I respectfully disagree with this. Sub Zero over the course of MK's history has probably changed the most out of any character on the roster. He went from a subservient assassin, to rogue ninja refusing to give up his humanity, to grand master of the very clan that intended to destroy him. He then took that clan and turned it into a force for good, joined the warriors of light to fight the deadly alliance, hell, he even had one of the cooler Armageddon endings(He becomes a F'N GOD!).

It's for those reasons that I'm unhappy about Cyber Sub Zero. All that progress...gone. It's not to say he couldn't go on a similar path, but he's already got one big problem to overcome for that to happen(he's dead). I'm hoping that he's able to break the chains that bind him in the next game, but, eh, as long as he's a cyborg, I just don't think I'll be happy.

Otherwise, yeah, Human Sub Zero(bummed that I have to write that) is a beast in this game. His ice puddle/ice clone are more or less useless to me, but he's awesome otherwise. He moves like a tank which is off putting at first, but hell, he's the one I used to beat "End Game" so I pretty much got over it.

His arcade ending was kinda cool, and I know would make many a fanboy's dream come true. It was a little too...almost Batman and Robin-like for my taste, but I liked it.

Sub-Zero is my favorite character, so allow me to go into my little tirade about him in this game, both the really good and the really bad.

APPEARANCE

Sub-Zero's Deadly Alliance alternate was and remains the best look he has ever had. I remember when it first came out people were legitimately asking if he was going to be a BOSS. He just looked deadly, powerful, and unbelievably cool.


This is one of my favorite looks for him... but there's a few things I don't like. Actually, the concept art, vignette, and ending for him I think are perfect. He has the tattered ribbons flowing off his body and mask that really look cool. He has glowing eyes that show his hidden power within. In-game those are disappointingly missing, and the lack of both his signature eye scar (which we STILL never discover how he obtains) and his icy arms seems to make him seem less powerful and deadly. But it's still a good design.

MOVES
I'm pretty pleased that Sub-Zero has MOST of his staple moves. Of course he has the ice ball and the slide, but the ice clone is one of my favorites, and I'm extremely pleased he even pulls out his ice sword for combos and grabs. I'm actually disappointed his ice puddle doesn't cause opponents to slip and stagger (it's currently no different than a normal freeze, just on the ground), and I miss his ice shower too. And I REALLY wish this version of Sub-Zero had his ice shaker or ice parry move, rather than them dumping it off on Cyber Sub-Zero. But he has his essentials.

Combat-wise, Sub-Zero is great if you can get around some problems. I'm still surprised he's so slow. His moves and movement make him feel very heavy, especially compared to the likes of super-speed teleporting opponents like Smoke, Sektor, and Scorpion. Even Sheeva has many moves that are faster than his. But he's got great combo potential and does heavy damage, so it's easy to get high damage with him if you can set-up the opponent, which his moves are almost exclusively designed to do. It's just a shame Sub-Zero is so dependent on his specials instead of being able to handle himself well with his basic moves. It can be done, but it's far more difficult than with many other characters.

FATALITIES
I'll start off by saying that both of Sub-Zero's fatalities in Deception remain his absolute best finishers ever and nothing he's done since has come close, even in this game.

But they aren't bad by any means. Sub-Zero's iced torso-rip fatality is visceral and gruesome, but his iconic head rip was more memorable and satisfying. His spine-head-smash fatality is also a good spectacle, and an obvious throwback to his spine-rip proper, but it just didn't wow me like some of his others have. It suffers from the same problem many of the other fatalities have, which is the overkill. Sub-Zero killed the victim in the first second, then spends the next five seconds freezing and smashing their already dead body. Seems rather inefficient.

Personally, I wish he'd use his ice powers in a more upfront way to kill his opponents, such as shattering them or their limbs properly in some capacity, and I'm still begging for a fatality where he rams his hand into their body causing ice cycles to burst out of their opponent's body from the inside out, but these suffice. I don't love them, but they're far from the worst.

STORY
Strangely enough, this is one of the appearances from Sub-Zero I've enjoyed the LEAST, and I was very eager to see what they would do with him, even knowing about his Cyber self running around.

I'll get the good out of the way first. For starters, his friendship with Smoke is extremely well done, and they obviously have a very strong bond. Secondly, Sub-Zero obviously loved his brother very much, and the game goes out of its way to show that he intentionally wore the colors and assumed the code name of his brother to honor his memory and keep his legacy alive.

But I had some big issues with how he was presented too.

In the original games, Sub-Zero was sent to finish his brother's failed mission, which became the very reason Scorpion was even at the second tournament after hearing his killer was some how still alive and competing. In this game, Sub-Zero actually ignored his clan's demand to stay out of it and he actively hunted Scorpion down ruthlessly to get revenge on the man who got revenge on his brother, creating a rather unneeded and disappointing cycle of petty revenge back and forth. In the original storyline, Scorpion is alarmed to discover Sub-Zero sparring the life of an opponent, which shows him that this new Sub-Zero is different from his brother. In this game, when we first see Sub-Zero in action, he is mercilessly killing someone off-screen for not telling him what he wanted to know, and then spends his entire chapter ignoring the plight of others (Jax and Sonya), harming those who get in his way (Reptile), and ultimately beating Scorpion senseless without ever knowing WHY Scorpion killed his brother in the first place (his brother was kind of a dick and Scorpion was being lied to). And then Sub-Zero gets taken away by some generic robots (I still think SOMEBODY could have saved him, or he could have fought them all off), and he returns as the dreaded Cyber Sub-Zero.

And I surprisingly enjoyed the Cyber Sub-Zero chapter far more. Not because it was Cyber Sub-Zero, but because Sub-Zero acted more like the OLD Sub-Zero: a good man, a selfless hero, and a deadly but reliable warrior. He spent the first half of his story doing selfish and harmful actions, but in his second chapter he develops a conscience, rebels against his clan, saves innocent soldiers from certain death, and battles and comes to terms with what kind of monster his brother truly was and has become. It's great stuff that his cyber shell can't diminish, but ultimately would have worked just as well had he stayed human (maybe even more so), but it was a far more consistent second-half than the rather disappointing introduction.

FATE
And here's where things sort of fall apart.

Naturally, anybody who's a fan of a certain character doesn't like it when they get screwed over or stepped on. I dare say that nobody had it worse this game than Sub-Zero. His brother gets killed and becomes an amoral monster. He loses his body and soul in a painful and irreversible process. And he regains his humanity only to get killed immediately after. It was not a good day to be Sub-Zero.

The issue I have is how unnecessary most of these things were. Sub-Zero's robotization is scene-for-scene the same as what Smoke went through, and he just sort of adopts Smoke's abandoned storyline instead of branching off on his own. It's a retread of old ground.

Oh well, I figured. Maybe they'll do something really unique with it, prove that this is a good change and not just a pointless change for shock value. He'll adjust and grow and become a better character in the end because of this experience.

But, oh yeah, he dies like a punk from one punch to the face, negating any future development of this tangent, which utterly does prove it was a needless and unnecessary change that led to a creatively bankrupt dead-end before he could even make it to a follow-up game. And now he's an undead slave in hell serving the man who basically got his brother killed to begin with. It's a sad and rather pathetic fate for one of the greatest and most iconic heroes MK has ever produced.

It's an extremely odd and unfair feeling having a game where Sub-Zero is violated, killed, and turned into Quan Chi's bitch-boy while Hsu Hao, Shujinko, Meat, Mokap, Jarek, Kobra, Darrius, Drahmin, and Daegon are still quite alive, healthy, and happy going about their day-to-day business.

Even more so than that, the two men responsible for every bad thing that happens to him, Quan Chi and Raiden, get away scott free without a single bit of comeuppance. It's like watching someone you love get beaten up and the assailant winds up back on the streets after a technicality in court. It's a rather poor aftertaste to an otherwise epic story.

FUTURE
I have no idea what they're going to do with Sub-Zero, but I know two things.

1) He'll be back. He'll always be back. He's Sub-Zero, routinely vying with Scorpion as the most popular character in the entire franchise's 20-year history.

2) He can't possibly fall any lower. If this game was an enormous fall from grace after his extremely magnanimous storyline during the Deadly Alliance era, then any follow-up would likely showcase his rise from the ashes, regaining his strength, his soul, his body, and his honor. But right now, he's basically as low as anybody can get, even more than the other heroes because at least THEY didn't get their guts and organs scooped out and replaced with oil and antifreeze before they died.

CONCLUSION
Sub-Zero is still my favorite character, but this is the first game I've walked away going "I'm glad I'm not him" instead of "Man, I wish I was him". He ultimately became a casualty of Raiden's tampering and Quan Chi's manipulation, and unlike the prior games that had him overcome his challenges, meet his adversaries head on, and emerge triumphant even in the darkest of situations, in this game he basically became a walking "Worf Effect", a badass NRS knew people loved and they intentionally had him beaten and broken to make the badguys look better and Raiden's desperation more palpable.

I only hope he can return to the high note that he was at during Deadly Alliance, which instilled a great degree of respect and admiration in me for him. As it is now, Sub-Zero in this game is sort of a shell of his former self, with bits and pieces of his former glory, but whether by fate or design, he falls far short of the potential we already know he can achieve (and in prior games has already fulfilled).

And I STILL wanted to see Sub-Zero get his famous scar! Now we may never know (and, like others, I refuse to believe Kung Lao gave it to him. That was really lame and I don't buy it for a second.)

Well said.

I want my 5 minutes back.

No.

LMAO

His clone is awesome! You need to use it more. It's best used as a cancel attack after as combo. The opponent will be eager to rush you down after you are done hitting them, and they'll run into it.

I should, it's just that EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I use the damn move that it's supposed to be used for I never execute it properly because the opponent suddenly gets too close whenever I perform the move.

Basically, I just use it as an extra way to dodge stuff.

Well that's why you do it in a chain with a combo, it'll drop every time =)

MK3-MKDA


I agree with what you said all the way.

Unmasked look is the only time I ever liked Sub-Zero more than anybody else.


Bring it back, it gave him his own personality

I thought so too because of the stance that they made him in with that picture. I'm glad they somewhat designed him to look almost like this look.



Agreed.



I'm still not seeing where he's slow. Sub-Zero doesn't feel slow to me. Maybe it's just me, I don't know, but Sub-Zero, in my hands, doesn't feel slow. Although I agree with you about the high damage, he's definitely got some great combos.



Too bad not too many other character used their powers for finishers except for Raiden... But he hardly used those for a great ending.



The only we, that I think, he could have been saved, is if he never went to finish his brother's work, and instead get teamed up with Sonya and Jax and went on from there. Even though we know what happens to Jax, it could have been a trio with Sonya, Cage and Sub-Zero at the end. Of course this is just a "what if" kind of theory and of course it's not a good one either but... Yes, Sub-Zero could have been saved unfortunately they felt the need to make him the robot instead of Smoke.



Well, if it wasn't for Sonya and Jax reprogramming him, he would have remained that cold blooded killer. I wonder exactly what would have happened if they never did reprogrammed him. Well... We would have another Sektor on our hands. But it could be something if he were to stay an evil character and teamed up with Sektor because no one really knows what he's going to do after this game since he's basically taking control of a great power.



No, it was not a good day for Sub-Zero, his life is depressing, but that's what makes a character great.



Probably, but maybe we can see something different this time with the cyborgs. Instead of making Sub-Zero slowly turn into what Smoke was, maybe there could be something added where the path leads him to be a great character.



Even though they are still alive, their fates depend on the outcome of this next game.



Well, Quan Chi is now going to be one of the two top villains for the next game, maybe we can see something with Sub-Zero and him. Although it would be an interesting twist to see Sub-Zero turn against Raiden, even though that the two of them have been together for a long time.

An interesting twist.



Of course, I don't think there will ever be a Mortal Kombat game without him. it wouldn't really be Mortal Kombat without Sub-Zero. That's how I really didn't appreciate MK3 because of the lack of Reptile and Scorpion.



Sub-Zero is one well-developed character... At least he had a well developed death... Notice how he has the most sadness in his story, the most events going on with his character, and how many different events he went through during his twenty year span... For a character that will stay within the series for a long period of time, he has so much going on for him.



This might be a lame suggestion but, he could get it if he gets saved in the next game, get turned back into the human version of him, though he has some left over scars and his famous face scar could be one of them.

I'd be okay with the eye scar coming from getting deautomated.
Of course, that depends on if he stays a cyborg or if Quan Chi transplants his soul into a new body or some shit like that.
Oy, it's gonna be a rough wait for MK10.

Sub Zero is perfect in this game!
His appearance is extremely badass and hes overall animations are flawless! his clone is such a beast against teleport spammers!
I wont be tired to say that sub zero is NOT SLOW at all!
people apparently suck with him so they say hes slow.
He is not the type of character to be used by noobs, like smoke and scorpiona are.

Cyber SubZero is ok. I prefer the gameplay of the human version! I dont like that cyber sub is a mix of 2 characters, thats a little boring.
I hope he is reversed to his human form though it would be interesting to see what else they can do with him.

HAIL SUB ZERO!!!

I will say this. With SZ being my favorite character since the very 1st MK everything that happened in story mode literally almost alienated me. This whole bullshit roller coaster ride I had to endure just to get shit on in the end...

I do not like CSZ, I absolutely fucking hate him. He's got okay moves. The brain freeze fatality was nice. However the fact remains that he is no longer human "soul" or no "soul", "free will" or no "free will" he had a great fleshed out story, and you'd figure he would be the ONE character they wouldn't fuck with too badly. Nah, they just erased everything. No longer will he save Smoke or Kenshi. He probably won't teach Frost or take over the Lin Kuei and aquire The Dragon Medallion. His ancestors armor was actually one of my favorite outfits for him. Shredder esque or not. I loved it.

Human SZ is absolutely amazing in this game. I love him. Everything about him except the shitty ice puddle. Only useful from the safetly of being being behind a clone, and then it rarely works. Easy 59% combo and I love trapping characters with him.

I will bitch, piss, and moan for them fucking over my character. I know other people don't like seeing their characters fucked with and a lot of people may think SZ was getting stale, but he was the most fleshed out character. The almost 20yrs of work on his story gone, and for what? Him to die because Raiden is a dumbass and be forced to serve Quan Chi.

He needs to regain his humanity. As much as I hate what has happened to my boy, my respect for NRS just skyrocketed. Definitely shows they have the balls to try something different. Even if its at the expense of one of the two most iconic characters in MK history.

I am severely disappointed with everything they did to him. Sigh, they weren't even original with his capture. He just traded places with Smoke. I'd rather they had both just escaped, and Raiden saves Smoke but just stands there in front of them about to capture SZ and fucking watches them do it...... God dammit that infuriated me. He went the whole time and only managed to fuck shit up until the end of the story. Well he succeeded in avoiding armageddon.... He got everyone fucking killed except for a few characters I don't really get a shit about. He just did a miniature armageddon.

ANYWAY, I'm sick of ranting about this. I'll bitch and moan some more later. My thumbs are tired for typing all this on my blackberry.

that was a really interesting read.
his look in this game is the best he's ever had.
and yes, that deception alternate was absolutely fucking terrible. *shivers*

i thought cyber-sub was cool, but doubt he'll stay a cyborg in the next game. not for long anyway.

I'll admit, when I first heard about this character, I didn't want to like him. But when I finally saw what he can do, I started to change directions. It is something where you don't want their long lasting character to have a sudden change that effects them completely, no one really likes that.

That is like if one of Marvel/DC superheroes suddenly gets a change that no one likes... Well... Spiderman with his "Emo-ish" ways in the third one, I don't ever remember Spiderman become something like that... But yet again, what hasn't been done in the comics lately? That's not a good thing to compare to, but I will say that yes, great changes to a character that has always stayed the same is something that people will most likely never get use to, nor do they intend on thinking that this change in permanent.

But I don't think this change is going to drastically change the character on who he was. He was still a good guy when he was reprogrammed by Sonya and Jax, so technically he does have some humanity left inside of him since he saved a group of soldiers in Story Mode. Granted that they story is basically like Smoke with just Sub-Zero being the robot, I don't think they could possibly end the coolness this character has. I just doubt it because he's one of two mascots.

But I can see the frustration amongst a lot who are die hard fans of Sub-Zero. I can see that this might make matters completely different for his future because you have so many connections with other characters with this guy. You got Kenshi, Frost, Sareena, Hotaru... Just too many characters that tie in with this guy. And because of this change, half of them might not see this character. Although, there could e alternates with how their fates are affected with this change, but still, I doubt we're going to see him and Frost together, him and Sareena together, and possibly him and Kenshi together as well. It's a change, no doubt about it.

But, might as well just wait to see what's going to happen with him for the next game. There's always that even though the wait is nothing we're too interested in.

Out of everything I read in your post, the one thing that I disagree with the most... Quan Chi's neck stretch fatality SUCKS.

Otherwise, yeah Sub-Zero is awesome, always will be.

I Think subby looks fantastic in this game, but I really like his alt as well. Nice and simple. His moves take some work to pull off. His ground freeze and clone are especially difficult vs the cpu, but I've found in 1 on 1 matches against real people they are pretty worthwhile. Even without those the slide and freeze are usually enough to easily beat anyone or anything.

I love his 2nd fatality, I just wish the head would deflate when he pulls the skull out, but oh well. I picked up the retro spine rip so that's my go-to with sub zero whenever it is available.

Now, as for cyber sub. I've made this argument before but i'll say it again and try to condsense it.

There is no "new' or "interesting" story territory for cyber sub to go. If he embraces being a cyborg he's Sektor. If he is the reluctant cyborg then he's pretty much Cyrax. Besides in the story it seems they swapped Cyrax's story with Sub's mid-game. Cyrax wanted to leave the clan and didn't agree with automation and even showed mercy to Cage and respect to Raiden. The next time we see him he's a mindless robot assasin. young Sub showed no compassion to Jax, had an obsessive mission and only disobeyed the Lin Kieu to find his brother's killer. After he's changed and restored he wants to leave the clan, is as heroic as a DC superhero and respects Raiden....it is HORRIBLE development. Oh well. I'm sure people will demand he stay shitified out of spite so that their favorite character can "shine"

I doubt they'll keep him a cyborg highly.

We don't know for sure what they have planned to him. And how he will be changed after this game.

I liked Sub-Zero in this game.
While in the videos he looked pretty slow, when I played the game I didn't feel that he was slow. He had an OK speed and his moves were good for the most part. Ice Clone is very useful to give you some time to relax and prepare for another attack.
The move that I found useless was his Ice Puddle - to hard to execute effectively and too big probability that enemy will just jump away from you and counter attack.

His X-Ray was inetersting, but I think they shpould make him finish his opponent with some other, ice related move, instead of headbutt. And while I think first part of his X-Ray is cool (literally) I find it quite strange that he able to grab someone else's guts through their skin.

As for his Fatalities - there were prett good. Though I think his MKD ones were much better.

As for his costumes - they were good, but nothing top his MKDA costumes and MKD primary. They were individual, yet he was instantly recoginzable. In this game he looks to much like a pallette swap. He alternate (well his brother's suit) look good. With the excpetion that it almost Noob Saibot's costume. Lazy.


CSZ was awesome all around. He had awesome apperance. His actions in his chapter was awesome (again) and I absolutely loved this character. I hope that NRS include him at least as non-canon character in the next game. He is too cool to be wasted only for one game.

His moves were very spectacular. His X-Ray was brutal and awesome. Fatalities were very good. Especially brain freeze - very brutal and painfull and at the same time not very gory. Easily on of the best and creative fatalities in the game. I actually hoped that Sub-Zero will have something like this.

One thing that I din't like about CSZ, it's his bombs. For the same reason, why I don't like Cyrax's bombs. It's hard to land them where you want and there is no gurantee that enemy will be caught into explosion. I prefer moves with immdiate effect.


Overall both Sub-Zero incarnations in this game were good.
Sub-Zero was solid and powerfull fighter and I liked his gameplay. CSZ was very good in my eyes. But that's probabaly because I fascinated with cyborgs and the like. And I liked episode with his revival - reminded me about first RoboCop.

Impossible, Quan Chi's neck stretch fatality will always be a classic. It rocked Deadly Alliance.



What could be interesting is if Sektor makes it to the next game, finds and reprograms Sub-Zero if he is a cyborg and makes him basically his partner in crime or something like that. Sektor and Cyber Sub-Zero could make an interesting team, yet again, this all depends on if Sektor is going to make it to the next story as we know what has happened to him in this game.

I certainly hope he LOSES respect for Raiden because this is his bidding. I hope all the heroes that return for the next game, if any of them gets their humanity restored and such, they should turn on Raiden. I don't know, it may never happen, but it would be a weird and nifty twist if suddenly everyone turns against Raiden. Because he has screwed over many characters just to let this one particular character to win Mortal Kombat.


That's what I don't get with the bombs either, they're never a direct hit with anything and chances of them actually hitting the opponent are so unlikely its practically a useless move. Unless your opponent intends on being and idiot and staying as far away from you as possible, then I'll say "shoot them bombs," but otherwise, yes it is a pointless move nonetheless.

And I agree with you about how awesome Cyber Sub-Zero is and how he is too cool to be tossed just like that. It would be such a waste if it was just a one-time appearance. Because who knows, this character could go on to bigger and better things and might make people suddenly turn an interest into him. That's what I'm hoping.

I start to train with Sub-Zero and he is good. Love the effect of the ice moves.

I think that the Ice Slide is a little slow, and I still prefer the Ice Shoulder from MKDA.

Also, the ground freeze is very slow and I prefer the Ice Puddle when the opponent just slip.

Sub-Zero is one of my favorites in this game and normally I really dont like to play with the Ninjas.

For Cyber version, well its fun to play with him, he is more quick than normal Sub-Zero.

Yesterday I did a Tag with both Sub-Zeros and finished without lose a single round.

The fact that he doesn't have a scar in this game, coupled with the MK3 bio containing, "...he broke sacred codes of honor by leaving his clan and is marked for death," pretty much confirms for me that the Lin Kuei scarred him for not going through the automation. Which is why he doesn't have it in this game, because he did go through the automation.

Smoke probably would've ended up with that scar, or worse, if he hadn't been so close to Raiden the whole time.

But yes, the way he got captured in story mode was a bit ridiculous.