Mon 11 Jul 2011
Playstation
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Mortal Combat Review
The latest addition to the Mortal Combat Franchise takes the franchise
further in that direction, pushing boundaries with over the top attacks
that left me delighting in my opponents being ripped in half, impaled on
spikes, all the debaucheries and sadistic violence I’ve come to expect
and from the Mortal Combat franchise.
Mortal Combat picks off where Mortal Combat Armageddon left off, with Thunder God Raiden under attack from Shao Kahn. I found there were a lot of cutscenes initially, which wouldn’t be a problem if you could skip over them.
Not only can you not skip them, but if you die or have to repeat a certain event you have no choice but to watch those cut scenes again, in this game you either pick up where you left off or start from the beginning. All the characters that you are familiar with in Mortal Combat will make appearances within this game, Scorpion, Sub Zero, Lui Kang, Smoke, Liu Kang, more importantly, all these characters are already playable from the start, so you don’t have to unlock them as you did with previous Mortal Combat games, no doubt however Mortal Combat will have new unlockable characters.
You're also taken through a range of different environments, which look great, meticulously detailed and very well-crafted. They’ve even included some of the classic stages from the first three Mortal Combat games. I found the story was surprisingly engaging, full of interesting dynamics between characters and dialogue, for the first time in the Mortal Combat Franchise this game actually delves more into the characters, the rivalry’s, and their motives for fighting and the characters separate agenda’s that the characters have beyond the competition itself. So the game really surprised me and kept me invested, eager to learn more about the characters.
As with every Mortal Combat game the ultimate goal is to defeat your opponent in one on one combat. I felt the controls were well integrated, although initially a bit awkward, I soon found the new controls to be more practical. I found the game to be sufficiently fast like its predecessors requiring quick reflexes, so the game does require a certain degree of skill which I liked. One of the great new amendments to this Mortal Combat is the simplified button combinations, which make it much easier to perform more complicated moves, unlike in the original Mortal combats where learning each characters moves was like learning how to play an instrument.
You still need to be quick when pulling off the commands, but there’s less buttons to remember.
One of the coolest new elements in Mortal Combat is the way that each combo hit you land on your opponent will cut to a slow motion sequence and give you an x ray view of the effects of each successive move. Although highly sensationalized, and unrealistic given the character is completely ok after the depicted outcome of attack, I found it to be very funny and tongue and cheek as if the developers were making fun of Mortal Combat’s reputation as an over the top graphically violent game, it was refreshing to see that they weren’t taking themselves too seriously.
This game is a sadists dream, skulls are smashed, spines are broken, characters are complete disintegrated, this is a brutal game, not for the faint of heart. The combo moves pale in comparison to the infamous fatalities which have been a protruding aspect of every Mortal Combat game since the original, still preceded by that unmistakable, commanding, visceral voice, “Finish him”, as your opponent stands unconscious at the mercy of whatever fate you may choose. This occurs at the climactic end of the fight once a victor has been chosen.
The victor is given the chance to put one final nail in the coffin so to speak, although it’s often an unnecessarily large nail and profusely over exaggerated coffin. Each character is complete with his own series of creative and entertaining finishing moves and just like in the SNES, the Mortal Kombat games unique environments allow you to kill your opponents in a number of different ways, such as by punching them into a pool of acid or dropping them onto a set of spikes and seeing their guts spill out.
What I really liked about this latest Mortal Combat instalment is that these moves are no longer a pain in the arse to enact as they traditionally were, often requiring a series of button combinations to be pressed in a perfect rhythm, resulting in you to not even bothering with them and instead just focusing on the fundamental fighting mechanics of the game. Mortal Kombat makes things easier with simplified commands and some of these commands are actually the same for different characters which is great.
Mortal Kombat is a delicious dish of over the top violence that for some reason doesn’t gross you out the way it likely would if it were in a film, in fact at times its so over the top that the game almost seems to be making fun of itself and actually comes off as very amusing despite the games ominous and creepy atmosphere. The bottom line is this game sticks to the Mortal Kombat formula and manages to deliver an improved Mortal Combat experience, delivering everything that we’ve come to expect from the Mortal Kombat franchise and then some.
Everything from tag team fighting, complete with team combos, the traditional arcade style ladder modes where you fight individual computer players until you get to the final boss- Shao Kahn. Mortal Kombat still stands out as one of the fullest, goriest, and adult fighting game around. The return of the fatalities and the addition of X-ray moves, not to mention the return of the gore after the toned-down Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe was really refreshing and almost nostalgic.
This game feels like the classic Mortal Combat game, which is what gamers like myself want. Finally I can say that Mortal Kombat has successfully made the transition to the millennium. Mortal Kombat returns with a vengeance get it.
Rating: 92%
Pros:
It’s Mortal Combat
The game looks absolutely gorgeous
Completely revamped controls, combos no longer require you to remember extensive button combinations to execute
A closer look at the characters
Cons:
As with all fighting games, it can become repetitive
Mortal Combat picks off where Mortal Combat Armageddon left off, with Thunder God Raiden under attack from Shao Kahn. I found there were a lot of cutscenes initially, which wouldn’t be a problem if you could skip over them.
Not only can you not skip them, but if you die or have to repeat a certain event you have no choice but to watch those cut scenes again, in this game you either pick up where you left off or start from the beginning. All the characters that you are familiar with in Mortal Combat will make appearances within this game, Scorpion, Sub Zero, Lui Kang, Smoke, Liu Kang, more importantly, all these characters are already playable from the start, so you don’t have to unlock them as you did with previous Mortal Combat games, no doubt however Mortal Combat will have new unlockable characters.
You're also taken through a range of different environments, which look great, meticulously detailed and very well-crafted. They’ve even included some of the classic stages from the first three Mortal Combat games. I found the story was surprisingly engaging, full of interesting dynamics between characters and dialogue, for the first time in the Mortal Combat Franchise this game actually delves more into the characters, the rivalry’s, and their motives for fighting and the characters separate agenda’s that the characters have beyond the competition itself. So the game really surprised me and kept me invested, eager to learn more about the characters.
As with every Mortal Combat game the ultimate goal is to defeat your opponent in one on one combat. I felt the controls were well integrated, although initially a bit awkward, I soon found the new controls to be more practical. I found the game to be sufficiently fast like its predecessors requiring quick reflexes, so the game does require a certain degree of skill which I liked. One of the great new amendments to this Mortal Combat is the simplified button combinations, which make it much easier to perform more complicated moves, unlike in the original Mortal combats where learning each characters moves was like learning how to play an instrument.
You still need to be quick when pulling off the commands, but there’s less buttons to remember.
One of the coolest new elements in Mortal Combat is the way that each combo hit you land on your opponent will cut to a slow motion sequence and give you an x ray view of the effects of each successive move. Although highly sensationalized, and unrealistic given the character is completely ok after the depicted outcome of attack, I found it to be very funny and tongue and cheek as if the developers were making fun of Mortal Combat’s reputation as an over the top graphically violent game, it was refreshing to see that they weren’t taking themselves too seriously.
This game is a sadists dream, skulls are smashed, spines are broken, characters are complete disintegrated, this is a brutal game, not for the faint of heart. The combo moves pale in comparison to the infamous fatalities which have been a protruding aspect of every Mortal Combat game since the original, still preceded by that unmistakable, commanding, visceral voice, “Finish him”, as your opponent stands unconscious at the mercy of whatever fate you may choose. This occurs at the climactic end of the fight once a victor has been chosen.
The victor is given the chance to put one final nail in the coffin so to speak, although it’s often an unnecessarily large nail and profusely over exaggerated coffin. Each character is complete with his own series of creative and entertaining finishing moves and just like in the SNES, the Mortal Kombat games unique environments allow you to kill your opponents in a number of different ways, such as by punching them into a pool of acid or dropping them onto a set of spikes and seeing their guts spill out.
What I really liked about this latest Mortal Combat instalment is that these moves are no longer a pain in the arse to enact as they traditionally were, often requiring a series of button combinations to be pressed in a perfect rhythm, resulting in you to not even bothering with them and instead just focusing on the fundamental fighting mechanics of the game. Mortal Kombat makes things easier with simplified commands and some of these commands are actually the same for different characters which is great.
Mortal Kombat is a delicious dish of over the top violence that for some reason doesn’t gross you out the way it likely would if it were in a film, in fact at times its so over the top that the game almost seems to be making fun of itself and actually comes off as very amusing despite the games ominous and creepy atmosphere. The bottom line is this game sticks to the Mortal Kombat formula and manages to deliver an improved Mortal Combat experience, delivering everything that we’ve come to expect from the Mortal Kombat franchise and then some.
Everything from tag team fighting, complete with team combos, the traditional arcade style ladder modes where you fight individual computer players until you get to the final boss- Shao Kahn. Mortal Kombat still stands out as one of the fullest, goriest, and adult fighting game around. The return of the fatalities and the addition of X-ray moves, not to mention the return of the gore after the toned-down Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe was really refreshing and almost nostalgic.
This game feels like the classic Mortal Combat game, which is what gamers like myself want. Finally I can say that Mortal Kombat has successfully made the transition to the millennium. Mortal Kombat returns with a vengeance get it.
Rating: 92%
Pros:
It’s Mortal Combat
The game looks absolutely gorgeous
Completely revamped controls, combos no longer require you to remember extensive button combinations to execute
A closer look at the characters
Cons:
As with all fighting games, it can become repetitive
