Mortal Kombat (2011)
A soul worth taking
Mortal Kombat, a series famed for it’s over the top violence, and fighting system that
was arguably one of the best around in the mid 90’s. The first Mortal Kombat brought midway
into the lime light for it’s over the top violence and realistic approach on the Snes, Genesis and
height of the arcade days of gaming. Midway produced 3 more games one being better then
the last, kept the 2d aspect, and eventually went into the 3d realm, with Mortal Kombat 4, it
was okay, but wasn’t ground breaking, and they did some spin-offs, added fighting styles, and
then the unthinkable happened.
They went up against the DC universe and…..it…..was…..garbage……pure indescribable
garbage. The last game Midway did before closing there doors, then WB bought the rights and
pretty much bought midway, they just renamed them Netherealm studios. They then brought
us Mortal Kombat, rebooting in a sense, they made some changes, but did it through the story,
they didn’t just make the changes, they gave a reason for the changes…..you in a sense, I’ll
explain later.
Mortal Kombat was brought back into the light, they made some changes, brought a
lot of things back, and added so, so much more to the game. And it was for the good, I’ve never
had so much fun in a fighting game before in a long, long time. I had been playing soul caliber
for a while and then Mortal Kombat came out and I totally forgot about it, honestly I went on
line to play against other people, I even invested in a fight pad, and eventually got my hands on
a fight stick, just because I enjoyed the game so much. So I’m going to start with the Pros of
the game.
Pros
The controls in this game, feels so right, they are tight and responsive, what
ever you input the game registers, there was never a feeling that I was cheated
because the game misread a button input, very solid and just was a great feel.
The Graphics, are amazing, the battle damage and gore are awesome, the
characters literally look like they just got the crap beat out of them as the fight
goes on, I can’t get over it, it’s just amazing seeing someone’s cheek hanging off
the skull is amazing and the blood effects are top notch. Fatalities are basic for
the most part, but are extremely bloody. Kinda like they where giving a nod to
the original Mortal Kombat, nothing over the top, but still looks effective.
The Story is pretty sweet in all honesty, how they explain the reboot is pretty
cool, they still recognize the original games, but then change it up, again I will
explain a little later.
The DLC they gave out for the game is pretty sweet, they gave out alternate
costumes for a lot of the characters, which where from the original three Mortal
Kombat games, and added 4 characters, 3 from past games, and Freddy Krueger,
seriously game over man, that was awesome, and he fits so well in the universe
it just felt right.
They put so much into this game that I couldn’t believe it, they brought back
test your might, test your sight, and test your skill, and they added test your luck
which is pretty amazing, they give you either bonuses or hindrances based off a
slot mechanic.
Online is pretty solid in this, I didn’t come across any lag issues what so ever, and
king of the hill mode was awesome, it felt like I was in the arcade in line waiting
for a chance to take out the head dawg, and for Xbox users you see your avatar
waiting in line as you wait in the lobby, I believe you can actually watch the
match too, but it’s been a bit since I’ve played that mode.
Cons
-Shao Kahn is a arse, seriously he isn’t hard because of the A.I., he is hard
because he literally hits like a mac truck and has a move that literally stuns
you long enough for him to spam it over and over again, until you die, no
joke happened to me a couple of times. The best strategy is to keep your
distance and just peg him with ranged attacks, everyone in the game has at
least one range attack.
-DLC, I know I included it in the Pro section, but I also have to add it here too,
what they gave out was awesome, but it felt like they still could’ve done so
much more, and it’s just not this game that did it, countless of other games
do it too, I was just hoping they would go through and add more characters
from past games, or even add alternative costumes from past games, that
would’ve been cool to see.
-Spam characters, and again, ,most fighting games have that one character
where the best strategy with a certain character is to spam the same move
over and over again, and in this game it’s really the teleporting characters
that are kinda wack about it, no big grievance here, I’m honestly nit picking
at this point.
So that’s the basic review, I’m going to go over what I explained earlier about the story,
a slightly, so for those who have not played and wanted to see the story for themselves I’m just
putting up a heads up about a possible spoiler.
The game opens up to a scene of destruction and dead bodies laying around, the bodies
are all the contestants in the Mortal Kombat tournament, and Shao Kahn is shown walking
up to a beat up Raiden, and Shao Kahn grabs him and right before delivering the final blow,
Raiden sends a telepathic message to himself in the past, we then cut to a ship and it has Liu
Kang, Johnny Cage, Sonya blade, and Raiden as he receives the message and all he got was, “He
must Win”. He believes the message was ment to say Liu Kang must win. And the story goes
from there, I’m not going into full details, but as you go through you play most of the roster in
the game, if not all of them, and certain Key events are changed, for example, during the 2nd
or 3rd tournament, Smoke and Tundra (Sub-Zero’s younger brother) where being pursued by
the Lin Kuei clan, and when they are attacked, Raiden changes the time line and saves Smoke
instead of Tundra, and Tundra is the one who is turned into a Cyborg like Cyrax and Sector,
instead of Smoke. Other Key changes is Stryker and Kabal are Cops, with Kabal being a former
member of the Black Dragon Clan. The story tends to be over the top, but honestly Mortal
Kombat has always been over the top, I look forward to more from this franchise now, and how
the story ended was amazing, I’m not going to say anymore then that, I want you to go out,
grab that game, and play the ever living crap out of it now!
I give this game a rating of, “Why the Hell aren’t you out at the store, buying this game,
and playing it right this moment!?”
-Jack “Orangetom” Haythorn
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