Question What was the general consensus of Deception back in the day? Also how do you feel about it now?

[Cicada 5]

Wikipedia says that it was well received but whenever I see it discussed by fans it seems to be more divisive. Also, what are your thoughts on it now?

 

[Second Saint]

Didn't actually play Deception, but that was because I was 14, couldn't afford it at the time, and DMC 3 was much more important. My impression at the time was that Deception was very good. A massive improvement over Deadly Alliance, which I already loved.

 

[Pizza]

Back then I think it received a lot of hate.

I think it's fine. The atmosphere/music is outstanding. Some new characters are terrible. Tanya was back! Going 3D was a mistake. But I think it's the best from the 3D era.

 

[REO]

MKD will always be the best MK game to me. First released online MK game, awesome music, extremely dark atmosphere, loved the stages, enjoyed the konquest, had so much fun with the bonus game modes like puzzle kombat and chess kombat. Noob-Smoke was badass. Played the hell out of the game online for two years before Armageddon released. PS2 really was the golden age of video games for me. Would I invest a lot of time into it if they re-released it? No. But that's only because I get my fill of MK from other MK games nowadays.

Competitively speaking, was the meta whack? I mean, sure it was. MKD was really just a fast paced 50/50 simulator and a 100% combo death fest. But who cares? Back then games like these were special because of how fun they were, a lot of us didn't care about balance and all the things that people are obsessed with nowadays. It kept me playing for two years at a time where I valued fun way over "balance".

I could probably make a 100 videos on so many funny things from MKD because I remember it like it was yesterday. Still have every characters move list and some of the ridiculous match ups burnt in the back of my head.

 

[M2Dave]

Wikipedia says that it was well received but whenever I see it discussed by fans it seems to be more divisive. Also, what are your thoughts on it now?

Competitively speaking, Deception is a piece of trash that would be deemed unplayable by today's fighting game standards. However, in terms of content and experience, Deception is arguably one of the best fighting games ever created. The game was the first mainstream fighting game to include online gameplay and multiple pieces of content. I never play the story mode in fighting games, but Konquest is the best "fluff" that I have ever played, which surreptitiously introduces the boss and explains the game's subtitle.

You can probably pinpoint the divisiveness that you refer to in my post. Nonetheless, as REO says, I can share hundreds of hours of Deception gameplay videos and online drama that would entertain a crowd for days.

Good times.

 

[Savage8-8]

MK Deception is one of my favorite games of all time. It had chess combat, and the best single player of all fighting games imo with Konquest mode. It's almost a crime they did not remake this mode for the games that came after it. It should have replaced the krypt.

It also had my favorite costumes and the grand master subzero skin. Back then i didn't care about how competitive the game was. Probably the most fun I've ever had with MK happened when this game came out.

 

[Marlow]

At the time it came out I didn't know that fighting games a thing. I was too cool, playing games like Madden, NFL 2K, and Halo.

 

[MK9]

Lol great game , broken as fuck.
BRC respect the free throw

 

[MuMuGuy]

I prefer MKDA because that game is more viable in a competitive aspect.

 

[mrapchem]

I love MK Deception, along with its predecessor, MK Deadly Alliance. Those two games added a lot of innovation into the MK franchise, as well as serving as prelude to the MK9-style full story mode. Not to mention, it was really cool to see our beloved MK favorites be fully rendered in 3D, using real fighting styles and weapons (though we know a few were completely made up). I play them both on my Steam Deck all the time.

 

[Revy]

MKD will always be the best MK game to me. First released online MK game, awesome music, extremely dark atmosphere, loved the stages, enjoyed the konquest, had so much fun with the bonus game modes like puzzle kombat and chess kombat. Noob-Smoke was badass. Played the hell out of the game online for two years before Armageddon released. PS2 really was the golden age of video games for me. Would I invest a lot of time into it if they re-released it? No. But that's only because I get my fill of MK from other MK games nowadays.

Competitively speaking, was the meta whack? I mean, sure it was. MKD was really just a fast paced 50/50 simulator and a 100% combo death fest. But who cares? Back then games like these were special because of how fun they were, a lot of us didn't care about balance and all the things that people are obsessed with nowadays. It kept me playing for two years at a time where I valued fun way over "balance".

I could probably make a 100 videos on so many funny things from MKD because I remember it like it was yesterday. Still have every characters move list and some of the ridiculous match ups burnt in the back of my head.

^ Pretty much this is how I feel about MKD.

 

[WalkingTaco]

Best of the 3D Games. Great soundtrack, fun minigames, and an amazing atmosphere. The roster was meh and the actual gameplay was horrible tho.

 

[MK9]

I think the huge difference was the community, we may have had a lot of drama and shit talking but it wasn’t toxic like the douches online for mk11.

put todays community in the mkd mka era all they would be doing are infinites and tea bagging.

no really exploited an infinite online unless it was someone u just didn’t like. And we all know how many easy infinites there were.

 

[starzilla83]

Can't really comment on how it was when it released since I joined the fandom with 9, but these days, I think most people would say it's, overall, the best 3D Era game. The gameplay isn't as solid as DA, it has the usual MK bullshit like the ground pounds, but I like that tbh. The roster is fantastic, one of the best in the series, with a good amount of the MK1 and 2 casts, some good post MK2 choices, and the new characters... well they were kinda hit and miss but there were a few standouts like Havik and Hotaru. The Konquest mode is fun to mess around it, Puzzle Kombat is like the most fun side mode in the series, and Chess Kombat is mad underrated.

In the MK fandom I think most people would put it in the top 5, kind of a toss up between it, MKX and Shaolin Monks, but the casual fanbase who never played anything past UMK3 will shit on it cause that's what all their favorite YouTubers who also didn't play them do.

 

[Juxtapose]

but the casual fanbase who never played anything past UMK3 will shit on it cause that's what all their favorite YouTubers who also didn't play them do.

I've generally found that those who grew up with the original trilogy tend not to like the 3D trilogy of games much at all. Those who grew up with the 3D trilogy tend to few the original trilogy poorly.

Not a hard and fast rule of course, but this is the trend I've noticed. Seems to be a generational thing.

 

[craftycheese]

Back then it was viewed very favorable, especially among casuals and critically and it's safe to say it was the best of the 3d Era. Now, those that played it competitively back then may have had a different opinion, but I didn't and I have a lot of fond memories of the game. I think I only played that game online once and remember it being laggy for me but the other dude was just doing all the crazy tutorial combos just fine.

 

[Mattatsu]

I've generally found that those who grew up with the original trilogy tend not to like the 3D trilogy of games much at all. Those who grew up with the 3D trilogy tend to few the original trilogy poorly.

Not a hard and fast rule of course, but this is the trend I've noticed. Seems to be a generational thing.

Interesting. Just to share my feedback (and not trying to be argumentative or anything), as a guy who first played MK1 in the arcade when I was 8/9 and grew up with MK (especially the arcade trilogy), I loved DA and especially Deception. Deception was my favourite 3D era game and I liked it over UMK3 (but not as much as MK2). I should clarify that these were my feelings back then, I probably enjoy UMK3 more than Deception now that I take FGs a tad more seriously, as well can actually play UMk3

I will say that I hated Armageddon though. It felt like such a mess after Deception, and the kreate-a-fatality bit really made me look at the game in a bad light.

Deception was dope though. It was one of the highest quality MK games (at least on a casual level). I would definitely play it again if I could, but tbh, I probably wouldn’t play it much more than beating Konquest mode, and fiddling around in training, and maybe a few arcade ladders.

 

[Art Lean]

Interesting. Just to share my feedback (and not trying to be argumentative or anything), as a guy who first played MK1 in the arcade when I was 8/9 and grew up with MK (especially the arcade trilogy), I loved DA and especially Deception. Deception was my favourite 3D era game and I liked it over UMK3 (but not as much as MK2). I should clarify that these were my feelings back then, I probably enjoy UMK3 more than Deception now that I take FGs a tad more seriously, as well can actually play UMk3

I will say that I hated Armageddon though. It felt like such a mess after Deception, and the kreate-a-fatality bit really made me look at the game in a bad light.

Deception was dope though. It was one of the highest quality MK games (at least on a casual level). I would definitely play it again if I could, but tbh, I probably wouldn’t play it much more than beating Konquest mode, and fiddling around in training, and maybe a few arcade ladders.

Those are very similar to my sentiments, other than I've never really liked MK3 or UMK3 and didn't care much for Deadly Alliance either (which I'd followed the entire development history on MK5.org back in the day), as DA just felt like the barebones foundations for something better, which it was later proven to be with Deception. Been a fan since MK1 when I was 10 and later played the HELL out of Deception, especially Konquest. Wish we got content like that today.

And like you, considered Armageddon a pathetic follow-up due to how half-assed it was with its content.

I never had anyone else to play these games against, so always played them as a solo player and couldn't tell you what was a better fighting game from a technical perspective, but in terms of content, style, mood, characters, etc. I thought Deception was fantastic.

And bring back Ashrah!

 

[Juxtapose]

Interesting. Just to share my feedback (and not trying to be argumentative or anything)...

No worries man, not argumentative at all. As I said, it's not a hard and fast rule, simply a very common trend I've noticed.

 

[Saltea Moonspell]

Almost 20 years ago I got invited to join US ARMY boys who did nothing much in between duties but play. Jumping from UMK3/MKT years before at first I had a hard time adjusting. Plus these guys were such mashers. I bought X-BOX and started to grained the lab. The more I played, the more I enjoyed it.

As Reo mentioned, the game is broken af, but back then it all about fun and torturing others lol I dont know if I could just hop on, and enjoy the game as I use to. So far, the only relic I managed to get back to is MK9 TE. Perhaps some day Deception will rise again.

 

[Gerchap]

Was it balance? Not at all
Was it’s fun? Fucking yeah! My very best and favorite MK game.
probably because of the fact that this game attracted so many players to the forums and we had lots of daily talks, beef against each other etc etc.

Back then we just dealt with how unbalanced the game was, kids nowadays would cry “without offending anyone”

50/50 guessing game, OTGs, FTs.

the only problem we had on the Xbox side was that not many Elite players, great players couldn’t get better because not much competition.

BNR retired so soon probably because he went over a year without losing a series to ten

so many great players at that time but no one at BNR level.

The PS side had the Unbeatable Dairou God tier m2Dave aka Igniz
The Box side had the Unbeatable NS God tier BNR

Alexi09 was so fucking good
Red Saleen was so fucking smart, I always wondered how he managed to find all those OTGs so soon on the game

eazytobeat probably my favorite player

oh and Fuck HorribleBlack as he managed to play over 10k games using one single character lmao!

So many great memories!

 

[TetsuoShima]

In 2004 the fighting game scene wasn't as big as it was nowadays, right? I've looked back on many reviews from back in the day and was shocked by how much people liked it.