GAME REVIEW: Mortal Kombat X — ‘Get over here!’ and check this out!

It’s been 4 years since the Mortal Kombat franchise redeemed itself with 2011’s Mortal Kombat. In the wake of the new generation, NetherRealm Studios is ready to unleash Mortal Kombat X. How well does MKX fare? Let’s find out…

The PS4 version of the game was used for the purpose of this review. Nevertheless, here are the official minimum and recommended requirements for PC:

Minimum system requirements:

OS: 64-bit: Vista, Win 7, Win 8

Processor: Intel Core i5-750, 2.67 GHz | AMD Phenom II X4 965, 3.4 GHz

Memory: 3 GB RAM

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 | AMD Radeon HD 5850

DirectX: Version 11

Network: Broadband Internet connection

Hard Drive: 25 GB available space

Recommended system requirements:

OS: 64-bit: Win 7, Win 8

Processor: Intel Core i7-3770, 3.4 GHz | AMD FX-8350, 4.0 GHz

Memory: 8 GB RAM

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 | AMD Radeon HD 7950

DirectX: Version 11

Network: Broadband Internet connection

Hard Drive: 40 GB available space

Story

The Story first picks up several years after the events that took place in 2011’s Mortal Kombat. The fallen Elder God Shinnok threatens to destroy earthrealm by tapping into its life source, corrupting it. Although he fails, his loyal servant Quan Chi escapes. 20 years later, Quan Chi resurfaces and seeks to resurrect Shinnok so he may finish what he started. Now it all falls to a new generation kombatants to stop Shinnok and save earthrealm.

MKX’s story follows the new rebooted canon initiated in MK9. Story mode is pretty much the same style as that of MK9 and Injustice (Player takes control of different characters as the story unfolds) albeit more engaging and visually impressive. The story flows seamlessly between matches with no loadtimes in between, so you’re constantly in action. There are characters within the story however, that oddly enough aren’t playable characters despite having a complete set of moves and a completely rendered character model.

Gameplay

Good graphics and story wouldn’t matter in a fighting game if gameplay falls short, which thankfully is it’s best asset. Combat has improved since MK9, introducing Kombat Variations, a feature, similar to that of 2004’s Mortal Kombat: Deception ( you cycle through styles during combat to change a Kombatant’s move set on the fly ) only this time, you have to pick one out of three before the start of a match. Unlike MK:D’s however, these variations are significant alterations to a Kombatant’s abilities, from different kombos, to different special moves.

There are 24 Playable characters, with at least four more as DLC. That’s 4 less compared to MK9. It’s disappointing that this is now the average number for fighting games. 2004’s Mortal Kombat: Deception had 62 characters and two slots for user created characters, catch my drift? That said, each character is well balanced, and incredibly detailed, and Kombat Variations compensates by giving each character at least 3 different play styles. Quality over quantity, I guess.

Whatever gripe I have with its puny roster, I can say that MKX has loads of different game modes that can get you playing for a long time. Modes like 1 vs. 1 Ranked, King of the Hill, Survivor, and Test Your Luck. There’s also something called Living Towers, which is just like Mortal Kombat’s Challenge Towers but with fighting conditions changing every hour. There’s also a new meta called Faction Wars, similar to Assassin’s Creed: Unity’s Club Competitions. You pick one out of five factions to align with and compete with other factions, gaining points with every match you play, contributing to your factions overall points, earning you special rewards like faction specific finishing moves if your faction wins at the end of any given week.

Visuals and Performance

With the franchise making a leap to the next generation, it’s expected that the graphics be a couple notches above MK9 and Injustice, and it is. MKX’s visuals stay true with the Mortal Kombat style, upgrading with better textures, shaders and particle effects. Characters no longer suffer from peeled skin, exposed organs, and gouged eyes while in combat, replaced with more believable battle damage. Same thing goes with the amount of blood that gushes out with each trading blows, which are somewhat a letdown, but doesn’t really take away much out of the overall entertainment. Fatalities are still MKs main attraction. Some of the fatalities are gorier than ever, while some are somewhat lackluster, to the point of disappointment. Good thing there’s a plethora of finishing moves to unlock and execute, including brutalities and faction kills. Load times are also very minimal, and the game maintains a steady framerate well above 30. My usual problem with NetherRealms Studios games are the animation sequences and their character face models. I’ve never been a fan of how their studio models their character’s faces and how they animate them in cutscenes. That said, they’re actually pretty good this time around and the character designs are quite impressive. Overall the game is gorgeous, and only ever looks bad under a microscope, but even then it wouldn’t matter because MKX looks best when the fighting starts, and that’s all that visually matters.

Verdict

Mortal Kombat is an exceptional fighting game, with impressive visuals, a deep combat system, plenty of game modes, and an engaging story mode, it’s arguably the best in the series so far and is an absolute must for fans of the genre. But the main problem with MKX has absolutely nothing to do with the game, but with it’ questionable DLCs. There are at least two fully featured characters that are already in the core game but is unplayable. One of which is a pre-order bonus that can alternately be purchased for 5 bucks, and the other set to be released as part of a pack, that I can assume can also be individually purchased at a similar price. Another is the controversial Easy Fatalities Pack, which gives you tokens that you can use to easily execute fatalities. Then there’s the Unlock All Pack, which lets you unlock all extra content (concept art, costumes) in one fell swoop. The Krypt is a fun way to unlock content, yes, but the unlockables are really expensive to unlock using the in-game currency, practically forcing you to purchase the unlock-all dlc. If you’re a hardcore MK fan and absolutely can’t wait to play this game then I highly recommend it, but if you’re interested but not really in a hurry, then I suggest you just wait for the inevitable Komplete Edition of the game with all DLCs included at a more affordable price.