Mortal Kombat: Deception

I decided to wait on commenting on the latest game in the long-running "Mortal Kombat" franchise, titled "Mortal Kombat: Deception," because I first wanted to see how things would pan out after it was beaten. Turns out, there's a whole lot of game, and a whole lot of frustration in there.

I won't bother with the plot, since there isn't much in the first place, and a lot of characters are missing. (The only recognizable characters in the beginning of the game are Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Mileena, and Baraka.) Other than that, you're stuck with these four familiars, plus a few characters that made their debut in "Deadly Alliance" and some brand-new characters.

This latest "MK" entry offers a whole lot of game, including "Puzzle Kombat," "Chess Kombat," and "Konquest," where you assume the role of "Shujinko" and you must complete a quest (not unlike what we've seen in dozens of martial arts movies before) and this section of "Deception" makes up about 1/4 of the bulk of the game.

It is here in "Konquest" that you pretty much learn about the whole "Mortal Kombat" universe and you train, learn special moves, and earn "kombat koins" to open up unlockables in the "krypt" (everything that's usually spelled with a "c" is spelled with a "k" in the "Mortal Kombat" universe).

"Deception" is undoubtedly fun, but unfortunately it's also quite maddening and frustrating. The biggest flaw the game suffers from is the maddening combo system. It takes the manual dexterity of someone with the quickest hand-eye coordination to complete some of the combo training tasks the game throws at you.

It's insanely frustrating, especially for a fan like myself who grew up playing "Mortal Kombat." But if you're not up for the B.S. that's offered in the maddening "Konquest," you can of course duke-it-out with the CPU or your friends in old-fashioned "Arcade" mode. But even here you're limited because you'd need to have beaten the game to get all the really cool characters.

It took me about two weeks to complete "Mortal Kombat: Deception" and I can honestly say that I took a DEEP breath of relief when it was done, especially after I made it through the impossible combo training sessions, ridiculous fights (ever tried fighting Scorpion while he delivers blows that cause 3x more damage than they normally do AND he heals at the same time, or tried fighting Sindel while bleeding to death at 50% health?), and a somewhat weak "reward" for completing the core of the Konquest mode.

Despite its ridiculousness, it's still a thorough and engaging entry into one of the most successful fighting franchises ever released.

However, the tag line is not B.S.; it will "Konsume" you!

7/10