GameSpot was visited by Midway and got their hands on the latest build of Mortal Kombat: Deception. Here's a bit on the online experience.
While it's not surprising to note that puzzle kombat and MK chess run smoothly online, kombat is worth crowing about from the rafters. Despite the game's work-in-progress condition, our matches ran smoothly and were very responsive. There were some very minor hitches that were to be expected, especially considering that we weren't playing the final game, but the fact that we managed to play MK online--and that it ran well--was downright momentous. The voice chat was a nice touch, although during the more intense matches, you should plan on hearing a lot of silence punctuated by occasional bursts of profanity--which is a lot like playing in the arcades.
Also, TeamXbox takes Midway Arcade Treasures 2 out for a spin and relives the impact of each included game had.
Visually Deception is a step up from Deadly Alliance and sports some very impressive character models and fluid animations. While the title does fall back on its distinctive 'lock and move' style of fighting, the overall look of the action unfolding on-screen is still on par with other fighting titles on the market. Particle effects(and blood are also well rendered and although the gore at times seems to be more strawberry jelly than actual blood, the copious amounts that fly everywhere should keep everyone happy. The only real drawback that I can find in the visuals is the somewhat sketchy character models in Konquest. While the main characters are well rendered, secondary characters are generic.