the weapon impaling moves have been eliminated. The rest is pretty much the same. Each character still has three different fighting styles including one that is weapon based and each character has a ton of special moves and combos. One pretty big addition to Deception is that each arena now has a death trap. It is usually pretty obvious where the death trap is, whether it is a pool of acid or giant meat grinders, and it is up to you to maneuver your opponent over to them and then knock them into the death trap. The death traps sort of work like the ring outs in Virtua Fighter and Soul Calibur. You just have to knock your opponent into them and you’ll win the round. All of them produce gruesome results, which MK is known for, so they are a welcome addition to the series.

... But Still Not That Great

Mortal Kombat games are good at providing lots of blood and gore and violence, but they are not good fighting games. Compared to Soul Calibur II or Virtua Fighter 4: Evo, MK: Deception is flat out crap. The flow and balance you can find in a good 3D fighter is absent from Deception. Combat is weighted very heavily towards using special moves and little tap combos. Long combos that require six or seven button presses don’t really cause any more damage than the shorter, much easier to perform combos. Something that just seems odd to me is that the combos don’t rely on any sense of timing like in other fighters. You can tap out the commands much quicker than the moves are actually performed onscreen, so you can just sit back and watch your character fight for a few seconds without your input. The best fighting games are all about figuring out your own style and playing how you want to. In Deception, you are limited to tapping out the handful of combos and special moves the game gives you and that’s it. This means that everyone’s Scorpion or Sub-Zero is going to play exactly the same which gets boring after a while. You can’t think outside the box, and that is why Deception fails as a fighter.

Control Issues

Actually performing combos seems to be an issue with the Xbox controller. I couldn’t for the life of me tap out the long combo strings when holding the controller properly. I had to set the controller in my lap and then tap the buttons with my right middle and index fingers because it was the only way I could do them fast enough. Also, the L trigger is the default button for switching fighting styles but it doesn’t respond quite quick enough during the long branching combos that make you switch styles in the middle. I highly recommend assigning the style switch command to the white button. It makes a big difference. I tried several different controllers with the same results each time. You have to tap out the combos extremely quickly and the default button layout just can’t keep up.

Why Mortal Kombat Works Despite It's Problems

These issues with the fighting in Deception have been with the series ever since the original Mortal Kombat. “How can a fighting series be so popular if the actual fighting is so poor,” I’m sure you’re asking right about now. It is all about characters and atmosphere. The characters in the Mortal Kombat series have always been extremely well designed and interesting. They all have complex backstories and they are all intertwined and it is just really fascinating. The greater storyline of the series involving Shao Kahn, the different realms, the MK tournament, and everything in between is just really, really cool. You struggle with the less than stellar combat because Baraka and Mileena and all the rest are just too damn cool not to have fun with.

Of course, another reason why MK works so well is because of the blood and gore and brutality of it all. The spray of blood during a fight and the solid sounding punches and kicks are just plain satisfying. Fatalaties and death traps make the deal even sweeter. No other fighting game can match the brutality of Mortal Kombat, so when we need our fix we flock to MK. That doesn’t excuse the poor gameplay, but it does explain why we play it and why so many people enjoy it.