MORTAL KOMBAT 11
Rush of blood
released OUT NOW! Reviewed on Playstation 4
Also on Nintendo switch, Xbox One, PC Publisher Warner Bros Interactive entertainment
Whereas most fighting games revel in their intimidating reputations, demanding hours of commitment and practice for players to even learn the basics, Mortal Kombat 11 throws the doors wide open. With one of the most friendly and comprehensive tutorials we’ve ever seen in the genre, and a slower-paced battle system that emphasises tactical thinking and adaptability over reflexes and muscle memory, it’s one of the most accessible entries the genre has ever seen.
And even if you still find brawling online too scary a prospect, the game offers a wealth of single-player content, headlined by a best-in-genre cinematic story mode. Telling a fantastically silly tale of time travel, cyborg ninjas and interdimensional invasions, it plays out like the Avengers: Endgame of ’80s martial arts movies. Its very literal mash-up of the series’ past and present – which includes many characters meeting their own younger selves – provides a particular treat for long-standing fans.
Thanks to fantastically detailed graphics, its over-thetop set-pieces are genuinely spectacular, and its fan favourites look better than ever. Be warned, though, that all that extra fidelity does make the series’ trademark blood and gore hyper-realistic too, sometimes with queasy results.
An awkward progression system aside (does any game really need seven different currencies?),
The series’ trademark blood and gore is hyperrealistic
this is the Mortal Kombat series at its best yet – tense, strategic and deeply competitive in multiplayer, while engrossing yet irreverent when played solo. All of which makes it all the more wonderful that, for once, it’s a fighting game that anyone can enjoy.
When two players are playing Frost, an intro sees them share an exchange which uses lyrics from Frozen song “Let It Go”!