Mortal Kombat 11 is the most fun and user-friendly Mortal Kombat game in the entire series. Though the Krypt is a ridiculously needless grind that will hopefully be fixed, the visceral violence and satisfying kombat make MK11 one of the most fun games of the year thus far.
Mortal Kombat 11
Developer: Netherrealms Studios
Price: $69.99
Platforms: PS4 (reviewed), Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC
MonsterVine was provided with a PS4 code for review
The Mortal Kombat franchise has been in a pretty good spot lately. Starting with 2011’s Mortal Kombat 9, the series returned to its 2D fighting roots while producing a fun storyline and plenty of fanservice of every kind. Mortal Kombat 11 does a mostly great job at keeping the series fresh and fun for everyone, as I’ve barely been able to pull myself away from it for the last week.
The story picks up right where Mortal Kombat X’s story ends. Raiden is sick of defending Earthrealm, and decides to pre-emptively destroy potential threats to our world, starting with the revenant rulers of the Netherrealm, Liu Kang and Kitana. The Keeper of Time, Kronika, is tired of Raiden’s antics, and decides to restart time, leading to past and present versions of Mortal Kombat characters meeting one another and teaming-up to save the Realms. There are some weird inconsistencies in the story and a questionable death towards the end, but for the most part, the story is incredibly enjoyable and filled with wonderful fanservice that longtime Mortal Kombat fans will certainly appreciate.
Kombat is a bit slower than in previous Mortal Kombats, but once you’re used to this new and more thoughtful pace, it becomes second nature. This new pace suits Mortal Kombat, as it works with the dial-up combos of recent games quite well. This new pace, in addition to a more footsies-focused system, makes Mortal Kombat 11 feel refreshingly different than previous entries, which I found to be a pleasant surprise. Each character feels unique in both gameplay and visual design, with the Kollector and Geras standing out as the two most interesting newcomers. X-Ray attacks have essentially been split-up into Krushing Blows and Fatal Blows; a good move that has helped to diversify kombat overall.
“Like with Injustice 2, I genuinely feel like my versions of each character are unique, as my Johnny Cage may look and play nothing like someone else’s.“
Fatal Blows can only be used once a match when your health is especially low, and are similar to Mortal Kombat X’s’ X-Ray attacks in that they’re sequences of special attacks that do a ton of damage to your opponent. Krushing Blows are more smoothly woven into regular kombat, as holding certain buttons or directions when using certain attacks for each character will show the attack hitting your opponent’s innards, which is far more fun to perform than it should be.
My experience with playing online has been excellent thus far, as I’ve had little to no lag or dropped frames while playing against other players. It’s a smooth experience all-around, which is incredibly important for any modern fighting game.
“I hope Netherrealm Studios really fixes these issues going forward, as I really want to enjoy unlocking things more.“
If you’ve kept up with any Mortal Kombat 11 news, you likely know about the controversial pacing of the Krypt. The Krypt is where you unlock skins, gear, augments, and pretty much everything else that isn’t immediately available in the game (including Brutalities and Fatalities.) Unlocking things requires coins, souls, time fragments, and hearts, which are all acquired through different methods. At the time of writing this review, you get three Hearts per Fatality (and you need 100-250 to unlock one chest) and around 600 coins from a fight (with chests costing anything from 1,500 to 80,000 coins.
UPDATE: Netherrealm Studios has changed Tower of Time difficulty and increased coin/heart rewards in the most recent patch. It’s far more fair, though having to spend coins to refill the Krypt still stands out as a problem. Nonetheless, coins and hearts are distributed far more reasonably now.
Outside of specific Heart chests, the items in each chest are randomized for every player, meaning you can’t wisely use your coins on equipment for your main or favorite characters. The rotating Towers of Time can have ridiculous difficulty spikes that bar you from getting items or coins too, making it difficult to really accomplish much of anything. There’s just a lot of frustration involved with unlocking things, which is a real shame. I hope Netherrealm Studios really fixes these issues going forward, as I really want to enjoy unlocking things more.
The Krypt itself is remarkably designed; filled with references to previous games and even the first Mortal Kombat movie, which everybody should take the time to watch, it’s a super fun watch. There are puzzles to solve, hidden walls and secrets, scaled-down jumpscares to keep you on your toes, and all sorts of different areas to explore in a way that brings Mortal Kombat Deception’s Konquest mode to mind. It’s incredibly fun to explore and, with better pacing for its unlockables, it could be considered one of the most interesting parts of Mortal Kombat 11.
Gear and skins obtained from the Krypt and from Towers of Time can be a lot of fun to set-up. Like with Injustice 2, I genuinely feel like my versions of each character are unique, as my Johnny Cage may look and play nothing like someone else’s. I do think that augments, which are boosts that can be equipped to your gear, are needlessly convoluted, as each augment can only be used on a specific piece of gear for a specific character. You have to pay coins to reroll augment sockets on your equipment as well, which feels greedy and entirely unnecessary.
The visuals of Mortal Kombat 11 are fantastic, with special attacks and ridiculous gore that has never looked better. A couple character faces are a bit disorienting, but the vast majority of Mortal Kombat 11 looks incredibly impressive. The music is fittingly intense, and the remix of the movie’s theme (used on the Tournament stage) is a fantastic touch.
The Final Word
Mortal Kombat 11 isn’t perfect, but it’s close enough for me to easily recommend it to anyone who wants to have a bloody good time with friends or on their own. I hope the progression system gets some major work done, but the story is great and the kombat itself has never been better.
MonsterVine Review Score: 4.5 out of 5 – Great
