Mortal Kombat 11
PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Developer Netherrealm Studios Publisher Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment Format PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One Origin US Release April 23, May 10 (Switch)
Characters follow through with their blows; combos are finally approaching fluidity
Another year, another bewildering press event in which we stand amid a crowd that’s baying a little bit too enthusiastically for blood. This time, it’s somewhat expected: this is Mortal Kombat 11, after all. Netherrealm’s fighting-game series has always done a roaring trade in the kind of ultraviolence even Charles Manson might have deemed a little much. Indeed, as we watch people laugh themselves hoarse at Baraka peeling Sonya Blade’s face like an onion before shish-kebabbing her brain and eating it, it’s apparent little has changed.
If you still derive a thrill from watching computer-generated torsos be pulled apart like wet bread, Mortal Kombat 11 has you covered. But in other ways there’s plenty of progress on display. The animation quality has drastically improved, and not just when it comes to the series’ famed Fatalities. While there will likely always be a stiffness to Mortal
Kombat’s staccato combos, polish has been applied to some of the series’ shonkier edges. Characters follow through with their blows, selling the impact of each hit; combos, meanwhile, are finally approaching fluidity – particularly in the case of returning fighter Skarlet, whose blood-conjured whips and scythes flow gracefully into various forms alongside our button-presses.
With the new Crushing Blow mechanic, there’s more variation in the cadence of matches. They’re one-use-per-match moves, standard attacks that deal substantially more damage in specific contexts (landing it on the other side of an opponent in a mix-up when they’re blocking the wrong way, for instance). They also trigger the kind of slow-mo zoom-in effect you’d expect from Mortal
Kombat X’s X-Ray super moves – treating us to an even more invasive look at Baraka’s dental work when our opponent tries to counter our nonexistent throw, our foot colliding with his face. The sudden change of pace is entertaining enough at first, although it may become tiresome when interrupting the flow that the game is working to build during rounds. Ultimately, Mortal Kombat has always maintained a philosophy of style over substance, and all the evidence so far suggests it’s finally got the chops to back that up.
While substance might not send roomfuls of people into a hollering frenzy, it’s the hallmark of a truly accomplished fighting game. But the replacement of a single meter system with dual bars – one for offensive moves, including high-damage EX attacks, one for defensive moves such as dodges and rolls – is intriguing. The meters are full at the start of a match, and are recharged at a rate that reflects the power of the move we’ve just used. Powering up Sonya’s Energy Ring projectile sees our meter refill quickly; using Geras’ remarkably irritating match timer-altering spell, however, means we’re without meter for the rest of the round (and rightly so; we feel positively dirty). Once we’re consciously managing the meters, most of our matches are a close-quarters back-andforth of experimental pokes and prods, until someone inevitably forgets to hold the block button and the nastier blows start flying in a race to capitalise on the mistake.
Otherwise, it seems Mortal Kombat 11 is content to set player creativity aside in favour of the usual pantomime drama. The new Fatal Blow mechanic means well, offering you a grisly comeback-style move when your health falls below 30 per cent. Presumably, it’s an attempt to bring super moves back into play (in MKX, players would often spend the required meter on EX moves instead). But if it’s blocked or missed, the Fatal Blow runs on a five-second cooldown before it can simply be tried again – ad infinitum. The final third of your health bar, then, tends to become a predictable sort of place, the desperate jousting flattening out the previously varied pace that the other mechanics work so hard to build. Given that it’s a clear opportunity for Netherrealm to showcase yet more lavishly rendered impalements, there’s a definite sense that the series’ true motivations still lie in giving edgy teenagers something to gawp at. Personally, we’d like something a little more to cheer about.