Mortal Kombat’s 3D era has been undergoing a critical re-evaluation over the past few years as fans who grew up with games like Armageddon look back fondly, wanting to see their favourite fighters return. We’ve seen a resurgence in MK1 with the likes of Ashrah, Havik, and Nitara, but one fan is taking things a step further by remastering Deception itself.
Launched in 2004, this classic PS2 and Xbox fighter redefined the Konquest mode into what is still a favourite to this day. Rather than a mission-based story mode as it was in Deadly Alliance, Konquest in Deception was an RPG-style world you could explore through the eyes of Shujinko, the new protagonist taking over from Liu Kang.
Shujinko literally translates to ‘main character’, or ‘protagonist’.
Modder ermaccer is now remastering Deception and its Konquest mode, sharing clips to YouTube as well as download links and ini files so you can see it for yourself first-hand. “Ultimate Mortal Kombat Deception is a modification for [the] PS2 version of Deception,” ermaccer wrote in the bio. “A custom PCSX2 fork provides easier [ways] to edit code and also more available RAM”.
Ultimate Mortal Kombat Deception comes with a slew of fixes, new characters, and more. The full list of added fighters is as follows:
- Sonya
- Kitana
- Jax
- Frost
- Blaze
- Shao Kahn
- Goro
- Drahmin
- Sareena
- Quan Chi
- Shang Tsung
- Kung Lao
- Johnny Cage
These characters even appear on the arcade ladder and have full chess kombat support. Ermaccer also restored a stage called Katakombs. Yep, two K’s. Maybe Mortal Kombat has gone too far.
For Konquest, ermaccer managed to double the draw distance, allowing you to see beyond the fog and further into the world of its RPG mode. “Technically, [I] could do more, but only one map sector is loaded at a time so it would be pretty jarring,” ermaccer explained. “Outside of extra pop-in sometimes, there seems to be no issues, at least on the custom PCSX2 with more RAM.”
This “Ultimate” version of the game is playable via PS2 emulation, but support for the PS2 itself is limited due to development being “experimental”. As ermaccer says, “If it works, it works”, but unless any crashes or bugs are easily reproducible, they won’t be fixed.
If you’re interested in trying this version for yourself, ermaccer has put together a how-to guide on installation. However, they do not provide the game’s ISO nor do they link to it.
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