MORTAL KOMBAT 11
More than a bare-bones brawler, the klassic series has grown up
FORMAT PS4 / ETA 23 APR / PUB WARNER BROS INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT / DEV NETHERREALM STUDIOS
A lot has happened in the 28 years since Ed Boon first decided multicoloured ninja pulling one another’s spines through their throats would be a good thing. While this classic fighter continues to display its violent side, there’s more to this 11th outing than glossy gore. In our first hands-on, as Sub-Zero going toe-to-sharpened-forearm with a returning Baraka, we freeze our opponent and perform the classic upper, send a flurry of iced shards into our rival’s body like a card-shark dealing a hand, and break Baraka’s jaw in a graphic X-ray close-up.
This last move is one of Mortal Kombat 11’s new Fatal Blows. These mini-Fatalities can be activated if your health drops below 30 per cent, enabling you to stay in the fight and adding an edginess to the final stages of a round. The fact these gruesome moves are knife-sharp stabs of cinematic ultra-violence happening during fights only serves to double down on everything the series is famous for, and we love it. Even our opponent can’t help smiling as his Baraka is skewered. Again.
KRUSHING BLOW
Such creative assaults on our stomachs can happen randomly, as some moves trigger snapshot cinematic moments of flesh-peeling nastiness. New character
“CINEMATIC MOMENTS OF FLESH-PEELING NASTINESS.”
Geras creates an anvil of sand before crushing his opponent’s head on it with a massive hammer. His main weapon, a hulking, Hellboy-like fist, makes us giggle nervously as his combo ends in a brutal X-ray slow-mo of Sonya Blade’s rib cage cracking.
KLOSE-QUARTERS KOMBAT
Behind this bloodlust is a game that has evolved past exploiting our love of seeing the red stuff flow. While it handles much like Mortal Kombat X, it feels a little slower and weightier; combat is closer and relies less on projectile zoning.
Despite the crowd-pleasing visual punishment there’s a revamped intelligence to the deeper systems hidden behind those broken bones. A new Flawless Block feature – a timed counter which leaves your opponent unguarded – marries technical know-how and graphic violence perfectly. Time these well and you’ll get to see more of what you bought a ticket for, be it a returning Skarlet drawing and weaponising a foe’s own blood or Scorpion pushing a spear through an opponent’s chest.
Leaning into this pro-play feel are two new meters sitting neatly in the bottom corners. The horizontal bar is for advanced defensive moves (including environment attacks) and the vertical for amplified special attacks. Both fill as you fight, and once mastered you’ll be able to break combos, roll from danger, and attack from the ground (this drains both meters).
Want more tactical tweakery? Well, the new Karacter Kreator – yep, it’s Mortal Kombat – mixes a little of Injustice 2’s stat-fiddling into the game. Ability points earned in fights can be used to enhance areas of a character’s moveset, tailoring a fighter more to your style of play, making counters or grapple attacks slightly more damaging but at the expense of other areas. It’s something that shouldn’t work in a fighting game, but NetherRealm already proved its worth in Injustice 2.
If you don’t want to get too technical you can use the Kreator mode to tweak the look of favourite characters. Unlocking and adding new weapons and parts, masks, outfits, and more will affect the look of your character. But you can also earn and swap out intro animations, combo strings, Fatalities… basically craft a version of one of the series’ classic characters to your liking.
TIME TO FIGHT
Anchoring everything is a new story campaign presented in NetherRealm’s cinematic style, which makes forcing characters to fight each other a tightrope walk of credibility. Behind events is Kronika – the series’ first female boss – who oversees the balance of the universe. Upset by Dark Raiden’s actions at the end of MKX she rewinds time and starts the whole soap opera again.
What follows, we’re promised, is some timetravelling hokum that has enabled the dev to playfully revisit its classic roster as old versions of characters battle their younger selves – an ageing Johnny Cage will fight a cocky, flexing version of himself, for example.
You won’t be forced to play as certain characters. We’ll be able to affect the story’s outcome in certain chapters, branching the narrative, likely into bloody new directions, which sums up MK11 perfectly.
“THERE’S A REVAMPED INTELLIGENCE TO THE DEEPER SYSTEMS HIDDEN BEHIND THOSE BROKEN BONES.”