Here's a nice review by someone from another forum, thought I would share it with y'all....
Originally posted by Dunleer (on the PS2 Beta Trial Forums):
Too all whom are considering buying MK: Shaolin Monks here is my review.
Story:
Taking place just after the First MK tournament (Game), Liu Kang and Kung Lao are chosen to protect earth realm and dispose of Shang Tsung who has broken the rules (again) and has begun to invade earth realm. Along the way players will meet other MK characters to fight alongside and against, through interactive and in some cases destructable scenery against multiple foes. On completing the game players can unlock other characters to play as next time through as well as concept art, movies, photos and MK 2 arcade. Playing Co-op is the real beauty of this game because it opens up otherwise unaccessable areas, players can throw foes to each other and do mid air combos in unison, players can do tag moves and basically juggle foes between each other.
Graphics:
Cut scene graphics are not exactly the best on PS2 though they are ok, in-game graphics are excellent, rich and detailed landscapes and characters to some nice brutal attacks and fatalities.
Sound
Pretty basic grunts, snarls and gurgles with some Liu Kang howls thrown in for good measure!
Gameplay
Obisously the main focus of this game is combat and without a good system a combat game would fall apart, thankfully this game's combat system is easy, varied, not to vast and easy to link to other attacks.
Combat is broken down into:
- Specials = Special attacks unique to the playable character, attacks are mainly derived from MK 2
- Combos = a different range of ground, special and airial combos
- Skills = Skills are collected as progression is made these include (Fist of Ruin, wall run, wall jump, super jump) and are all very well used when aqquired.
- Basics = basics are just the simple button hits from the beginning
- Fatalities = each character has fatalities, mutalities (multiple kills) and Brutalities (one hit kills) totalling around 7 instant kill attacks
- Team = As suggested players can do co-op attacks
Enemies are no push over and take quite a few hits to put down, but once fatalities are unlocked, as soon as the meter is full pressing the stunner button will knock the enemy out and a fatality screen will come up for the player to enter in the button combination. The only gripe about this however is that through the game i actually only found 1 fatality coin (which unlocks the fatality), but fortunately if you work out the combination (or go online and get it) it unlocks them anyway. Fatalities are nice and violent and finish off all grunts in a nice ****** pile of gibblets, the other gripe with gameplay is that save points are few and far between so when one does come along you find its not a moment too soon, luckily the life bar lasts for ages so there are no fears of instant death. Through fighting players gain EXP enabling them to buy new combos and moves etc, as well as this interactive mashes, rollers and crushers etc help to dispose of enemies. Some people will agree the wall runs and jumps are shamelessly ripped from Prince of Persia but they do work very well, and the multi-directional fighting is 10x better than 'Jet Li's - rise to honor'. And to those scorpion and subzero fans out there, yes they are unlockable for 'vs' mode and story.
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Story - 7
Graphics - 8
Sound - 6
Gameplay - 10
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OVERALL: 8 / 10
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This game is fantastic, alone its good, with a friend great! I recommend a rental to anyone who is unsure as it is an aquirred taste. But i played it till 1 am with Black Hawk who is not the greatest MK fan, he was convinced from 5 minutes of play! And at £22.99 from http://www.play.com no other game at such a price gices out so much love!
Hope this has helped anyone who is interested or otherwise! :bowi brought it on xbox though!
