I really enjoyed the Story Mode. Sure there was some ups and downs, but I really enjoyed this alternate timeline.

I am really looking forward to see how the events unfold in this new timeline.

MK1-MKII sections were really good. Then, bad drug trip.

Pretty much this.

I thought it was great. They took a lot of chances and most of them worked. I actually didn't mind the changes they made to the canon because I feel like the original story has been there for 20 years or so and there is no harm in changing it up a little, especially to get some of the newer characters into story mode earlier.

Kind of this. However, I will say I thought Shang was treated crappy all throughout story. Just not how Shang should have been portrayed.

Everyone knows I hate cyber subz so I won't go on a rant there, but he was another one I didn't like.

Mainly I felt some characters just didn't live up to what I imagined them to be maybe. I felt a lot of characters didn't feel like the characters I knew.

Shang Tsung (really pissed about that one and I think it's obvious why)

Mileena (Doesn't take much to see there either)

Kitana (at least her relationship with Mileena)

Sub-Zero (Don't like cyber subz just my opinion though)

Smoke (Didn't impress me still. A lot of people argue he got more personality, but I didn't recognize it if he did.)

Kung Lao (Stern bada** now turned into just a jealous a**hole)

Raiden (a god went in blindly on visions. He didn't even know if the visions were true, nuff said. Also since when did he have an amulet?)

and most of the villains

I would say a couple of exceptions are Noob Saibot, Ermac, and Kano. Those three looked okay enough)

i really liked the story but to many characters were just puching bags and didnt have a decent role. other than that i loved it.

This.

I think what we got was a result of the team trying to fit too much story into too little time, I honestly think they would've been better off doing MK1-2 for this game and saving MK3 for the sequel but that's me.

That would've been sort of like Shaolin Monks all over again. The story was too crammed with content, much like Spider-Man 3 was with three big villains. I'd have probably liked the shorter MK–II procedure too. On the bright side, we'll get to see something completely new quicker this way.

What I liked:
-Cyber Sub-Zero. Nice little change, I just wish he didn't die.
-Johnny Cage. Everything about him, pretty much.
-The introduction scene continuing MK:Armageddon.
-The last cutscene of Scorpion's chapter. It was executed very well, all the way to the start of Cyrax's chapter.
-Nightwolf's sacrifice.
-Stryker's Arnold Schwarzenegger-esque chapter.
-Kabal's chapter and his attempt to restart Cyber Subby.
-Jade's personality in her chapter.
-Kano's roles in the story mode.

What I did not like:
-Quan Chi stealing many of Shang Tsung's roles.
-Sindel killing many Earthrealm heroes in less than a minute.
-Reptile, Baraka and Sheeva being the most recognized punching bags.

I thought it started out alright but started falling apart about halfway through MK2. MK3 was especially rushed and as a result, completely butchered. And I don't even mean in the sense of "Well I wanted to see the old story retold, not changed", I mean over half the cast just stood around and did nothing because the chapter system really fucked them out of getting any more screentime.

MK's supposed to be an ensemble story and everybody should've been seriously busy during a giant invasion, not being useless in a church while only Nightwolf and Raiden get to fight. The invasion should've been the longest part of the story but I think it actually comes out to be the shortest.

Also, there were a ton of plotholes. Quan Chi sucking the souls out of those soldiers when MKDA's entire plot was about how he couldn't do soul stealing so he needed to team up with Shang, Cyber-Sub-Zero being killed by a single uppercut, Sheeva's a prison guard but there IS no prison stage, so she has to keep tying people to things in other places, except oh wait, there IS one prison stage after all: Goro's Lair...and when Sonya busts Jax out, where the fuck was Sheeva? No explanation for how the soul of a sinless man like Nightwolf could exist in the Netherealm (Remember his Deception story?), much less how any of them were supposedly stolen by Kahn offscreen...

I also feel like most of the characters were made more shallow by the rushing and oversimplification of events. Most of Liu's motives in MK1 are forgotten in favor of simply "He listens to Raiden and wants to save the world", Sonya stops caring about Kano pretty quick after their first confrontation on the island, the monks didn't seem too broken up over the attack on their temple whereas in the old timeline the whole reason they attend MK2 is for revenge and Kung Lao specifically had a feud with Baraka, Smoke and Cyber-Sub barely talk with one another once they're reunited, the Shokan/Centaur rivalry never comes up once, Reptile has no character at all, what they did to Mileena's backstory is obvious, etc.

Whilst generally I disagree with Razor in regards to views about the old/new timeline, the one criticism I've always had about Story Mode in this game was the fact a lot of characters had such a diluted amount of screen time or depth. With the old games, they hadn't got half as much technology or resources as they do now yet still managed to keep a *relatively* cohesive story together with genuinely endearing and believable motives for each character. What they lacked in presentation (rainbow palette ninjas, for example) they made up for with decent story telling.

With this Story Mode, there was plenty of things I liked. But it's Mortal Kombat we're talking about here. So much is going on with the characters we have, and there are so many things to explore with them which got pushed aside in this story mode.

Kitana alone could easily have had well over an hours chapter with her Edenian backstory (how beautiful would it have been to see Sindel with her infant baby watch helplessly as Kahn murders Jerrod in Kombat and claims the realm?) and the fact she turns against the life she's grown up to know to discover who she truly is. The Tarkatan horde invading the Wu Shi Academy was another thing which I felt got glossed over, considering it was a huge incentive for the heroes to even go to Outworld. There was just so much that I would have liked to have seen come to screen or even be explored that little bit more. There were some aspects of the story which I just felt were a bit rushed.

Having said that, I like the new timeline. I'm just a bit let down that I never got to see one of the ninja's actually being automated, or that characters I love such as Baraka, Rain and Reptile got such little focus in the Story.

When it comes to Mileena's introduction in the story, I say this version was brought out do to Raiden running his mouth to Kitana about her past.

If it wasn't for that she would have most likely still have found out through Shao Kahn.

As for the story as a whole, it was awesome. I loved it. I'm glad they showed Kitana and Jade's love for one another even while they were loyal to Kahn. I also like how sexy Smoke is in this game. My only gripe is that the story didn't include Jade's dilemma of whether or not she should help Kitana. That has always been my favorite part of the MK3 story.

That doesn't really make sense though. In the old timeline, Mileena was created hundreds of years ago and Kitana hadn't just met her, she had known her as her twin sister and fought beside her for a very long time before finding out she was really a clone.

I'm going to be honest, there was good parts to Story Mode and bad parts in Story Mode. I'll start off with the good

1. Character Development: I like the way they wrote the MK 3 characters like Nightwolf, Stryker and Sindel. Finally get to see Sindel as evil for once. It was nice to see Cyrax and Sektor as humans before they were turned into cyborgs. I thought it was nice to see Liu Kang go nuts on Rayden. Rayden, despite his errors, managed to stop Khan from winning Armageddon.

2. Telling MK 1 through 3: MK 1 had the best part of the storyline. I loved the Scorpion vs Sub-Zero (Bi Han) fight. MK 2 surprised me with Kung Lao's death and MK 3 is what I had some issues with.

3. The ending: It opened up possibilities to tell new stories to MK. Even thought the arcade endings may not be canon (depending on what happens), I liked they gave some characters new ideas.

Here's the bad:

1. Rayden's amulet: One of the biggest plot-holes ever. I don't recall him ever having one at all through 1-Armaggedon. I know it's a retcon, but maybe the Elder Gods were concerned at the end around Armagggedon that Khan was going to win and give it to Rayden as a way of saying "We know you've gone crazy, but Khan's going to win and we don't want that. Here's this amulet as a Please come back to sanity and make sure he doesn't win. I think the Elder Gods knew about this, but were too lazy to do anything.

2. Mileena: How is it that in the old timeline, she knew Kitana for thousands of years, just she was just created around MK2 in the new timeline?

3. Cyber Sub-Zero: I didn't mind this at all, but why did he have to die so soon?

Misc thoughts about Story Mode:

The massacre and the aftermath of the dead warriors had me at a "WTF?" moment, but it makes sense. I talked about it in a last post. There are still a lot of characters for the MK universe that need revamping. We're not sure how many MK games NRS wants to make with the new timeline. The characters who died can come back, but as NPC while giving other ones a time to shine.

Just my two cents on Story Mode.

It was pretty decent. I just wish some characters had more of a better role than just being there for someone that needs to be defeated... Ahem, Sheeva.

I enjoyed that every character somewhat "died" at the end and such, maybe it could have been better if they it look like they had at least a chance to survive and such, as well as having a better fight between Sindel and Kitana.

Overall, it's pretty cool. I just can't wait for the next one!

Oooh, nice thread, J-R.

My opinion is as follows:

Good things:

1. I love how well they played up the personalities of certain characters, such as Mileena, Cage, Sonya, Liu Kang, Ermac... yes, Mileena. I loved the childish personality they gave her, honestly, although it doesn't add much, it makes her character interesting. I like how Sonya challenged Cage as a result of his flirting, I like Sonya's personality. Ermac's personality as a fighter was shown pretty well, IMO. He has the ability to kill his opponent easily but he /doesn't do it/. Either he's been ordered not to (dghsgajh, I don't think that), or he just likes toying with his opponents first. (there we go. look i'm talking about Ermac again)

2. The humor. Jax and Cage were definitely the most hilarious, but I found some of Sub-Zero's (both of them) quotes hilariously bad. Ahem... 'Not if I break you first!', 'You will feel death's cold embrace.'

3. I had no idea how to correctly say 'Kuai Liang' before this game. Now I know. Thanks NRS!

4. The scene with Sindel and Nightwolf was just great. Loved it.

5. I said this earlier, but Smoke and Sub-Zero's interactions were my favorite in the game.

6. Stryker was actually cool. I thought I'd never say that.

7. The personalities of select characters were so... human, especially in certain situations. I'd like to point out Kitana for this one.

8. Jade. Jade's personality was probably my favorite. For quite awhile she was just 'Kitana's guard', but they made her really sassy and fun in this game. A very strong and awesome female role from her. Go Jade!

9. Scorpion's personality. Now, yes, I said that I find him a mindless moron in most of the games, but.. this one is a bit of an exception. His interactions with Raiden were pretty interesting IMO. There's a way paved for him to either be a formidable villan or for him to go his own route. Lots of opportunities for good here.

10. Jax's arms, Kabal's... ... Kabal. How those came to be. Nicely done, good.

11. Shao Kahn's quotes were a very good indicator of his personality. "They masquerade as dragons, but are mere toothless worms."

I could go on but I won't. :P

Bad things:

1. I was OK with Quan Chi being there, but I agree that he should have been a bit more 'in the shadows'.

2. I actually liked Tsung in this game and his death pissed me off. Just to power Sindel?!

3. Sindel. This game made me hate her. Glad she's dead.

4. The 10 second murder of half the cast. Too short and left a lot of questions until you saw them in the Netherrealm. Bringing me to..

5. The Netherrealm zombies fight. That was awful and tedious and annoying. Why was that even there.

6. I don't like how Noob died.

and...

7. I would have liked to see more of Sheeva, Noob (even though I don't like him ha), Baraka, Sub-Zero, Kabal, and Cyrax. Cyrax was really interesting to me, and I wish that would have shown more about how his automation came to be since he was completely against it.

Overall, I quite liked it. I understand why certain parts were omitted or short since the story mode comes out to be a 2 hour long movie (practically), and it could be a movie too, it's planned nicely and is just great. It made me like a lot of characters, specifically Quan Chi and Nightwolf.

I think it was a good idea, but in the end the story just wasn't that good and it left a sour taste in my mouth by the end. I think three games worth of material was too much to cover. I don't like how, overall, it was so focused on the "Good guys" and the "Bad guys" rather than on each character as an individual. I don't like how everything that goes on in the story was in the tournament. There's barely anything explained in between the tournament. As it progressed I saw more and more things wrong with it.

I don't really like how Reptile was revealed so soon in MK1. I also didn't like how Nightwolf, Cyrax, Sektor, Baraka, Sheeva, and Jade were there despite not being involved in the original story mode.

I don't like how the Cyber Initiative was mentioned during the events of MK1. The whole Cyrax vs Sektor thing should have been done between MK2 and MK3.

I don't like how Kung Lao was so arrogant during story mode.

I don't like how most characters lost their relevance after their chapters and then just stood around. I actually just don't like the chapter idea.

I hate what they did with Shang Tsung. They made him lame while Quan Chi became the cool sorcerer. This was Shang Tsung's time to shine; Quan Chi had MK4. I wish Shang Tsung was something more like the movie version.

Shao Kahn was terrible. He was not menacing, cool, or violent at all. He was pretty much just a wuss who let his henchmen do all the work except for two fights which he lost.

I hate the way Kung Lao died. If they wanted to kill him off, he should have died in a fair fight instead of getting his neck snapped in a sneak attack.

I don't like how characters who were SUPPOSED to die stuck around as useless henchmen. Characters like Goro should have disappeared been assumed dead like he was originally supposed to.

So many relationships, good or bad, were barely touched upon and forgotten during the story. What happened to the Sonya vs Kano rivalry, or the Liu Kang vs. Shang Tsung rivalry? It was over after one fight. I was also hoping to see more when Scorpion realized that Kuai Liang was not the original Sub-Zero but he basically said "Well, I'm still going to kill you." The worst retcon in the entire game was probably Mileena though. I hate how she was JUST created during MK2 instead of being Kitana's sister. I also hate how Shao Kahn basically told Kitana everything about her past instead of her finding it out herself.

Of course, the story mode jumped the shark at the "Sindel Massacre" scene. This has been said hundreds of times, and it's probably been said better than I'm about to say it. It alll happened because Raiden killed Motaro to save Johnny Cage. Shao Kahn took Shang Tsung's soul and gave it to Sindel, which was BS on its own and just made Shao Kahn even more pathetic. Then Raiden took Liu Kang with him, for no apparent reason, to see the elder gods IN THE MIDDLE OF AN INVASION. And then Sindel comes down and trashes these characters who are supposed to be powerful enough to tear the universe apart just by fighting too much. Not only did this ruin the story mode, but it made me hate Sindel to the point where I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to appreciate the character again. Not to mention most of the killing moves didn't look like they would be fatal. If Shao Kahn can survive getting a hole punched through him, then why couldn't Stryker survive getting punched in the face?

Raiden goes to ask Quan Chi, a bad guy who was openly assisting the main bad guy the entire time, for help. He even offers the souls of his warriors in exchange for help? Why?

All the characters who died were in the NetherRealm somehow, which didn't make any sense. How did Shao Kahn get ahold of their souls to give to Quan Chi?

And finally, the final battle. What it all came down to was Raiden letting Shao Kahn step through into EarthRealm. So basically, every single change Raiden made to the timeline was useless. All he really had to do was what he would do normally until the very last second and then tell everyone to let the Elder Gods kill Shao Kahn. Instead he screwed everything up, got almost everyone killed for no reason, and even lost the trust of Liu Kang, his most trusted apprentice.

That's not to say the story mode didn't do anything right of course. The voice acting was great for most characters and most of them seemed unique and interesting and pretty much what I'd expect from them. The dialogue and interaction between characters was a HUGE step up from that of the abysmal MKvsDC story mode. And despite the aforementioned problems, the events of MK1 and most of MK2 were pretty well executed.

I have a love/hate relationship with the story mode.

I loved the dialogue and the animation... and the story in general... but I hated how some characters became victims of time restraints and the way everyone died to Sindel.

Mileena and Sub-Zero obviously got brutalized in the story...

I'm just terrified that we're not going to see the series' best characters in the sequel.

The story mode was a disaster, and I knew it was going to be that way ever since I learned of the premise of the story. It really comes down to an issue of NRS not having the right mindset. There's a lot of silliness and cheesiness that could be something great if NRS simply does MK more like Police Squad and the Naked Gun movies where it's so outrageous that none of it can be taken seriously. Personally, I'd still want them to take MK in that darker, more serious direction like Ed Boon said he wanted. Instead, in NRS' attempt to do a dark, serious story, it ended up being hokey and overly cheesy. I'm not against humor in this series. Just do it nicely and in a way that doesn't detract from the overall ambiance.

It was very ambitious for them to do a story mode that retells the stories of the first three MK games in one game, but as they did that, they ended up taking away a lot of depth and intrigue to the characters and story. Sure, the stories of the older games were fairly simplistic and really came down to text and picture bios and endings, but when putting the pieces together, the story and characters were pretty cool. MK has always had that different feel to it that gave the series a certain appeal.

For a series that's about 20 years old, starting fresh with the series should involve doing something a lot more, even if it's a video game series and a fighting game series at that. I'm sure I'll still get people on this site that will continue to argue that MK is a video game series and that it's not meant to be some fancy piece of literature. My point is that if you're going to do a series like this and produce a fairly in-depth mythology to it, do it well. Make us care about the story and the characters, even if it is for a fighting game series. I want to feel that way like I did back in the old days and even in MKDA and MKD.

Aside from the premise and the execution of the story, a lot of characters just weren't well done and ended up being shallow versions of themselves, Mileena probably being the worst culprit of them all. I didn't like how the chapter format was done. Instead of having one character per chapter, it would have worked a lot better to have been able to play as different characters per chapter so that more could be done with the actual story. By having the character chapter format, the story mode ended up suffering from the exact same problem that MK vs. DC's story mode suffered from.

I won't be completely negative about the story mode. There are some nice touches, such as Jade's sassy attitude as well as seeing Sektor and Cyrax in human forms (Sektor's look could have been done better, imo.). I liked that Liu Kang actually had a brain this time, unlike in MKSM. I liked certain things about Ermac's appearance, and Jax continues to be one of the characters that kind of grows on me in later games. Jax, Johnny Cage, and Nightwolf are probably the most well-done characters in the story mode.

Overall, the story mode was terrible, because the mindset behind the story, from the premise to the execution, set itself up for failure on a pretty large scale. Like I said in the past, I'm not against the idea of a reboot for this series. I felt it was too soon, but I can understand wanting to do it in these times. If you're going to do a reboot for this series, don't do a quasi-reboot that ties into the events of the previous canon. Start from scratch and really give us something refreshing and exciting, especially since this series is about 20 years old.

You know...
1 would think this topic has been brought up somewhere in this iceball...but if i know 'Jaded', She wouldnt keep bringing up the same ol' topic over and over and over and over again

Sooooooo with that said... IMO

Some things was good :D Mk1 & Mk2 parts of the Mk9 storymode, the heroes;great buncha guys now that i finally got to know them(except Raiden, he stunk bad

speaking of which, Some things was baD: Mk3 part of the Mk9 story, the villains, Raiden...peee yyeeeeww,
and the sad sad fact that most of the great buncha guys i had gotten to know so well were just...killed off...like flies...i mean, it was as if they all became 'krillins and yamchas' in a single moment.

im sure most of you snowflakes here, there, and everywhere had a frozen moment when sub zero got his 'bucket kicked' by that old lady. hehea

and then...Some thing was just UGLY: that goro chick...what was the name now...the one who kept on getting beaten ??? meh, who cares...

ULITIMATE3 though, It was PRETTY GOOD! In MY Opinion of course

and NOW, i cant wait for MKX, i just hope its not a crossover...




and 'Jadey' (because i know your reading)...i hope you havent forgotten about my little reward im gonna give you for your unforgettable kindness...i know I havent

heahea, To the Evolution!

First of all, I'm a he.
Second, I might have brought up this topic before, but I don't have a very good memory and I haven't searched the forums for it. This thread was made after a discussion in another thread and it struck my curiousity, so I made this thread. There's not much else to it, really.
And third... I really don't know what you are talking about in the last part. Did I say or do something to offend you in the past? In all honesty, I can't recall anything, but again, I don't have that good a memory. So yeah, sorry about that. If you have something you want to talk about though, you're welcome to PM me.

This is essentially how I feel as well.

You're a He? oh, well then ignore the 'S' on my 'She', There's not much else to it, really...heheaha

You didnt offend me, in fact, Dont tell me you forgot already??

the civilized convo with all the PUNs?, the liutanas?, the resolutions...to kick start the bloody evolution?!
check the 'legacy' thread if your memory needs a rebootin' ;)

if you dont want to, thats okay, theres still a reward headed your way
SO DON'T FORGET!!!! K