Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe brings old problems into a new generation.
Mortal Kombat has found a niche in the fighting game genre in that it actually has a story. This one pushes it a step further in that it has full-blown cinematics. You choose either the DC side or the Mortal Kombat side and then go through their story. In Mortal Kombat land, the Kombatants have defeated Shao Khan once again and they banish him to the Netherrelm. Shortly after, the Kombatants start to act strange towards each other. They get filled with rage and disappear. Lui Kang suspects the Lin Kuei are behind the disappearance of some of the Shaolin and goes to investigate. He encounters Sub-Zero and the two fight, after which Sub-Zero vanishes and in his place is a man in a red, skin-tight outfit. This person gets up and they fight. The Kombatants come to the conclusion that Shao Kahn has started another invasion and they need to stop him again.
On the DC side, the Justice League has just defeated Darkseid. He was about to escape when Superman shot lasers at the unstable portal Darkseid was using. This caused something to happen and Darkseid disappears. The League thinks everything is over and Lex is arrested. Things seemed to be back to normal when people start getting enraged and fighting each other. The Flash disappears and enters another world, meeting the Kombatants and starting their struggle.
For those who were wondering how they would handle this, they seemed to have done it in the best way possible. It's mostly a serious story, but there are some humorous comments and it's interesting to see some enemies forced to work together. It's well done, the cinematics are actually cool and it surpasses my expectations for the story.
The gameplay is basically the same as in the last one with a few changes. There are no weapons or different fighting styles in general, there are no custom characters and there are no "custom" fatalities. This makes it a better game than Armageddon right from the get-go. Other than that, it's basically the same game. You side-step, punch, do combos and do special attacks to defeat your enemies. The gameplay is still a little stiff, not many attacks flow together and it's frustrating to just flail about. The enemy AI is pretty tough, as is usual for the series, and it can get frustrating from that front as well. Mortal Kombat in 3D has always shown the bad side of 3D fighting games and this continues that trend.
One new addition that is really cool is the stage transition. Some stages allow you to knock your opponent down to another tier of the stage and cause some damage. The bad side is that your enemy can turn it around to their advantage and do damage to you if they press the same attack button as you do. The "throws" are similar. You press buttons until you do around 4 attacks or your opponent presses the same attack button. There is also the Rage meter than is can turn a fight in your favor if you are losing. This mechanic is shunned in fighting games and it can be a little broken here.
You can play online here and play arcade as well. Other than that, there is nothing else to do, much like in every other fighting game. It's a shame Konquest has disappeared since they were clearly the highlight of the previous 2 games. There is a combo challenge mode that shows just how bad at this game you really are and they are incredibly challenging. If you are into that, you'll be playing it for a while if you can deal with the awkward kombat.
6.0
The music is okay but the voice work is actually really good. A lot of the characters got new voice actors and they voice them well. The sound effects are basically the same as in other MK games. Nothing special here, but the voices are good.
The visuals are actually really good. It runs on the Unreal Engine so you'll see some similarities to other Unreal games but they are very detailed. The Mortal Kombat characters clearly got the most attention and look the most impressive but the DC characters look alright too, no matter how plain they are. The cinematics looks great and are animated really well, even if the combat animations can look awkward. Each character also takes unique damage, their character models get torn up and bruised, it's a neat detail. The biggest downside here is the reduced violence. This wouldn't have been such a big deal if Mortal Kombat wasn't known only for it's violence. There are still fatalities in the game but they are extremely toned down, not to mention the DC Heroes get Heroic Brutalities. In this regard, it's like Mortal Kombat on the Super Nintendo. Other than that VERY important fact, the game looks great.
PROs:
- Actual interesting, well told story
- Characters are voice well
- Mortal Kombat characters are very detailed
- Character damage adds a neat detail to combat
- Stage transitions are fun and a great addition
- Lots of cool cinematics
- Combo Challenge mode
CONs:
- Gameplay is still awkward
- DC characters aren't too interesting outside of Batman
- DC characters are visually inferior to the MK cast
- Some characters aren't included
- Rage mode can turn things around unfairly
- Gameplay is still awkward
- Lack of violence is a deal-breaker
- Gameplay still sucks
Overall, Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe doesn't fix the main problem of the 3D Mortal Kombat games; the gameplay. It looks good, if uneven, and it sounds good, but the lack of violence and awkward gameplay breaks it. If you buy the game, you might like the story and visuals, but it's pretty likely that you'll dislike the gameplay. The two worlds collide to create a 6.5/10.
Stroy: 7.0/10
Gameplay: 6.0/10
Audio: 6.5/10
Presentation: 7.0/10