There are some games that don't require a great deal of
explanation and Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance is one of them.
You know the drill. Choose to be one of a few elite warriors, such as Shang
Tsung, Quan Chi, Li Mei, Sonya Blade, Scorpion, Johnny Cage and Sub-Zero,
with more to become available later on, then play the "beat them one by one"
Arcade mode, the 2-player Versus, a Practice and a Konquest mode, which I
was expecting to be more like Soul Calibur's "Edge Master" section, yet seems
more like an extended training mode during which, like the Arcade mode, you can
win bonus coins that come in handy later on in The Krypt.
The Krypt allows you to spend the collected coins of various descriptions
on opening up to 676 coffins, each containing character sketches, new arenas
and more. The coffins are laid out in a huge 26-by-26 square, ranging from
AA to ZZ and all combinations inbetween. Anything bought here can be viewed
in the Kontent section.
Having got the ability to do this requires you to have a profile - easily done:
just put in a few details, choose a name and you're all set. However, what's
the point of having to set and then enter a special code just to access it?
It's not exactly highly sensitive information and if you forget the 6-button
code that you've programmed in...
Fans of the series will know that MK is usually a 2D affair, but this takes it
into the realms of 3D a la
Tekken,
Virtua Fighter and
Dead or Alive 3.
There's no widescreen option which is a shame, but it doesn't suffer by being
stretched across a widescreen TV set and any such geometric distortion won't
be noticed as you marvel at the large amount of blood splattering across the
screen, plus the general excellence of the graphics including rain and dust
effects, the latter as it drifts across the plains.
Music and sound FX are reasonable, but nothing to get too excited about.
A DTS soundtrack could've been something special.
There's not just fisticuffs in this game. I played with Sonya (ahem!), practiced
Tae Kwon Do and Kendo and then moved on to brandishing Kali Sticks, although
they don't seem to match up too well to Kung Lao's Broadsword.
However, each
way of fighting contains around 15-20 moves apiece, and when it comes to
finish someone off (oo-er, missus!), these include 'Fatality', such as by
ripping a spine out. No wonder the characters get more bloodied and beaten
as you go
It's fun to attempt to master the various moves, but you'll also find like
most of these types of game, a lot of button thrashing often does the trick.
Finally, nothing can beat the incredible Soul Calibur, but this comes
very close indeed.
GRAPHICS SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC PLAYABILITY ENJOYMENT
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Fans of the series will know that MK is usually a 2D affair, but this takes it
into the realms of 3D a la
There's not just fisticuffs in this game. I played with Sonya (ahem!), practiced
Tae Kwon Do and Kendo and then moved on to brandishing Kali Sticks, although
they don't seem to match up too well to Kung Lao's Broadsword.
