2nd Op By

Gene Park 4.0 RATING

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance is like a problem child being told to clean up its room. All it has done is move all its trash to one side of the room.

You see, Kreator Ed Boon may swear up and down that the engine is revamped and much more sophisticated, but that's just sweeping his mess to the side, hoping that some people may not see it. But it's not hard to see the clunky gameplay past the glossy graphics. But hey, Scorpion looks dope with a sword. The character textures aren't even that good looking up close. They look like they walked right out of a Deus Ex Grey Death clinic, with poorly colored textures wrapped a little too tight around their bones.

While the old and inherently flawed Mortal Kombat (MK) engine is long gone, it's been replaced with a less intuitive and equally restrictive system that makes combat slow and awkward. The dial-a-combo system is still in place, just without the run button. So while your character moves at a snail's pace towards the opponent, make sure you have your combo all memorized, otherwise your combo will stall. The MK series have never been the paragon of good fighting, but just because it doesn't aspire to a certain level of quality doesn't mean it's worth anyone's time outside of a casual player. Because of the restrictive combo system and otherwise slow attacks, the game's depth leaves something to be desired. And the stance gimmick? There have been games that have much more moves in one character than the ones available in three stances of Deadly Alliance. Even though it's all different styles, it barely changes any kind of game plan in terms of the fighting. The addition of weapons is mostly a waste too, with some sword moves being shared with many of the characters.

You can forget about reversals for most of the characters as well. If a combo hits you, just kick back and relax and watch the blood flow. Because there's no way you can counter or break the combo, and that's bad news if you have combos as long as Frost's, the Sub-Zero female equivalent. That's not to be expected, however, in a game with controls as slow and unresponsive as this.

I'm not sure how old MK fans would even like this. The legendary staple of the series, fatalities, is in place, but require zero skill to perform. Not only can you perform them anywhere in the stage, but also there is only one of each, some of which are tamer and as unconvincing as a Kenny death in a South Park episode. And you can forget about the ever-popular stage fatalities. The arena is sealed off with an invisible barrier, which fits logically into the poor excuse for a story. Some of the old moves have even been removed (favorites like Raiden's torpedo and Scorpion's teleport), while other moves just as outlandish remain (like Kano's roll). The new characters are pretty consistent to the weirdly lame character designs of the series as well, continuing the tradition started by MKII's Baraka. As interesting to use as they look, which is not very interesting in the first place.

The only redeeming factor for old fans is to have the opportunity to see their old videogame gods in action again. As a teenager, I was fascinated by the character designs of the MK characters, especially the mythologies that inspired them. That appeal still lies in Deadly Alliance, and it stirs old feelings in me to see my favorite arcade heroes duke it out one more time. I say one more time because the MK series have now become the miserable wreck it was always destined to be. And after this, Boon should really apply to the series the advice he gave to players long ago: Just finish it.

Disclaimer: This review is based on the PlayStation 2 version of the game.

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