The next “game to live action movie marathon” at least has an accompanying game this time! Yes, the reboot Mortal Kombat movie is under the microscope and due to that it made the most sense to look at the most recent (as of this review) MK game, given a lot of the visual identity and extremely gory fatalities seen in the film are based off of the most recent efforts. I enjoyed my time with MK11, but I’m glad I waited for it to be cheap (and with all the DLC) as it’s never been my favourite fighting game franchise, and some decisions made in its design are, um, questionable, to say the least. Let’s take a look!
Background:
Mortal Kombat 11 or Mortal Kombat 2 Remake? The answer is: Yes.
Mortal Kombat 11 was released on PS4, XBOX One, Switch and PC Worldwide on April 23rd 2019, which the exception of the European Switch version, which for some reason came out on May 10th 2019. A Stadia version (*snigger*) was released on November 19th 2019 and the “Ultimate” version was released for all prior consoles (apart from the Stadia I assume…) as well as the PS5 and XBOX Series X/S on November 17th 2020.
Shang Tsung, modelled on and voiced by original Mortal Kombat film’s Shang Tsung Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa weirdly, was the pre-order bonus. Nice to have a call back to the original film, it’s still my favourite, not to spoil the MK 2021 film review for those reading this first!
Gameplay:
Huh, weird formless shadow people still have cartilage and skulls… good to know.
Gameplay, despite being all fancy-looking with 3D models, still feels like traditional Mortal Kombat, complete with that trademark uppercut, repeated punches and flying kicks. Obviously the mechanics are deeper, beyond regular attacks, special moves and fatalities there are “Fatal Blows” which are powerful moves only able to be done if your health has dropped below 30%; “Krushing Blows” which are more powerful versions of regular special moves that not only cause more damage but do the whole “X-Ray to show horribly specific damage” thing that modern MK loves; and a special “Flawless Block” where if you time a block just right you can hit an unblockable counter. Not exactly super deep like a lot of 2D versus fighters but perfectly fine given, let’s face it, a lot of what makes MK popular is its infamous gore and weird crossovers… More on those later…
Along with the Fatalities and Stage Fatalities the “Friendship” finishers returned (at least in DLC and for this “Ultimate” version anyway) which is always a good laugh. They can still be tricky to pull off, more of my fights ended with an accidental single head punch than I’d like to admit, but still a good laugh.
The Krypt mode may be complete bollocks but it does look nice!
As for modes? Well, alongside the Story Mode, on and offline Versus mode and the “Towers” mode (in other words your classic Arcade mode complete with endings for each character) you get the “Towers of Time”, which are randomly generated sequence of characters with different rewards and gimmicks attached, all time-based and updated online (to the point where you can’t even access the mode if you’re not logged in!) and one of the more cash-grabby modes you’ll ever see: The Krypt. In it you unlock new costumes, moves, fatalities and other less fun stuff like artwork and the like, all while free-roaming around Shang Tsung’s island, which sounds fun until you realise two things: the rewards for opening every chest is completely random and in order to be allowed to open a chest you have to earn in-game currency, which you do very slowly. Of course you can always buy packs of currency from the online store! *sigh*… Look, I know this sort of thing is common now, but the random thing is the really kick-in-the-teeth. At least in Street Fighter V you could chose who or what to unlock via in-game currency and it was a lot quicker, here its slower and if you really want an item or move for your favourite character you have to rely on pure random chance. What a load of bollocks.
The costumes, moves etc. you do unlock can be assigned to characters and saved as your own custom version, complete with different stats and such, which is fun except if you happen to have not unlocked something you want for your favourite character in the random Krypt… Also this is game isn’t “always online” but it may as well be. Try and play it offline you’ll only have a few modes and anything you unlock in them won’t actually unlock until you sign in. I know in the 2020s it’s hard to imagine someone playing on a modern console without internet access but it DOES happen, to lock things behind logging in is also scummy. The game is fun, but those modes do put a downer on things.
Graphics and Sound:
Wait… Friendship? Friendship?! …. Again?
Graphics are nice, the fighters are chunky and detailed, the background varied and active, and yes the gore and violence well represented. Sound effects and voice cast are great (I still love the pre-battle taunt-offs that happen between every character, especially when the DLC characters started getting weirder and weirder) but like all MK games the background music is extremely forgettable.
Story:
Old or young (or in this case, both), Johnny Cage is still an fun character.
The story is very similar to MK9, just two games ago, in that a lot of the action and plot revolves around time travel, undoing past events and seeing the younger versions of classic (or “Klassic”, I guess) characters, though this time a time God called Kronika is the one messing about. She is the mother of Elder God Shinnok, and after his defeat and decapitation by Raiden in the last game / opening of this game she decides to change things. She creates a “time storm” that brings forward a bunch of younger MK veterans into the fold who then start hanging out with their later selves. A bunch of short side-stories unfold as Kronkika prepares to increase her Time Storm until she can recreate the universe itself but a union between Raiden and the young Liu Kang results in the birth of a “Fire God”.
*Story Ending Spoilers, plus spoilers for the Aftermath story!*
While a massive battle rages Fire God Liu Kang breaks into Kronika’s vault and eventually defeats her and becomes all-powerful, but the timeline was destroyed during the contest, so the now mortal Raiden agrees to stick with Kang as he is tasked with rebuilding the universe how he sees fit. Sadly it seems the Hour Glass can’t be used without Kronika’s “Crown of Souls” and despite apparently being all-knowing and powerful Liu Kang sends Shang Tsung of all people, along with Fujin and Nightwolf, to retrieve it. More timeline shenanigans take place and would believe it Tsung tries to take the crown for himself and returns to use it against Kang. It doesn’t work, Shang Tsung is erased from existence and Liu Kang goes about creating a new version of the MK universe, just two games after the previous reboot! The trailer for the next game, Mortal Kombat 1, confirms this as the canon outcome (if there was somehow any doubt…)
*Story Ending Spoilers, plus spoilers for the Aftermath story!*
The story’s a good laugh, with lots of nods and callbacks, but it’s not exactly riveting stuff, and the use of time-travel, younger versions of characters and the ending itself all call back to MK 9, making 10 the only Mortal Kombat game in this timeline to actually have a regular normal narrative…
Downloadable Content:
A déjà vu I never thought I’d see in a Mortal Kombat game, that’s for sure…
Obviously given this is the “Ultimate” version there wasn’t any, but as I won’t be reviewing the non-Ultimate version I’ll point the original DLC out, well apart from all the currency and skins packs, they’re self-explanatory.
“Kombat Pack 1” featured the aforementioned Shang Tsung right off the bat, plus Nightwolf and Sindel form MK itself alongside The Joker from Batman, Spawn and The Terminator, complete with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s likeness and a good voice-a-like. The Aftermath story expansion also included MK vets Funjin and Sheeva, plus Robocop, meaning you could finally rematch Terminator vs. Robocop (there’s a fun Mega Drive game from the childhood I’ll have to revisit one day…) Finally there was Kombat Pack 2, which had vets Mileena and Rain plus Rambo, with not only Sylvester Stallone’s likeness but his voice, as the man himself provided all the voice work (at home via Zoom, but hey, that’s 2020 for you sadly.) This meant you can have Stallone face off with Schwarzenegger for the ultimate 80s action show down!
Thoughts Now:
He’s fine. I mean that seriously, this kind of thing happens all the time during these matches and the fighters just shrug it off!
While Mortal Kombat ranks underneath a lot of other admittedly more Japan based 2D / 2.5D fighters for me personally MK 11 was still a good laugh. The story mode had some fun moments but really just doing some random ladders, getting a chuckle from all the pre-match dialogue and then have a fun bloody contest made the game last a good while, especially as I got the Ultimate edition so the roster was quite big and certainly varied! It’s just a shame customising a favourite character was such an unnecessarily steep mountain to climb…
Hogan Reviews 