As I’ve mentioned at least once or twice throughout my tenure here at Phenixx Gaming, I’ve been a stalwart fan of the Mortal Kombat franchise for several years now. As you might expect in light of that, I was exceptionally excited to learn earlier this year that a new installment in the franchise would be released this past April.

I purchased Mortal Kombat 11 as soon as I found myself able to do so, but more pressing obligations prevented me from making the time necessary to sit down with the new title and experience at least some of what it had to offer. Thankfully, my schedule over the past couple of weeks has cleared enough to allow me quite a bit of quality time with MK11.

Therefore, it is my distinct pleasure to bring you my rather detailed thoughts on what Mortal Kombat 11 brings to the table. There’s quite a bit of ground to cover in doing so, though, so let’s jump right in without further delay.

As I often do, I think I’ll begin this discussion by presenting my thoughts on what I consider to be MK11‘s main attraction, namely its story mode. I’ve expressed my fondness in the past for the unique story ideas which NetherRealm Studios have managed to create in each fighting game they’ve developed.

Mortal Kombat 11 is certainly no exception to that rule; in fact, its story mode just might be my favorite of all NetherRealm’s story campaigns. Of course, I’ll do my best to avoid spoiling anything for those of you who haven’t yet played MK11, though there may be unavoidable spoilers related to Mortal Kombat 9 and Mortal Kombat X.

Mortal Kombat 11’s story begins two years after the events of Mortal Kombat X. Raiden’s nemesis Shinnok has been defeated, most of the slain fighters who became revenants under Quan Chi’s control have returned to normal, and Raiden remains in possession of his adversary’s amulet.

One of the first things players witness is a corrupted Raiden torturing Shinnok within the chamber which contains Earthrealm’s life force. Shinnok makes the mistake of taunting Raiden, who then beheads Shinnok in a fit of rage. Raiden then announces his intentions to deliver the still-living head of the fallen Elder God to the assumed new rulers of the Netherrealm, the revenant versions of Liu Kang and Kitana.

After Raiden departs the Sky Temple, we’re given our first glance at MK11’s main antagonist. The character in question is a woman by the name of Kronika, who is apparently tasked with controlling and altering the flow of time in order to ensure balance among all realms present within the Mortal Kombat universe.

Kronika is later revealed to be the mother of both Shinnok and another Elder God, Cetrion. Shinnok is the “darkness to Cetrion’s light;” that is to say, so long as Shinnok and Cetrion both exist, the forces of darkness and light are strong enough to balance each other out and create an equilibrium of sorts.

The main reason Kronika makes her presence known is the fact that she blames Raiden’s actions in MK9 and MKX for disrupting the intended course of events. Kronika intends to rewrite history in such a way that Raiden does not exist and, therefore, cannot interfere with the events within what Kronika believes to be the correct timeline.

That’s just about all I can say about MK11’s plot without spoiling anything or getting into complicated subjects such as parallel timelines and altered history. I’m not sure I could discuss that sort of thing within the context of MK11’s story mode without getting at least a small handful of details wrong. In light of that, I shall move on to my next discussion point.

I think now is an appropriate point within this review to address a question I’ve posed in my reviews of both games which lead up to MK11. Specifically, what’s new or different about the central concept of the game, the “kombat” itself? Well, if you’ve played either of MK11’s more recent predecessors, you’ll find that there have been a fair few changes and additions to the main aspects of every fight within the newest game in the franchise.

Firstly, you may recall that MK9 introduced what I refer to as the “meter system.” That is, during the course of a fight, players would work toward filling a meter that would allow them to enhance one of their special moves, interrupt their opponent’s combo attack, or perform a highly-damaging “X-ray move” based on how full their meter was.

Some remnants of this system still exist within MK11, though the aspects of it that remain have been heavily altered. There is no longer a straightforward meter that tells players exactly what they’re capable of based on the meter’s capacity. Instead, the meter has been replaced with attack and defense gauges.

I admittedly still haven’t quite figured out how the defense gauges work, but I do know that the attack gauges can be used to enhance each fighter’s special moves provided the gauge is activated at a certain point. For example, if a player were to input the proper button prompt at the correct time during, say, Liu Kang’s bicycle kick, that special move could be enhanced up to twice if both of Liu Kang’s attack gauges were full. Attack and defense gauges slowly refill over time.

The aforementioned highly-damaging “X-ray moves” have also been replaced within MK11 by what the game refers to as the “Fatal Blow” system. The central concept behind this system remains the same; a “Fatal Blow” move is still intended to damage one’s opponent enough to potentially turn the tide of a fight if the move connects at an opportune time.

However, fighters do not have access to their Fatal Blow move until they’re reduced to approximately 25% health during a round. Additionally, Fatal Blow moves can only be used once per fight, rather than multiple times if players were able to attain a full meter as was the case in MK9.

Fatal Blow moves can still be blocked or dodged; if this happens, the fighter whose Fatal Blow was avoided will have another chance to land the move after a certain amount of time. That is, of course, assuming they don’t lose the fight before that point.

Another notable addition to fights within MK11 is what the game refers to as the “Krushing Blow” mechanic (not to be confused with the aforementioned Fatal Blow system). Every fighter has certain basic attacks and special moves which can trigger a Krushing Blow under certain circumstances.

Players will easily be able to tell when they’ve landed a Krushing Blow because the camera will zoom in upon the area of one’s opponent’s body which was damaged by the attack in order to emphasize the extent of the damage inflicted by it. Krushing Blows also cause considerably more damage than a given attack normally would if it didn’t constitute a Krushing Blow.

As I alluded to, each fighter has different attacks that can constitute a Krushing Blow in certain circumstances. Thus, I think it’s important to study your preferred fighters’ move sets in order to familiarize yourself with how best to use their Krushing Blow attacks to your advantage. Bear in mind, however, that each attack which triggers a Krushing Blow can only do so once per fight.

Additionally, every fighter has access to a certain Krushing Blow maneuver provided the right conditions are met. More specifically, if you happen to be crouching when your opponent attempts a high or overhead attack, and you successfully counter their attack with an uppercut, that’s a guaranteed Krushing Blow.

Despite all the additions and changes to MK11’s combat system, there are thankfully still some things that have stayed exactly the same. Many fighters’ special move sets and button combinations haven’t changed since MK9 or MKX, which meant that I didn’t have to invest time re-learning how to play my favorite characters.

Beyond that, the Mortal Kombat franchise’s signature finishing moves are still present in spades within MK11. That idea leads me nicely to a few other things I want to discuss within this review.

MK11 just wouldn’t be a true Mortal Kombat game without the series’ trademark gore-filled finishing moves known as Fatalities. Each fighter has two of these finishers unique to them, although you’ll initially only have access to the button combination for one of them. I’ll explain why later.

In addition to each fighter’s unique Fatalities, Brutalities also return within MK11. The Brutality system is, as far as I can remember, virtually the same as it was in Mortal Kombat X except for one notable change.

By that, I mean you must perform a specific action just before you officially win any given fight (that is, before you reach the “Finish Him/Her” screen) in order to perform a Brutality. For example, most Brutalities require that you land a certain specific move which damages your opponent enough to constitute the final hit of the fight.

However, you’ll find that although every playable fighter has at least one Brutality unique to them, every fighter also initially has access to at least one Brutality that can be used by any character. This initial Brutality, known as “The Klassic,” simply requires that you land an uppercut as the final hit of any given fight.

If you’d rather swap out that Brutality for a different one, you’ll need to delve into one of the new systems within MK11, namely the “Kustomize” menu. You might recall that in Mortal Kombat X, each fighter had three different “fighting styles” which dictated the list of special moves available to them in each fight.

That’s still partially the case within MK11, though each fighter starts with two different “styles” as opposed to three. The main attraction of the “Kustomize” menu is the fact that it allows you to create custom variations and move lists for your favorite fighters at your leisure. You can also unlock many different cosmetic items for each fighter, such as alternate costumes. These cosmetics can be equipped within the “Kustomize” system.

In order to unlock cosmetics and several other fighter-specific items, you’ll have to venture into the game’s Krypt mode. You might recall that the Krypts in MK9 and MKX are much more interactive than the mode was in, say, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance.

In Deadly Alliance, you simply picked out which chest you wanted to open and paid a certain amount of in-game currency in order to open said chest. Conversely, in the more recent Mortal Kombat games, you can actually explore various areas of each Krypt and purchase items at your own pace.

MK11’s Krypt is virtually the entirety of Shang Tsung’s Island. The sorcerer is uncharacteristically welcoming and hospitable when you first arrive at the Krypt; he proceeds to invite you to explore and open the cornucopia of chests strewn about the place at your leisure, provided you have the resources to do so.

As far as I’ve been able to tell, there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason as to the cost of opening a chest compared to what any given chest might contain. For example, one chest might cost upwards of 13,000 in-game “Koins” and contain something minor, such as character art; alternatively, a chest which costs a comparatively more affordable 1,500 Koins might contain an extraordinarily rare character-specific cosmetic item.

I mentioned earlier that you’ll initially only have access to one Fatality button combination for each fighter. That’s mainly because the input codes for each fighter’s other Fatality, as well as several character-specific Brutality codes, can be found by opening chests within the Krypt. There is another way you can unlock these codes without searching through the Krypt, but let’s come back to that.

Of course, as you might expect, you’ll need a healthy supply of Koins and the various other types of currency present within MK11 if you want to purchase anything from the Krypt. There are three main ways to earn the various types of in-game currency, namely the story mode and both of the “tower” game modes.

These tower game modes consist of what the game refers to as “Klassic Towers,” which are basically MK11’s version of an arcade mode with an added twist that allows you to choose how many opponents you wish to fight; as well as the new “Towers of Time” mode, which I’ll discuss in more detail momentarily.

The Klassic Towers mode also includes an “endless” tower, wherein you battle a theoretically infinite number of opponents until you lose a fight; as well as a “survival” tower, which is the same general concept with the added twist that your health isn’t replenished between fights.

Towers of Time, on the other hand, are a series of frequently-changing towers with added combat modifiers. For example, a tower in this mode might require you to defeat five opponents who have been granted a boon of some sort in order to skew the odds in their favor. Alternatively, a tower might consist of a single, unusually-difficult enemy that provides extra rewards if you’re able to defeat them.

Some opponents in Towers of Time have an unfair advantage over you. Luckily for you, MK11 introduced what it calls “Konsumables” to help you level the playing field against any enemies who have beneficial modifiers in their favor.

These “Konsumables” come in various forms and rarities. Some of them might heal you for a specific percentage of your health when you activate them, while others will summon a combatant who isn’t in the fight to assist you for a few seconds by attacking or crowd-controlling your opponent.

Any Konsumable you elect to equip before a fight can be used during said fight as many times as you deem necessary, though each Konsumable does have a short cooldown period between uses. Most Konsumables are also destroyed after you take them into a fight.

When equipping Konsumables before a fight, you have three slots for your Konsumables to fill. Some Konsumables will only take up one of these slots, whereas others will require all three. It falls to you to determine which Konsumables will serve you best in a given battle based on who your opponent is and which beneficial modifiers they may have.

Konsumables of all types and rarities are often found within the Krypt, though some can be earned as rewards from playing through story mode or completing towers. As I said, the Towers of Time mode has proven to be an excellent source of Koins in my experience, so I always try my hand at a few towers anytime I intend to visit the Krypt during a play session within MK11.

I should also emphasize something, if I may. Note that I just mentioned the Towers of Time mode serving as an excellent source of Koins as far as I’ve played up to this point. When I say “excellent,” I mean to say I had just under one million Koins to my name when I visited the Krypt for the first time. I suppose one could reasonably go so far as to say that the Towers of Time give out Koins like candy (or should I say “kandy”?).

Before I wrap up this review, I’d like to offer my thoughts on the game’s planned downloadable content and in-game purchases.

I discussed my thoughts on the game’s first DLC pack (or “Kombat Pack”) in another article a while back. To give you the gist of that article, one of my main points was that I don’t quite feel comfortable spending forty dollars on a pack of new fighters and cosmetic items, no matter how excited I am by the prospect of new playable characters.

I hope that NetherRealm elects to allow players to purchase fighters from any Kombat Packs individually, as they did with Injustice 2. There already exist two purchasable DLC characters outside of any Kombat Packs, namely Shao Kahn and Frost. Frost can be unlocked by progressing through MK11’s story mode, and I think the asking price for Shao Kahn individually is much more reasonable than the price of a Kombat Pack.

With that said, however, there are items for sale within MK11’s in-game store which I consider to be somewhat less necessary or acceptable than DLC characters or cosmetic items. Specifically, players can purchase “Time Krystals,” which can then be spent in the game’s store on such things as tokens that allow players to skip fights in the Tower game modes or perform “easy Fatalities.”

For transparency’s sake, I should mention at this point that players earn ten Time Krystals each time they level up their “Kombat Kard” by playing through the various game modes. As such, players are not explicitly required to purchase Time Krystals with real currency, but the game unsurprisingly makes it very clear that the option to do so exists.

I should also make clear that I had accumulated enough Time Krystals through normal gameplay to purchase one hundred of the aforementioned “easy Fatality” tokens. I have mixed feelings about these “easy Fatality” tokens; on the one hand, I feel that their presence might be perceived as somewhat insulting to players who want to practice performing finishers with their actual button combinations.

On the other hand, though, I must confess that having these tokens has significantly expedited my process of unlocking the in-game achievements for performing two different Fatalities with each fighter. Plus, as I said a moment ago, I didn’t spend any real currency on those tokens or the Time Krystals with which I bought them. I’m well aware that some players might be tempted by these micro-transactions, however; that’s why I wanted to discuss them as my final point about MK11.

To conclude, I absolutely adore the newest installment in the Mortal Kombat franchise despite my rather ominous discussion of its in-game purchases. Mortal Kombat 11 is honestly everything I hoped it would be and then some. Its’ story mode, in my opinion, is precisely as long as it needs to be in order to establish and complete a coherent plot.

Additionally, the tower-based modes will likely not cease to amuse me for quite some time, especially while the Towers of Time continue to change as frequently as they currently do. I wholeheartedly believe the game is worth its full sixty-dollar asking price, though as I said, I’m of two minds about whether any future Kombat Packs are worth purchasing. Therefore, I leave that decision to you.

Phenixx Gaming is everywhere you are. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Mortal Kombat 11

59.99

9.3

Score

9.3/10

Pros

• New Modes and Additions are a Breath of Fresh Air for Longtime Fans
• Planned DLC May Extend the Game's Lifespan
• In-Depth Tutorials Help Both Newcomers and Longtime Fans Master New Combat System

Cons

• Significantly More Violent than Previous Games