Mortal Kombat 11 review

    MORTAL KOMBAT!

    *Techno Music*

    Okay, I've used that opening multiple times but it never gets old. The Mortal Kombat series is one of the nearest and dearest to my heart. With the exception of Spider-Man, the Dresden Files, and Star Wars--it is probably my all time favorite fictional franchise. Yes, that means it beats out Star Trek. What can I say, it's the ninja-ladies and bizarre mixture of fantasy with bloodsport.

The graphics are awesome.

    My opinion is that Mortal Kombat has never been as good as it is now with the somewhat dicey Mortal Kombat 9 (that still managed to make a coherent story out of the first three games) being followed by the spectacular Mortal Kombat X. I loved the changes to Liu Kang, Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade, and Raiden. I also loved the introduction of the Kombat Kids that I felt were some of the very few successful "passing the torch" characters. Cassie Cage, in particular, was a great character that I believe fully deserved the title of new Kombat Klassic Kharacter.

    The nature of fighting games means that there's less to talk about than in some games. You can play Mortal Kombat an infinite number of times in Tower Mode and against online opponents but there's only so much difference. In the end, you must love the genre or there's no real point in playing the game. Which is a way of dancing around saying, "Mortal Kombat XI is basically Injustice 2 gameplay wise--which wasn't that different from Mortal Kombat X. If you liked one, you'll probably like the others." This comes with a caveat.

I like the costume redesigns.

    The storyline for this installment of the franchise is that a heretofore unknown deity known as Kronika has started to unwind the timeline due to Raiden having defeated Shinnok. A believer in the balance between good and evil, she believes that our heroes have destroyed that by successfully beating down the bad guys too completely. Kronika recruits a bunch of classic villains like Sektor, Shao Kahn, and Baraka. She can bring them back from the past and effectively resurrect them, making an impossible series of promises. Smashing together time like this also brings a number of past characters back on the heroic side like the original Liu Kang, young Sonya Blade, demon Scorpion, and Kung Lao.

    Mortal Kombat has always been a martial arts superhero universe. It has benefited from larger-than-life villains, melodrama, and constant reminders of classic storylines. Things like Scorpion's family being murdered, Sub-Zero's clan being turned into robots, and the "will they or won't they" relationship between Liu Kang with Kitana. This is a fairly classic time-travel crisis crossover like we had with DC comics' Zero Hour or Infinite Crisis. The Story Mode is a bit disjointed as there's no concrete protagonist as we switch between Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Raiden, Johnny Cage, Liu Kang, and Cassie Cage without much connective tissue. Overall, I very much enjoyed it but it's also a bit silly as all stories with time travel eventually are (I'm looking at you Endgame).

Best mom/daughter team-up since Jean/Rachel.

    I think Cassie Cage's storyline is the best in this storyline. She's ascending to be a Commander of the Earthrealm Special Forces but this is in the wake of a disastrous mission to Netherrealm that gets her mother (present-day Sonya) killed. The fact this traumatizing event is followed by past-Sonya and past-Johnny Cage arriving is actually fairly interesting. One of the best moments of the game is past-Johnny acting like an ass and getting his older self to kick it. I think we've all wanted to slap our past selves silly.

    Surprisingly, I really enjoyed the depiction of Liu Kang and Kung Lao in this story. I've never been a fan of either character, finding Liu Kang bland and uninteresting at best. However, both characters have a surprising amount of chemistry with one another as they deal with the fact both of them got turned into revenants in this universe. Liu Kang is depicted as the bright-eyed optimist and Kung Lao as the cynic with both of them weirded out about how crazy the timeline has gotten. It made them both extremely likable.

I am a Mistress of Time! And Evil!

    Kronika is a fairly one-dimensional villain with her idea of balance never really explained. She's tied to the existing mythology pretty well, though, with her revealed as Shinnok's mother as well as another Elder God's. Besides, no one is interested in Mortal Kombat because of the intricate character studies. She serves her purpose well and the confrontation with her at the end has a fun mechanic where the ending depends on whether you defeat her two rounds in a row.

    Gameplay-wise, there are only a few modifications from previous installments with my favorite being Fatal Blows. These are special finisher moves that are easy to perform when a Kombatant (hehe) is on his last breath. They can only be performed once a match per participant but are electric and brutal. Basically, Fatalities you can perform in the middle of the match. Given I am a notorious failure at finishing off foes, these were most welcome and lived up matches considerably.

    The costume redesigns of the game have been subject to controversy but I tend to think this is much ado about nothing. Om both sides. The women are still wearing skintight outfits and high heels so it's not like the fanservice actually went away. Is Skarlet wearing a uniform rather than a bikini? Yes. I think they could have inserted the others as alternate costumes but some of the MK variants were ridiculous looking anyway (I mean you Sonya Blade).

The Krypt is quite beautiful.

    The character selection is a pretty decent collection of Mortal Kombat classics with few characters missing that I love. They also get extra props for bringing back Shao Kahn and Baraka. On the other hand, Mileena isn't present and her absence is noticeable given the presence of frigging Kabal. I'm also not sure why you'd turn Frost into a cyborg ninja if you're also going to bring back Sektor. Kung-Jin, Kenshi, and Takeda seem like characters they should have found a way to put in as well. I also think Goro would have been a good DLC character versus a couple I've been spoiled on.

    New Kombatants Cetrion and Kollector are decent enough. Cetrion is an Elder God meant to be the Big Good compared to Shinnok's Big Evil but is a lackey of her mother with a sense of self-righteousness that explain a lot of the Elder God's previous screw ups. She also seems to be a divine Poison Ivy/Gaia figure. Kollector is the former tax collector of Shao Kahn and a spider race. I'm always for more Outworld races since it is a fantasy D&D world but he's a bit one note. Still, he also reminds me a bit of Larfleeze from Green Lantern and that's not a bad thing. Really, though, I'm here for Shao Kahn and Cassie Cage.

My home boy Shao is back. Hammer time!

    The introductory quotes aren't something I'd normally comment on but I actually think they deserve a shout-out. There's a lot of really hilarious one-liners from Johnny Cage and Cassie but everyone gets in on the action. They even try to justify some of the fights like having Mirror Match opponents say one is a clone, imposter, or alternate timeline version of themselves. I liked this in Injustice 2 and it's hilarious when alt-Kitana tells her prime self that she is dating Kung Lao only for the other to say he's not in their league. Really, the only characterization I didn't much care for is that of Shao Kahn is he seems to be too much of a brute when he's always been a much more calculating evil genius to me.

    As for the rest of the game? Ehhh. The Tower Mode includes some modifications but the ridiculous gear-unlocks that I couldn't figure out. The Krypt is an enormously well-designed loot box arena based on Shang Tsung's island. It's beautiful to look at but there's nothing to do that but open loot boxes that don't give very good material anyway. The fact you don't pay for in-game currency is about the only benefit to it. It also confuses me as loot boxes only exist to facilitate microtransactions so if you're not going to gamble with them then why bother?

    In conclusion, this is a game that I very much enjoyed and was well-worth my sixty dollar investment. The Krypt and the equipment in-game, though, is just a waste of time and I am sick of pretty much all loot-box inclusions in my game. The storyline is where it's at as is the fun of colorful fighters beating the hell out of each other. If they wanted to adjust the game, they should have just made fighter customization and alternate costumes plus challenges.

9/10