Edited by: Jade Swann

Twenty-seven years of kombat, millions of spines ripped, faces broken, and legs snapped. Mortal Kombat 11 comes into the market hot with gore, violence, and an amazingly smooth fighting system. Sadly, this is all masked in a borderline mobile game system that forces you to observe several different currency systems and “konsumables” to be utilized throughout the title.

GORE AND GRAPHICS

The art and polish of Mortal Kombat 11 cannot go unnoticed. From combat to cutscenes, the graphics paint a beautiful representation of the Mortal Kombat universe. I was impressed by every moment of the storyline, especially in the graphics department. There was a distinct connection to the characters that I felt each time the “movies” would start. With that said, I'm sad to say that I experienced a severe audio desync that even a reinstall did not fix. During all cutscenes the audio was about a second faster than the actual video. Although this took away from the overall experience, the visuals within Mortal Kombat 11 are one for the books.

As with many other fighting titles, the “logic” of the game is tied to its frame rate. Mortal Kombat 11 is locked at a thirty-frames-per-second timeline unless you play online or introduce the graphical setting of “frame skipping,” which skips certain frames during animations to double your FPS. This means that online fighting feels extremely smooth. Along with this, the net code is a phenomenal feature within this title.

GAMEPLAY

The fighting systems in place are absolutely fantastic. Everything feels a little slower than it did in Mortal Kombat X, but a plethora of new styles and chance encounters are introduced. No longer is the combat focused on “meters” for special moves. Well-timed counters will usually result in an epic display of bones shattering or gore popping. This puts an emphasis on knowing your character even more so than in the past entries and truly utilizes the skill needed to win each fight. Goodbye juggling!

The characters react extremely well to being struck and the input feels tight, even in online play. I felt like I had true control over my characters and always wanted to get into the next battle. Also, without a doubt, Mortal Kombat 11 has one of the best tutorials I’ve seen in a fighting game. It can slowly introduce new players to entire systems, or introduce veterans of the series to the new complexities presented within the title.

The campaign itself is an interesting take. Basically, it is a movie that you watch that allows you to play through the key fights within the “movie.” As the campaign progresses, you play as different characters through the tied-in adventures that span across time and the Mortal Kombat universe. The development team did an excellent job immersing you into a universe of violence and crazy amounts of blood and gore.

MICRO KOMBAT

The saddest part of this title is the extreme focus on its market. It flashes the different currencies and purchasable items in front of your face at every turn, and has many features that are borderline forcing you to grind or pay. For instance, there are towers within the game, and just like in all Mortal Kombat entries, you can “enter a tournament” and fight your way to the boss. Introduced in this title are the Towers of Time, which are challenges you can complete to unlock many new items and skins for the characters. The issue lies within the modifiers on some of the fights, such as an enemy who has double your health, a blinking screen that turns black periodically mid-fight, having your character set on fire so you slowly lose health, or even becoming electrocuted from standing too close to your opponent for too long.

This all feels like a means to an end to force the player to hunt for fight-skip tokens (I don't think I need to define what those do). While fighting fans are usually also fans of a challenge, this feels like an unnecessary amount of punishment directed at the players. This all amounts to such a shame because Mortal Kombat 11 has an incredible fighting style that reminds me of the older Mortal Kombat games, but feels like it's trying to rob you of your patience, or more of your money.

KUSTOMIZATION

Upon release, each character has about sixty different skins for you to place onto them. Each character also offers unlockable weapons and fatalities through challenges or earned currencies. While I would love to be enthralled with all the diverse customization options offered, I feel like each skin has such slight variations between them that they all seem a little pointless, rather than some of the top-tier skins presented. Once again, I feel like I could brush all these issues to the back burner just due to the amazing gameplay, but alas, this title feels like it is plagued with greed.

Another element of modern Mortal Kombat games has been the Krypt. The Krypt has always been an area to unlock new and exciting items within each title. Each loot chest would be marked by grid coordinates, giving players the option to inform their friends on where to find beloved items. This has changed in Mortal Kombat 11, in favor of randomizing the Krypt. This means that you will now “stumble” upon epic gear and new skins for your characters. The Krypt  is a fantastic representation of the Mortal Kombat universe, and the art style and world design reflect greatly upon what all Mortal Kombat fans have come to love: the gruesome, gritty, and cruel.