The Kombatants become more and more numerous and always more powerful. Their conflict now risks bringing about the Apocalypse and destroying all life in the various kingdoms. To restore balance, the Elder Gods have breathed life into a lava creature named Blaze and dangled the Kombatants with a divine reward if they defeat it. An excellent pretext for the latter to kill each other to obtain the supreme privilege of confronting the monster.
There can only be one!
Now well known to fans, the "Konquest" mode therefore takes up this basic screenplay. For the trouble, we embody a new character named Taven, demigod of his state, in competition with his brother in this quest for the succession of their father. In stasis in another world for years without knowing the reason, they are barely awake when they are loaded with this heavy burden. But nothing happens as the prophecy had predicted and events degenerate. First of all, Taven must first come to his senses and we unlock as his wanderings new devastating special moves. More complete than before, the "Konquest" mode still takes place in a three-dimensional environment. But since then, Shaolin Monks has been there and the developers have taken the opportunity to give Taven new moves. The game is transformed into beat'em all for the occasion and hordes of enemies of all kinds will stand in our way. The principle remains the same, it is a question of going from one point to another to engage in combat with a Kombatant, but the environments have been greatly restricted. Even more linear than it already was, each objective is symbolized by a green halo, sometimes you get lost in a closed corridor. We are not going to complain about it however, it is above all a fighting game and this mode remains very interesting. It even becomes an essential passage if you want to unlock the majority of the bonuses, both by searching directly in chests, by cashing them in the Krypt against the gold coins collected or by picking up the 60 artifacts scattered everywhere.
Multiple games in game
Fans of puzzles and headaches can mourn the “Puzzle” and “Chess” modes, which have now disappeared from this new episode. Particularly offbeat, these two modes brought real added value to the title and it's all the more unfortunate that they have been replaced by the Kombat Engine, which frankly does not bring anything very interesting. Clone of Mario Kart, this somewhat off-topic mode brings together a dozen protagonists around a racing game. No feeling of speed, a cruel lack of fun, few circuits, no championship, two items, in other words the interest is very limited. Concerning the famous Mortal Kombat, Midway wanted to put the small dishes in the big ones, to understand by doing in the disproportionate. Evidenced by the impressive number of characters available from the start. Indeed, we can therefore choose from 58 fighters and then embark on the arenas of the tournament and 4 other additional characters remain to be unlocked. You can even create your own Kombattant from head to toe, choose your outfits and then assign him a very particular fighting style. This is an option that we will not deny because this abundance of characters could not be done without sacrifice. Indeed, we can reproach that the Kombatants do not have a real identity of their own because many have extremely similar movement panels. Moreover, where they could switch between 3 different fighting styles (including two with bare hands and one with a weapon) in the previous games, they only have two now. Killer combos have all but disappeared or been significantly reduced. Pity.
Without making any real substantive changes, the gameplay of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon is a bit more technical than its predecessors, thanks in particular to the aerial duel. Exit the eternal aerial kick, the characters have acquired a whole range of blows and combos to be able to fight in the air. The latter simply "float" for a few seconds once the first tatanes have been administered. The famous Fatalities are more highlighted and it is possible to execute up to ten successively on the same opponent to dismember him little by little. Gore to wish! However, they are still just as difficult to achieve and there is still no indication of how to proceed to perform them. The arenas are interactive and the use of scenery remains a good compromise to make your opponent suffer atrociously as it should. On the production side, Mortal Kombat limply sticks to its achievements with a graphics engine that is beginning to show the weight of the years and an animation that is not always very fluid. If Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance commanded respect, time has done its job and it's time for the developers to finally decide to make an effort on this point.
