Summary [9.5 out of 10]

Building on the fantastic last entry, Mortal Kombat X returns with most of the same quality features while adding a few more to keep things feeling fresh. This is exactly the sort of thing a sequel should do with a nice blend of returning characters and features with a batch of new ones that are worthy additions and feel like natural evolutions as opposed to tacked on fluff. The game is enormously solid from  a gameplay standpoint and has an even deeper fighting system than the last one. There are some weird issues here like a story mode that feels rushed and some weirdly unbalanced graphics here and there but nothing that really takes away from the overall fun of the game. There is a lot to do and a ton of things to unlock in the offline game and even more still on the multi-player front. If you are a fan of fighting games you would have to be crazy not to pick this up as this series continues to define excellence in 2D fighting games.

 

What’s It Like:

Mortal Kombat: It sounds obvious to say this is like the last entry but the Mortal Kombat series have taken some hard turns here and there and it is not always a foregone conclusion that one would be similar to another but luckily this one is very much like the last entry in just about every way.

Injustice: Also kind of an obvious one considering how much like Mortal Kombat Injusitce was but the stage interactions and unlockables are also similar to Injustice. Some of the achievements are the same as well. Sadly, no stage transitions here which is really too bad.

 

The Great

Fighting System: Like the fighting system in the last entry, MKX offers a much more fluid and dynamic system for moves and combo building than a lot of the classic entries in the series. This game takes it a step further with adding additional fighting styles you choose at character selection that gives every character three possible variations with different move sets and abilities. Not only does this offer more variety on the character front but it makes it necessary to be able to adapt your gameplay to deal with whatever variation the other player has chosen. This is a pretty big game changer and requires a system that allows for improvisation and dynamic combo chaining. There is a bit of a curve when you first pick it up but once you are acclimated the system it is pretty much flawless and if you are getting dominated by someone it is based on a disparity in skill and not that the system is flawed or unresponsive. It is possible to pull wins so far out of your ass that they are on top of your hat because the system rewards good gameplay as opposed to just spamming the same thing over and over again. Sure, that is possible but a skilled player can deal with and come back. The same cannot be said for all fighting systems. This also speaks to the depth of system itself and how many options you have on the fly. If one method isn’t getting it then it is pretty easy to switch tactics and try something else. Again, skill becomes an issue but with a good training mode and several difficulty levels it is easy to find the sweet spot to allow yourself to develop and get better.

Stages: If you play any fighting game enough, eventually all the stages are going to start getting old. On the other hand, if you craft detailed and robust interactive stages that are constantly changing as the battle goes on you can mitigate a lot of that stage fatigue. That is what MK X has done. The stages are gorgeous with brilliant effects going on in the back from rain and lightning to onlookers and passers by. The fact that you can grab some of those onlookers and passers by and use them against your opponent makes it all the better and even after weeks of play there are still things you can grab and utilize that you might not notice. The first time I grabbed an old lady and beat my opponent over the head with her I went through a litany of complex emotions that traveled from horrified, grossed out and eventually landed on laughter that almost lost me the match. There is so much you can grab and use in the background that in some stages you could almost win with little else. These stages are very fun and go a long way toward keeping the game from feeling and looking stale.

Roster: It is really hard to beat the roster of fighters from the last game which was a grab bag of who’s who from the series’ history but Mortal Kombat X gives us a healthy line up of returning fighters while also giving us enough fresh blood to keep things interesting. At first blush it could be easy to dismiss some of the new characters as retreads of old characters given that they are the children or relatives of older characters but they all have their own unique play styles and while they share some commonalities with their relatives they all feel fresh and vital. Jackie Briggs and Takeda in particular are awesome additions and bring new ideas to the table. Other additions like Erron Black give us something entirely new that still play very well and feel right at home in the series. Add to this the variations on character styles and the upcoming DLC and you have a fantastic roster that will not get boring any time soon.

Living Towers: There are several different game play modes, which I will get to below, but one stand out is the Living Towers. This looks like a standard tower structure at first glance but the Living Towers offer Daily, Hourly and Premiere towers that offer unique themes and variations to make things much more interesting. The tower length and opponents vary depending on the tower theme and rewards are offered up for completing certain tasks during specific matches. Some of the matches have modifiers applied to one or both of the player that throw in extra variables. Some of these modifiers are things like taking damage any time you jump, or hands from hell grabbing you and holding you in place, or balls of health being thrown out into the arena. These sorts of modifiers also appear in the Test Your Luck towers but the overall themes are what separate the Living Towers. Some dictate the character you have to play while others emulate towers from previous games like the Mortal Kombat 1 tower in which, if you meet the right conditions,  even offers a secret challenge from Reptile. The Living Towers are great because they offer real challenges, variety of gameplay and unique experiences that help keep the game from getting boring. They are online only, however, so if you are offline you are shit out of luck for this one.

Fatalities: A hallmark of the series one would think there are only so many ways that mystical warriors can kill people with magic, bladed weapons, fire-arms and sometimes just pure hate but if that is true then it is a deep well because the fatalities here are all pretty great. Some of them cross from badass gore into ‘holy shit that is over the line disgusting’ but they are fatalities not friendships. The thing that I really dug about the fatalities this time around though is that the move programs to trigger them are not so intricate that they are impossible to pull off but still manage to offer some challenge. If you want over the top challenge conditions then you are still covered with the handful of Brutalities each character has. Fatalities are just icing on a badass cake which is what they should be.

The Good

Graphics: Much like the previous entry, the graphics are generally great with some strange graphical hiccups. A lot of this deals with the cut scenes in the story mode so it isn’t the worst thing in the world but it is kind of jarring to go from new gen graphics to moments that look like they would be at home two generations ago. Aside from these hiccups, however, the graphics in the game are gorgeous and there is a lot of intricate detail to be found. Some of the character models are not what I would like but costume change unlocks really help this out a lot. Not much to be done about Johnny Cage sounding like a smarmy asshole but then again that is just Johnny.

Story Mode: Returning from both MKX and Injustice, the story mode here does the same thing that those previous efforts did in that it determines who you have to play as you go through the story. This is pretty cool because it forces you to branch out and get familiar with more than just one or two fighters. The story is nonsensical and weird for the most part but if you are 10 games deep in Mortal Kombat then that is nothing new. I did find myself a little disappointed after the Injustice story mode, which was pretty much amazing, but taken on its own merits the story is fine. It didn’t really blow me away but it wasn’t bad. I could have used a longer story mode but it is better to leave wanting more rather than have it over stay its welcome.

Variety of play/Modes: As mentioned above, there are a ton of game modes here that are generally variations of the same thing but they offer up a robust amount of variety that keeps you playing long after the story mode and Klassic tower have gotten old. From the Living Towers, to the Faction towers, there’s a lot to get involved in. The faction towers allow for some pretty cool online match ups and events while the offline traditional towers give you different challenges like Test Your Might which takes a former minigame and makes it into a challenging and rage inducing tower unto itself. The Test Your Luck challenge gives you the randomized feel of the Living Towers without the player needing to be online. There is a lot do here which is a nice change from some other fighting games with a flimsy suite of modes.

Krypt: Returning once again is the Krypt which allows players to unlock extras like extra costumes, fatalities, brutalities and other goodies. Any match you play will pay you Krypt Koins which are used to unlock the graves of the dead to unlock the extra stuff just like the series has been doing for years. This time out you take your first person adventure through a variety of environments collecting weapons and artifacts from the game’s fighters to access new and hidden areas throughout the Krypt. There are also occasional wolves and giant spiders that attack you and if you  can kill them in the appropriate time window you will get extra Koins. If you are too slow there is really no penalty outside of not getting the Koins. The Krypt makes for a fun if not maddening way to unlock stuff. If you suck you can always fork over $20 in the marketplace to unlock all of that but I really think that takes out a lot of fun from the game.

The Bad

Lack of Stage Transitions: This is really more of a nitpick than anything else but I really wish that Injustice’s stage transitions would have made it to this game. The stages do a ton of things and it would be even cooler if they were linked by knocking some hapless bastard through the wall. Oh well.

Conclusion [9.5 out of 10]

At the end of it all, you really couldn’t ask for a tighter and more fully featured fighting game than Mortal Kombat X. Not everything is perfect here but it has it where it counts with a super solid fighting system and a terrific roster of fighters. The new additions add to the overall quality rather than detracting from it and there are all sorts of ways to play to keep you engaged and having fun. This is how you do a great sequel and this is how you do a great fighting game.