Mortal Kombat: Special Forces
Reviewed by Shinnokxz
Ahhh... Mortal Kombat: Special Forces. A game that was
delayed a whole 2 years, just because one of the main MK
creators quit the MK team. Thus, leaving the new hired
creators just to throw up this piece of garbage and get it
off Midways shoulders. They could've just canceled it, but
Midway had already done 75% of it, and they made too much of
an uproar to just call it quits. When the creators quit,
they had the games story, gameplay, and all of features
pretty much mapped out and ready to publish. But when they
did this version, they scra*ped all of John Tobias's (the MK
co-creator that quit) projects into the game.
Good Points About The Game...
The graphics and FMV's in this game are pretty neat and well
textured. But only the common gamer knows (or should know)
that graphics don't make up a game. Music is really nice,
something will make you hum along with the tune. Yeah that
sounds sort of sappy for an MK game, but the creators seemed
to have went on overtime in this. And mostly all the reason
is because Dan Forden was in the game (MK's sound and music
maker). The game also has Dual Shock and Analog capabilities
adding to the gameplays creative ways.
Bad Points About The Game...
To start off, this game has some of the worst weaponry
systems ever created in gaming existence. Some of the
weapons are good for close-up hit-and-run battle, but things
like the Rocket Launcher, Grenade Launcher, and Sniper Rifle
are some of the most frustrating to use weapons in this
games glitchy gameplay. To use the Sniper Rifle, you will
have to zoom in on the character and try to fire shots to
kill him to get points. Sound easy huh? Think not. Having
the games extremely terrible fog, you cannot get close
enough to an enemy unless he sees you and has already shot a
huge rocket your way, all this and it takes millenniums to
center down on a target. The grenade launcher is one of the
cheapest things. Even though about 40 feet form you, a
grenade can still take extrodinairy amounts of health from
you. R. Launchers are neat, but take to Dan long to get to
an enemy even remotely far away form you. When you are in a
huge arena, like the Sewers, numerous enemies will be
shooting at you, but thanks to the games no bullet sees, you
don't know where the opponent is! The Experience points
system is a lot like the one seen in MKM: Sub-Zero. Kill a
guy, gather point, learn cool new fatalities and combos. No
wait, there ARE NO FATALITIES IN THIS GAME. Yes there are
moves that can make an opponent explode, but nothing we
would see out of an ordinary MK. Gathering combos are easy,
and some of the combos are really useful. Except for the
fact you have to hit the buttons at a certain momentum in
order to get a combo even started. The Story in this game is
completely BS. Jax is out to find Kano, and try to kill him.
For some reason Sonya isn't even MENTIONED ANYWHERE in this
game. Sonya is an important factor in both the Special Force
team and the Black Dragon. Leaving this story a dull wet
smelly puppy.
Graphics: 8/10
Got to hand to Midway for rushing this game so fast, but yet
making the graphics look good. The FMV's aren't really
FMV's, they are just the models of characters just smoothed
out to hide the pixels. Backgrounds look very nice, but with
a few jagged frames. Nothing to really brag about here
though, possibly the only factor midway worked on.
Sound/Music: 7/10
Possibly the only thing keeping this section from a 3 or a 5
is the music. The boss music in this game is really nicely
done. Sound in this is utmost average. The enemies sound
like they're robots saying 'Come Here!', and 'Intruder'.
But explosions and other sound effects are all there leaving
this a pretty nice game sound and music wise.
Gameplay: 3/10
This game was completely rushed, no doubt about it. Lets
start off with the Camera Angling. Not that bad for this
kind of an theme. To picture it, look at Dynamite Cop 2 for
the Dreamcast. It has no glitches or anything of the sort.
Levels are pretty big, some of the many rooms in the levels
are completely POINTLESS. After traveling around for about
30 minutes of nothingness, you'll feel like that door you'll
need to go in will be just another doop. Game is pretty fast
pace, but can be really annoying at times. When you are in
the Neatherealm, it is just nothing but Maze of blackness
and a couple of platforms. Difficulty will also frushtrate
you. When you have numerous enemies surrounding you, they
all attack from they're angle, so you have no choice but to
run and possibly shoot guns at them. I told you this very
bland story at the first, and this is not even worth to be
put in a game.
Final Word...
Although not as bad as MKM: Sub-Zero, it still is a stinker.
Being a $20 price tag, only a true MK diehard fan would get
it like me. Save your $20 for MKT.
Overall: 4 out of 10
