The gameplay is surprisingly fun though. It's basically a rip off of God of War with a bit of Metroid's world design. The game is sort of non-linear. The portal acts as a hub and you can go anywhere you want, but you need certain abilities to get far. It's like Metroid where you'll see a wall you can climb hours before you get that power up, then when you do get it you backtrack to reach a new area. Also most of the boss battles are good, with little cinematic gimmick things to play with like God of War's boss in the hades level. At one point you fight Scorpion and he'll jump up on this platform where you can't reach him and start throwing his spear. You have to catch his own spear and yank him off the platform back down to you. In a battle with Mileena & Jade you can knock them into little cages and then do a Test Your Might to release these spikes to damage them. Lots of levels require you to throw bad guys into fun stuff like chains and spikes.
There's some really cool moments that hardcore fans will love. We FINALLY see Kahn without his helmet, at last we know how Sub-Zero got his scar, and Kintaro's introduction is awesome.