Popular gaming site IGN has followed their counterparts and posted up a review of the latest Mortal Kombat title, MK: Unchained! The IGN review of the PSP port/upgrade of MK: Deception is as thorough as the Gamespot counterpart with a similar overall score being given in the end of things. MK: Unchained mustered a 7.0/10 (translates to "Decent" by IGN standards) after the review cites such issues as the extremely long loading times (from 20-30 seconds between even the most common of actions) and the poor camera control in both fighting modes and Konquest mode. Below are some selections from the article:
Sounds like a much more improved version of Deception, right? Well, it would be, if it wasn't for the fact that the translation to the PSP is rife with issues. First of all, the control scheme can leave much to be desired. While the analog nub is okay, it's not as precise as you'd need it to be to accurately pull off some moves. That leaves the directional pad for pulling off sidesteps, inputting special attack commands and other things. Of course, as most PSP owners know, the directional pad can be horrendous without a third party peripheral, especially for fighting games where tight control is a must. If you don't happen to have one, you may be extremely frustrated during gameplay. The same can be said when you're trying to accurately pull off fatalities or hara-kiris, which require accurate key input to trigger the animation.
Another issue comes with the ridiculous load times that are attached to Unchained. You'll commonly suffer your way through twenty to thirty second loads for almost everything, and they happen with just about everything. Whether it's moving from one fight to another, or loading up a new opponent in a mini-game, you're stuck waiting the UMD to load up everything. After a while, this constant grind is extremely frustrating and tedious. What's worse, it makes everything, from the fighting to the mini-games, feel slow and much older than they actually are. Fans of the original title will also be somewhat disappointed to find that the multiplayer options for Unchained have only been relegated to Ad Hoc mode. It would've been much better had it also supported Infrastructure mode, especially considering that was a feature for Deception, but for some reason it's left out entirely.
For the most part, Unchained looks okay, as long as the camera is pulled back to a medium view of a stage. Stages look nice on the PSP, and the various environmental hazards come across particularly well on the system's screen. The same can be said about Fatalities and Hara-kiris, which look particularly harsh. Character models can look relatively good from a distance, although if you watch the camera zoom in tight on a fighter, especially at the end of a match, you'll notice a lot of low resolution textures and a generally bland appearance for many fighters. At least the sound hasn't been impacted with the move from the console to the handheld. Everything from the screams of characters to the environmental sound effects have been recreated without anything being lost, although the poor voiceover work from the Konquest mode is still a bit underwhelming.
To read the entire review, click here.
Thanks to forum member for noticing the posting of this review.
