If you consider yourself a gamer, then chances are you have played Mortal Kombat. Arguably the biggest name in fighting games, Mortal Kombat is synonymous with action packed fighting gameplay and their trademark fatalities. The latest addition does not disappoint; in fact the fatalities in MK11 are better than ever. There is nothing quite like the feeling you get watching your character punching someone's skull and spine out of the rest of their body. Bearing in mind this game is currently still a beta, I am reviewing a very limited amount of content.
My review will be split into 3 sections. Gameplay, graphics and content.
Here are my thoughts:
Usually I wouldn’t class myself a fighting game fan. In fact, I tend to avoid them. Yet somehow Mortal Kombat has managed to force itself onto my wish list this year. From the incredible advertising campaign from Warner Bros to the brilliantly made trailers from NetherRealm studios, I consider myself intrigued. A personal favorite of mine is the Johnny Cage reveal trailer. Take a look here:
Still being a beta, we were obviously only granted access to a limited number if things. Precisely, 5 characters, 3 levels and only a very small handful of game modes. This content kept me; ‘the non fighting game lover’, entertained for over 15 hours which only excited me as to what the full game will offer.
Gameplay:
As mentioned, fighting games usually are not my forte but after about 15 hours of a beta, I can honestly say - I'm hooked. Mortal Kombat has recaptured that magic of fighting games from when I was a child. That feeling you get when you get that fatality is something very special and very different, a sense of achievement that you don't get with other fighting games! The repetitiveness that you tend to get with other fighting games is less present with MK11. The repetitiveness that you tend to get with other fighting games feels less present with MK11....... got you! :) Seriously though, with each character being so being different the repetitiveness is less at the forefront of your mind as you play. Each opponent has a very different fighting style and very different moves.
The mechanics of the game are hands down the most responsive; the most fluid of any fighting game to date. Each and every button press means something different on screen. I assume this is already a well known thing amongst MK fans and fighting game fans in general; but you absolutely must play this game with the D-pad and not the analogue stick. I found this out the hard way. Simply trying to move right meant jumping more times than I care to admit. We only get a very tiny look into the world of character customisation, but from what I can tell this will be a really cool feature. Upgrades are purchased with points gained from previous battles.
I was also very pleasantly surprised at just how smooth my online experience went. I don't have great internet, however I never ran into even the smallest amount of lag. Important to note that this could be due to the beta status.
As I said, we only got access to 5 characters, with 24 in the full release so there's still a lot to see. However let's be honest, I'm only ever using Skorpion, end of discussion.
Graphics:
This game is hands down the most beautiful fighting game visually I have ever played. From the lighting to the tiny details, there's nothing about this game that looks anything less than what you would expect from a 2019 release. The blood spatter and the animations of the fatalities alike are especially glorious. I can't describe well enough just how good that fatality feeling actually is. Imagine a 30 degree night, you’re trying to sleep, you flip your pillow over and get that cool feeling.........That’s the fatality feeling.
Each level is carefully planned and designed with different intractable items throughout. We did only get access to the 3 stages but they were all completely unique and very fun. I'm definitely curious to see what the full game release has to offer in the way of different stages.
I love the design of these stages however, I'd really like MK to have maybe one smash brother style stage with different tiers and environments affecting your gameplay. I do understand however that for a MK veteran these words are probably blasphemy. I mean if it's not broken, don't fix it. Right? I don't think NetherRealm studios are attempting to appeal to a new audience as such, however as a non believer myself I honestly found myself being somewhat drawn in despite the clear lack of content (being a beta and all).
Of Course like any Mortal Kombat game, Combos are key! if you can master the combos you're on your way to being unplayable. Check out what we mean here:
Content:
There is very understandably only a very small amount of content available in this beta however, having played the beta for The Division 2 recently which was packed full of content, I suppose I had expectations going into this one. We have access to 2 game modes; one being a single online fight against another online player and the other being the tower game mode. The online multiplayer is as you would expect; its smooth, it looks good and it's very fun or very frustrating, depending on what side of the victory you find yourself.
The tower was where I spent the bulk of my gameplay. The tower is a 5 enemy challenge in which you face each of the 5 playable characters in your selected difficulty category. Ranging from very easy to very hard, there's certainly a difficulty for everyone. I managed to defeat the ‘hard’ difficulty level but was hopelessly lost at ‘very hard’.
As a non MK player I found myself to be very button mashy and ‘once I found a move I liked I spammed the tell out of it’. Down and triangle was my go to move and for the large part it worked. I won my first 4 online fights and uppercut my way to ‘very hard’ in the tower mode. I did however then lose my next 2 fights and get absolutely trounced on the ‘very hard difficulty’. So I think spamming can only get you so far.
There are obviously a lot more features that will be available once the full game is released ranging from story mode to learn mode. While we can all assume what they will entail, I won't speculate as I never got a chance to experience them and it really could turn out to be anything.
Overall, this game is a lot of fun and it has something for everyone. Whether you’re a button spammer or a well thought out brawler, this game is a lot of fun. I can't wait to see what other features are made available in the full release and I am certainly on board the MK11 hype train .
Overall - 9/10
Written By Gaming Australia
