Mortal Kombat: Deception
Mortal Kombat: Deception is a 2004 fighting game developed and published by Midway. The sixth main installment in the Mortal Kombat franchise and sequel to Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, it was released for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in October 2004, the GameCube in March 2005, and for the PlayStation Portable as Mortal Kombat: Unchained in November 2006. Following on from the events of Deadly Alliance, the game’s plot centers on the recently revived Dragon King Onaga, who upon defeating the Thunder God Raiden and sorcerers Quan Chi and Shang Tsung attempts to conquer various realms, meanwhile surviving warriors from prior MK titles join forces in a bid to stop him. In addition to online play and new chess and puzzle minigames, a revamped Konquest Mode from Deadly Alliance features a secondary plot line following the life of Shujinko, a warrior deceived by Onaga into finding artifacts to increase his power.
Designed by series co-creator Ed Boon, the game was created with the intent of surprising MK fans with surprising new and returning content, as well as providing a more realistic combat experience in order to preserve the series signature gory violence. Several parts of the gameplay, such as combos and arenas, were redesigned to accommodate the new style of realism as well as be more interactive for players. In addition, the game was designed with the online play in mind, which had yet to be established into a fighting game.
Upon release, Deception was positively received by critics, who praised the reworked combat and plethora of new features, but criticized the revamped Konquest Mode due to its poor story and voice acting. The game managed to sell more than 1 million units by the end of 2005 and was nominated as the best fighting game of 2004 by several game publications. It has since been regarded as having been the first fighting game to incorporate online multiplayer, which later became an industry standard for the genre moving forward. A sequel to Deception, Mortal Kombat Armageddon, was released in 2006.
Gameplay
The game's arenas are similar to those in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, but include new features. Some have weapons that may be picked up and used. Others are now branching, meaning you can knock the opponent out of the fighting area in certain locations and continue the fight in a new area. Most levels now have deathtraps, killing any player who gets knocked into them. The game also introduces the "Combo Breaker", a system which allows players to interrupt combos up to three times per match. In contrast to Deadly Alliance, in which characters had only one Fatality, the Deception characters have two Fatalities and a hara-kiri suicide move. The latter is used when the phrase "Finish Him/Her" is shown on the screen and the player is about to lose.Deception introduces two minigames that use MK characters, "Chess Kombat" and "Puzzle Kombat". The Konquest mode returns, but has been expanded into a roaming adventure game with its plot.
The "Krypt" returns from Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance and serves as an interface to access extra content hidden in . In Deception, the size of the Krypt was reduced from 676 to 400. Some also have locks requiring keys only found in the Konquest mode. The Krypt in Mortal Kombat: Deception includes twelve bonus characters.
Konquest mode
Deadly Alliances action role-playing game-style training mode — called "Konquest" — returns in Deception and is greatly expanded from the previous version. Set before the events of the main game, Deceptions Konquest mode explores the history of Shujinko, starting before his training with Bo' Rai Cho and ending with the beginning of Deceptions main story. While mostly an adventure game, the combat elements occur in the normal Deception fighting mode. Mastering each character's moves is now a minor mission, and it is unnecessary to beat all of them to beat the game mode. In Konquest, a young Shujinko meets Damashi, a being who requests his assistance in collecting six powerful items, the Kamidogu, to send to the Elder Gods. By the time he collects the six Kamidogu, Shujinko is an old man, having spent 46 years on his mission. However, Damashi is revealed to be the Evil Dragon King Onaga, who deceived Shujinko to obtain the six Kamidogu. Players seeking to unlock much of the bonus content in Deception must play through the Konquest mode. Even after completing the mode, players can continue exploring the worlds for additional items to unlock.Chess Kombat
"Chess Kombat" is a minigame similar to classic chess. Each piece type is represented by a character of the player's choosing. As with regular chess, the quantity and movement of each piece are determined by its rank. The game only ends when one player takes another team's 'Champion'. The biggest difference is that all attempts to take a square are literally contested. Players will engage in one round of combat, with the winner taking the square.All unlocked characters can be used in this minigame. Their rank determines the health and offensive strength of pieces in combat situations. Two designated squares enhance the abilities of the entire team while occupied. Both teams can discreetly turn one square into a deathtrap, which instantly kills any opponent piece that steps on it. Both teams have two 'Sorcerers' who can cast a spell instead of moving. The spells can resurrect, move, or kill lower-ranked characters. Each spell can only be used once.
Puzzle Kombat
"Puzzle Kombat" is a puzzle game similar to Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo. It features super-deformed versions of the "MK" characters that attack each other once a player gains an advantage. Players must win two rounds to win. The single-player game had a ladder format like in Arcade mode.The players supervise a grid being filled with blocks. The blocks drop in pairs and can be rotated and moved by the player until they land. A player loses if the blocks reach the top of their grid. If a coloured logo touches a block of the same colour, then all connected blocks of the same colour disappear. Bombs will remove all blocks of the same colour as the one they touch. Removing blocks will cause them to be added to the opponent's grid, but their colours will be varied.
There are 12 playable characters, each with a unique special move that can be used when their 'Special' meter is filled. They either give the player an advantage or hinder the opponent. Baraka's "Blade" will remove all blocks on the edges of his grid. Kenshi's "Invisible" will briefly make all the blocks in the opponent's grid invisible, making matching much harder.
Plot
Setting
The setting begins immediately after the events of Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. The Deadly Alliance was successful in their plan. Raiden's warriors, who were meant to protect the six fictional universes, were killed during their tournament. It served as the perfect distraction to defeat their enemies while they simultaneously claimed enough souls to resurrect the Invincible Army. As the sole survivor, Raiden attempts to fight both sorcerers but is ultimately defeated. The Deadly Alliance quickly dissolves as the two sorcerers turn on each other for Shinnok's amulet, which allows them to control the army. Quan Chi has no time to enjoy his victory before he sees that the Dragon King Onaga, the former emperor of the realm of Outworld, has been resurrected too. Quan Chi, Shang Tsung, and Raiden join forces to stop Onaga. However, Raiden ultimately unleashes all his powers in a colossal explosion that, apart from destroying both members of the Deadly Alliance, the surrounding palace, and himself, has little effect on Onaga.Onaga now seeks to use six artifacts called the Kamidogu, which can destroy the realms. Those fighters who survive the battle against the Deadly Alliance now stand against Onaga and his supporters. The latter includes the forces of Edenia, now led by Mileena in the titular theme of deception as she masquerades as her sister, Princess Kitana. Other enemies include the former defenders from the realms, who were resurrected by Onaga and are under his control.
Konquest
A young man named Shujinko is deceived into spending his entire life collecting the Kamidogu for Onaga, who uses the guise of an emissary of the Elder Gods, the beings who created the realms, named Damashi. Onaga reveals his identity and intentions after Shujinko has gathered all the Kamidogu. Shujinko, led to believe he was working for the greater good, decides to continue training to defeat Onaga.Characters
26 characters appear in the game, with 17 returning and 9 making their series debuts. Only one character is unplayable.New characters:
- Ashrah – a Netherrealm demoness searching for redemption and her freedom from the realm by slaying demons with a magical sword.
- Dairou – a disgraced Seidan Guardsman turned mercenary who Darrius contracted to assassinate his former superior, Hotaru.
- Darrius – Leader of the Seidan Resistance, a movement fighting the oppressive regime of the Realm of Order.
- Havik – Chaosrealm cleric and archrival of Hotaru who wishes to resurrect Shao Kahn and ensure the reign of chaos over Outworld.
- Hotaru – Leader of the Seidan Guard who pledges his services to Onaga to forcibly establish order in war-torn Outworld.
- Kira – a former weapons dealer recruited into Kabal's reformed Black Dragon organization.
- Kobra – Martial artist turned killer who is recruited along with Kira into Kabal's reformed Black Dragon organization.
- Onaga – The Dragon King and former emperor of Outworld who seeks to regain his dominating rule of the realm. He serves as the game's final boss.
- Shujinko – An aged warrior deceived by Onaga when he was young. He is the central character of the game's training mode.
- Baraka – Member of the savage Tarkatan warrior race that attacks Outworld to distract Onaga's opposition. He additionally frees Mileena from imprisonment, enabling her to assume the enslaved Kitana's identity.
- Bo' Rai Cho – Outworlder who rescues Li Mei from the clutches of the Deadly Alliance.
- Ermac – A Composite of souls freed from Shao Kahn's control by Kenshi, who assists Liu Kang's spirit in saving the slain Earthrealm heroes resurrected and enslaved by Onaga.
- Jade – Edenian warrior and longtime ally of Kitana who joins Queen Sindel in freeing the princess, who is under Onaga's influence and serving as his bodyguard.
- Kabal – Black Dragon leader rescued from near-death by Havik. He reforms the crime syndicate with new members at the cleric's behest.
- Kenshi – Blind swordsman who joins forces with Sub-Zero in an attempt to thwart Hotaru and Onaga's plans.
- Li Mei – Outworld native rescued from the Deadly Alliance by Bo' Rai Cho.
- Liu Kang – the deceased Mortal Kombat champion whose spirit enlists Ermac in freeing the enslaved Earth fighters, but his corpse has been exhumed and reanimated for evil purposes.
- Mileena – Evil clone of Kitana who poses as the imprisoned princess and misleads Edenia's military forces to buy time for Onaga to enact his goals.
- Nightwolf – Native American shaman who willingly corrupts himself with the sins of his tribe so he can infiltrate the Netherrealm and defeat Onaga.
- Noob Saibot – Former member of the Brotherhood of the Shadow who reactivates the inoperative cyborg Smoke as a servant. He serves as the game's combined sub-boss with Smoke.
- Raiden – Thunder god and Earth protector who had previously sacrificed himself in a vain attempt to destroy Onaga. He has since reformed on Earth and is incensed at Shujinko's resurrection of the Dragon King.
- Scorpion – A specter who escapes his Netherrealm imprisonment and serves the Elder Gods to prevent Onaga from merging the realms.
- Sindel – the Queen of Edenia who teams with Jade to free Princess Kitana from Onaga's control.
- Smoke – Inoperative Lin Kuei cyborg who is revived and reprogrammed to serve Noob Saibot. He is the game's combined sub-boss with Noob Saibot.
- Sub-Zero – Lin Kuei clan leader who learns of his cryomancer heritage while burying the remains of his protege Frost inside an ancient temple. He also teams up with Kenshi to stop Hotaru and Onaga's machinations.
- Tanya – Edenian traitor who swears allegiance to Onaga in his mission of conquering the realms.