Developer: NetherRealm Studios, QLOC, Shiver
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One (Reviewed), Switch, PC
Genre: Action
Published by:Â Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment
Mortal Kombat 11 (MK11) is the 11th incarnation of the goriest fighting game ever. It’s been a long time since I played any game in the series but I have to say, lots of the game is familiar even after being away for so long.
The visuals and animation of the game stand out before anything else, the character design, voiceover, background and player movement is superb. I usually just button bash my way through fighting games but I did the tutorials to learn how to right. It was worth doing, the few hours put into the tutorials and training modes helped to immersive myself in a character (Liu Kang and Scorpion) and actually chain combos and know a few special moves. Once, I got a handle on a character or two, I decided to play the story mode which surprisingly is quite good and gives you the opportunity to play as other characters. I don’t know the whole back story. In this episode, Raiden (a lightning god) is over with a desire to make sure no evil makes it to the earth realm. He becomes power crazy, tainted by evil and starts pre-emptively killing people which leads to Koronika (a time lord) to put balance back into the world and kill Raiden and remove him from history. It was interesting and gave lots of details and some explanation around each character and their place in the Mortal Kombat world. Other modes like Crypt (where you search for unlockables and upgrades) and the Towers (where you play an ever-increasing number of enemies in return for coins and power-ups) will keep you occupied.
The gameplay is slick, fast and smooth. Each character has there own style, set of moves and fatality (finishing move). The finish moves are hyper-realistic and gore-tastic, they are quite sickening. Cinematic pre-rendered decapitations and extreme violence for which Mortal Kombat is known for is present and adds to the dark and sinister world you play. It’s just great fun to play and there are 25 characters to play from, online modes, local modes and much more. As I haven’t I played this in years, I’m nostalgic about the series and I thought this would taint my judgement, however, Â this game stands on its own two feet and uses the franchise to create a fun and ultimately slick game. If you want a good beat em up, you can’t go wrong with this.
Overall: 8/10
Enjoys more than the odd game, long time gamer, somewhat a technologist and everything else in between.
Also enjoys a good solid game of FIFA online. Currently PS4, XBOX 360 and STEAM.
