Hello everyone and welcome to my review of Mortal Kombat 11 the next gory installment into the franchise developed by Netherrealm studios.
Like the previous two games in the series, Mortal Kombat 11 is a 2.5D fighting game. Alongside the returning Fatalities and Brutalities, new gameplay features are introduced, such as Fatal Blows and Krushing Blows. Fatal Blows are special moves similar to the X-ray moves in Mortal Kombat X. Like X-ray moves, Fatal Blows deal a large amount of damage, but unlike them, they only become available when a player's health drops below 30%, and can only be performed once per match. Krushing Blows are a special cinematic variation of a given special move, triggered when certain requirements are met, most like Brutalities in the previous game.
Also new to the series is a Flawless Block mechanic, which allows for a comeback window after blocking an attack with precise timing. Another returning finisher is Mercy, last seen in Mortal Kombat 3, where the winning player can opt to revive their opponent, giving them a small amount of life.
Mortal Kombat 11 also introduces a Custom Variation feature which offers character customization features system similar to the Gear system in Netherrealm Studios' previous DC Comics fighting game, Injustice 2, improving over the Variation system featured in Mortal Kombat X. Each character has an initial set of outfits, weapons and moves, which can be further customized by the player. However, unlike Injustice 2, in Mortal Kombat 11 the characters' appearance does not determine their abilities, allowing the players to create custom move lists independently of their character's appearance. So how does MK11 stack up? Let's dive in and break it down section by section.
The KRYPT.
Now the KRYPT has been a feature in Mortal Kombat games that I have quite enjoyed and really look forward to as I love battling it out it and building up my coins so I can run around the KRYPT to see what rewards I get and also to feel the creepy and unsettling vibe of what the KRYPT offers in atmospheric detail, Which brings me to MK11's KRYPT in which I am very disappointed in as it's 3rd person view as well as being some random unknown character does not give me the atmospheric feel from the get go, Running around in the KRYPT is very very janky and glitchy and doesn't feel smooth, In previous installments of MK the KRYPT, as I stated earlier always felt rewarding and in this instance of it doesn't, the chests feel like random loot boxes only to spend thousands of coins on a box only to get augments and tokens and very lack lusture skins, the economy of the game is very bad and needs fixing as well these augments which i don't know where to start on this poor addition to the game, so overall the KRYPT is not the experience i have known and loved.
Towers of Time.
Where do I start with this new feature that was taken from the Injustice games and implemented into MK11, Towers of Time are ridiculously hard even for the best of fighting players as the AI is unbalanced, The Augment system is a joke as you can't complete most of these towers without them and wish they would do away with the augment system all together, So in short I have not spent much time (Pardon the pun) in the Towers of Time until Netherrealm release the patch/update next week.
Kustomize.
Kustomize is another feature brought over from Injustice 2 that lets you customize your own characters look from masks, weapons, helmets, skins and more, I really like this feature just wish it had more customization options and had a better and not so confusing layout but I feel this is fun for me as I like to give my characters my own personal style and feel and it's a really good addition to MK11 as we have never been able to do this before but have always wanted to.
Classsic Towers.
The Classic Towers are my favorite part of any MK game as I am an old school MK fan who has been playing them since the 1st one rolled out in arcades in 1992 which still gives me the arcade ladder feel is why I like them so much, This time around yes I do enjoy them although again like Towers of Time I find the AI once again is unbalanced depending on the difficulty setting as I usually start off on Easy work up to Medium, Hard and Harder difficulty's and have never found Medium difficulty a challenge until now, mind you I was playing the Champion tower on Medium and Kronika the new MK boss was just hard and unbalanced and just lost it's fun making me salty which I don't usually feel until I reach much harder levels, overall they are still fun in someways and hope that this to gets a AI balance update.
Online Play.
Something I feel that stands out from other fighting games is the netcode for online fights that Netherrealm implement for online fights, last night I was playing for 4 hours against a friend in Canada and that's a big distance from Australia as we know, apart from the one ping spike which happened once a match it didn't take away the fun from the fights, I have also played online games locally and it felt amazing with no ping spikes but I do have a very fast internet connection so online experiences may vary depending on your connection.
Tutorials.
Whether your a veteran or new to the MK franchise I feel everyone will enjoy and benefit from the expansive tutorials that MK11 has to offer, from Combos, move sets, Fatality practice and more these tutorials feel fun and very easy to follow with very beneficial rewards, something you must try and finish no matter what.
Story Mode.
Now onto the final part of this review as I save the best for last, MK story's have been amazing ever since MK9 giving us a fresh new restart as well as continuing on without losing any of the previous lore and story from older Mk games also bringing back some much loved favorite characters like Shao Kahn, Baraka, Skarlet, Noob Saibot, Jade and Kabal while it actually expands on it with all new characters like the Kollector, Geras, Kronika and Cetrion. I wont expand on their back story's to much as the story mode will tell you everything and I don't want to spoil that for you, Kronika as before mentioned although new to the MK series has been watching over the past events since the first MK tournament and was pleased with the way everything was going until now, she emerges very unhappy with Raiden and his time bending ways and merges both past and present timelines into one bringing a very unsettling feel for the what the future holds for all fighters.
I will leave it there so you can enjoy the rest for yourself in case you haven't played it yet but i suggest you play the Story Mode first as you learn about new characters and their move sets as well as enjoying one of the greatest story's MK has to offer with great voice acting apart from Rhonda Rousey's performance as Sonya Blade which i found very B grade and plain but overall doesn't take away from the story's overall experience.
Overall
Since i have broken pretty much everything down my overall opinion on MK11 is quite good taking the negatives into account and highly recommend it to any MK fan or those new to the franchise, It is graphically awesome the fighting mechanics are again satisfying taking out X-Rays while replacing them with the new Fatal Blows which i think adds more thinking and timing to fights which you can only use once each match, the backgrounds are stunning so are the character models and their interactions with each other pre-fight and of course the FATALITY'S which are some of the most gruesome and disgusting ones i have seen to date and each fighter gets 2 each, Brutality's are back as well with the addition of Mercy's which we haven't seen since MK3.
Overall score - 8/10
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