Here is the second part of the translated article.
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Ed Boon said, that the maiming tools distributed in the levels would simply be called "positives". What then are the "negatives"? Well, with that, the Death Traps are meant, that can kill the losing player untimely in 10 out of the 17 stages.
In the arena named "Slaughterhouse", there's a giant "fleshwolf" in the form of two straight, quickly rotating bars with giant intertwined thorns. If you can thrust your enemy into this machine of hell, they are first stuck to the spikes and then, a little later, the wall behind the machines becomes deep red.
Change of place to "Hell's Foundry". Here, in the background, there are constantly massive, glowing steel plates rolling on a conveyor belt, that are being cut by a heavy press into smaller parts - you can already guess it. If you kick the sorry opponent into the wall behind the conveyor belt, they roll down and land on the hot metal on all fours. While they try to escape from it, flailing uselessly, the ram comes down and squashes the victim into the giant hearthplate. Little more than a burnstain is left afterwards.
ON GIANT FEET (translator's note: this is an thisthingisdisabled in German meaning "big, massive")
The Konquest modus already glued players to the tv-screen in "Deadly Allianc", with its 228 missions. This mode returns, strongly expanded. You immerse yourself in the role of a 13-year-old teenager in Earthrealm and will also visit, on your long travel, Outworld, Netherealm, Orderrealm, Chaosrealm and Edenia. As in action-adventures, you can control the boy from a chase perspective and can research the environment. Certain people are marked in green, meaning that they have a mission for you. Sometimes, you have to follow them to a place or they give you hints, where to expect a challenge.
Some things will only hapen on certain times. For example, you have to be at a canyon wall on the morning of the fifth day of the seventh year to meet Sub-Zero and to challenge him to a fight. Or, you see something jumping across the rooftops in the night and you need to research this. By meditation, the night passes quicklier, so that you don't always have to wait an eternity.
The rewards for the succeeding in some missions are manifold. You can get new fighting styles, special moves, combos and costumes or you can unlock bonus characters and backgrounds for the arcade mode. In a menu, you can freely configure your hero's looks. Do you like the teleport move or the fireball more? Would you rather like to have two weapon styles, instead of one? No problem at all.
Ed Boon explains the advantage of this Konquest mode as having more mysteries and secrets as in the tomb of last game, where you spent your dearly earned coins, to open 676 coffins and, in this way, unlock several bonuses. This system may have brought fun for a long time, however at some point, be it after five days or two weeks, all coffins had been opened, and then there was nothing more to do.
The new Konquest mode will have many secrets, even after more than 20 hours of playing. On top of that, the more complex and interesting story should be add to the long-term-motivation. At the end of Konquest mode, your warrior will be about 60 years old, and you'll have lived through many surprising twists and turns.
BLOCK-KOMBAT
That's not enough yet? You'll be having even more! In the beginning we mentioned the minigames. They can be selected rightaway from the main menu and can be played online as well, however they are also challenges in Konquest mode.
The puzzle game looks like "Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo" (PSone) and works accordingly as well. Two-part blocks fall from above, that need to be ordened according to colour. To eliminate a group of blocks, you need a bullet part (lit. translation of "Kugelteil", don't know what it really means -VQ) of the same colour - they appear only seldom. The eliminated blocks appearently fall down on your opponent's pile of blocks. Who gets to the upper limit first, loses. While you are playing with the blocks, the two comic-book like fighters, visible at the bottom of the screen, fight and use their special moves.
STRATEGISTS AT THE FRONTLINE
The board game reminds us, with its black and white surface, of a chess game. On both sides, a 16-man-strong army consisting of several "Mortal Kombat" characters is positioned. They aren't only different in the way they look, but also with regards to their attributes and skills. Some characters have more life energy, others can strengthen their comrades with spells or place for traps on the board that are invisible for your opponent. It's turn-based. March-direction and -length are shown by arrows. When one character attacks another, the camera zooms in and both characters come to life. Then it comes down to a fight, during which the character's attributes will come to light. Can you win, if your opponent's energy bar is full and yours is only half full? The purpose of this board game is to bring down the king. He must be protected, because he is weak and can only fend off attacks with great difficulty. After about 15 minutes, a match ends.
Already heated up for "Deception"? We are, anyways, and can hardly wait to get our hands on a playable version. How will the new characters play? What fatalities are there? And how do the other arenas look? You'll learn everything in a few months. One tip: bridge the waiting time with "Deadly Alliance". We got it out of our closet as well!
Carsten Grauel
(translation by VainQueur aka J. Meuleman)
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Enjoy,
VQ
....Checkmate.... 
