Mortal Kombat 11 Review

It has been seventeen years since the release of Mortal Kombat 4, and the franchise is experiencing ups and downs in gaming success with many confused experiments.­ All the journey towards the better Mortal Kombat action leads us to Mortal Kombat 9, released in 2011. With the launch, the franchise boosted the sales again, and fans of the old action-packed game got a chance to more brutalities and fun.

Then we have seen Mortal Kombat X in action, and it also improved in the mechanics and raised the success to a broader audience. Mortal Kombat 11 has flourished in its genre and has improved a lot regarding gameplay, characters, and story.

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Mortal Kombat 11 Review Score

Mathew Bradford

Story
Gameplay
Graphics

Summary

Mortal Kombat 11 is about the story, fatalities, brutalities, and one of the best graphics in the whole series. You can feel the story through outstanding visuals and well-designed animations. Graphics and story are some of the plus points that we noted in this edition of Mortal Kombat.

4.2

Released on April 23, 2019, Mortal Kombat 11 benchmarked its success as a hard-hitting fighting game. Many competitors in the category worked hard to reach the likes of this action-packed game but failed to get the audience’s attention. One example is Samurai Showdown, a fantastic game regarding gameplay but unable to get the audience’s attention. MK11 completes the trilogy of the previous two main releases and holds itself as reigning champion of action-packed games. This game’s mechanics worked on the audience’s pulse and provided a bucket load of pure entertainment.

The Mortal Kombat series always had a reputation of a brutal fighting game in which you rips the people’s heads off and defeat opponents with fatalities. The game series is famous for violence and gore for 27 years. MK9 and MKX brought improved mechanics in the gore and violence with quality. Mortal Kombat 11 enhanced the violence and quality of the game that best suits the series reputation. It is arguably one of the best games that Netherrealm released yet. The game includes single-player and multiplayer modes that feature all the hardcore elements of the game.

In the 90s, Mortal Kombat made its impression in the gaming industry by its violently designed finishers known as Fatality. Every character in the game has its finisher associated with violence and involves punching and tearing the opponent’s body parts. But we never expected Mortal Kombat to improved that much and get to the creative zone. MK11 has finishers that are more violent and gory but with creative graphics. The game shows a clear sense of violence with modified finishers in this edition of the franchise.

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Previously oriented around violence Mortal Kombat never expected to be carrying a story. Violence was the main attraction of MK for years, but the story adds more to the experience. The story in the game is a rollercoaster that travels the time back and forth. Time-traveling carries the characters from the dead to alive and then back to the dead. You may be fighting with the past or future version of your character in this time-traveling adventure. Keeping the game’s theme alive and preserving it, the story brings a new twist and turn.

The franchise is famous for the gameplay’s violence and proved to be part of trends, pop culture, films, and events. Much fan-created content, reality TV shows, and events featured Mortal Kombat for years. Hardcore action and fun by playing this game intrigue the players and bind them to its core aspects.

The Story

Action games are mostly known for their straightforward action plots and do not usually involve a story. In most cases, a plot or story is the excuse to get to the fight. But with Mortal Kombat, the story pulls fans towards the game, and you get a lot of fun-packed gameplay with an exciting story to enchant and make you feel like a part of the character. The immersive story mode gives you a glimpse of the event of MK11 and gets you through the game in an exciting way.

The story in this game starts right after Mortal Kombat X has ended. Mortal Kombat 11 carries the story from the events of Mortal Kombat 9 and Mortal Kombat X. In the story mode; many events bring you back to the previous two editions of the game. The events continue simultaneously and keep you engaged with the numerous happenings in the game. If you have not previously played any Mortal Kombat game, you do not need to worry as the story briefs you about all the previous events.

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Mortal Kombat has introduced Kronika in the story mode that presents you with the game’s real essence of the story. Although Mortal Kombat is never built around the story and works with straight-end fighting, the newer version of the game carries the story. Kronika, a time traveler, keeps traveling between past and future and characters keep getting erased and included in the game with this time traveling. You collide with the past and future version of yourself in the fights and change the game’s course.

The gameplay is much satisfying with all those cutscenes that were not present in previous games. The quick-time events are no more in the game, and you can give your head some rest between flights. Unlike the earlier games, the cutscenes take more time and give more sense to the story’s upcoming events. This addition is a step up from the gaming franchise and added more aspects to its story. Dialogues in the story are humorous on some levels and keep the players’ interest in the game.

Aside from the story’s link to the previous games, it helps you remember the events that happened. You still can keep track of the game progress without watching the previous episodes. But as a die-hard fan of the game, remembering the event in the story increases the interest and better gameplay. Otherwise, several Youtube channels help you understand the game’s theme and story without watching much of the cutscenes.

Gameplay

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Mortal Kombat gameplay carries similar DNA to Mortal Kombat X and Injustice 2. The more you play the game, the more you get familiar with the special moves and combo sequences. Before the fight starts, you get a brief look at the move’s combination on the screen. But you can alter those moves to get extra combos. Further, the special attacks are straightforward to implement by manipulating the key combinations. You can use a back-forward or a combination of a down-forward button to activate special moves. Core hits are also easy to implement and need some practice to master.

Mortal Kombat has implemented the simplified combo formula that works fine to lure the opponent into continuous unblockable retreat. Getting good at combos is a satisfying treat for the players, and you keep your opponent suppressed in the corner and hope you finish the moves. There is no complicated formula to operate combos on the opponent and need to keep the moves going on for a long streak.

The Mortal Kombat series always carries the feature of Finishers right from the game’s beginning. Finishers attract the fan base towards the more brutal action in the game. In Mortal Kombat 11, they just made a remarkable comeback, and you can use multiple fatalities in a single game. Fatalities are a mixture of beheading, torture, and aggressive moves, and you can pull a different combination of buttons to activate these fatalities. They might carry the element of brutality and torture but far away from the realistic approach. Being an expert in the game gives you more advantage over the finishers, and you can pull them in just a few seconds to get an edge over the opponent.

To simplify the gaming for its players, Mortal Kombar loaded the game with ‘Easy Fatalities.’ You can activate the Easy Fatalities by pressing a combination of a few buttons. But the downside of using these easy ones is that you can use them only three times in a game. For more, you need to pay and get access to more.

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Mortal Kombat 11 provided more easy features to the fans, and one of them is the easy accessibility of brutalities. For meeting the brutalities conditions, you do not need to carry doing a similar task throughout the game. For example, you do not need to keep blocking the whole match for activating uppercut spine-pop brutality. You have to wait for the right time towards the game’s end and start it to get an advantage over the opponent. You can celebrate the victory more fascinatingly by activating the brutality near the victory.

Classic slow-motion x-ray shows the brutality of the events adds the visual break to special moves. Landing the special blows and pulling off the movements like uppercut shows the action in slow motion x-ray visuals. The reality is silly in the game, and you keep fighting the opponent despite constant head hammering and pulling the internals. You can customize every aspect of  Mortal Kombat 11 with the advanced options provided in the game. This customization has added much balance to the game and offers solid fights.

Variation to the playing style of the character offers a great diversity. Each fighter carries a dedicated move set that distinguishes it from other characters. In this way, you play the characters by utilizing their move sets and customizing the fighting accordingly. Every character has its special moves and brutality to define the fate of the gameplay. There are slots for the moves, and you can decide either from parry or offensive skills and enjoy the hammering around with your opponents.

Game Modes

Mortal Kombat 11 includes different game modes, including multiplayer battles, story mode, Krypt mode, and the battle of survival through different towers. Multiplayer mode offers competitive gameplay between the players and provides a wide range of events through its in-game mechanism. Story mode lets you explore the event and occurrences of the characters’ stories and grind for more perfection.

Krypt mode offers the players the opportunity to farm hearts (the in-game currency for getting new stuff). You can get hearts at a slow rate, but you get by playing the free mode. Towers also offer a wide range of gameplay to harvest Koins for leveling up. Each game mode is unique, and you never get bored playing the game and switching between the events.

Characters

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Like the other action games, every character in Mortal Kombat 11 represents unique mechanics that help them stand out from others. For instance, Skarlet amplifies her attacks to heal herself. Her special blood move keeps the enemy far away by pushing the enemies. On the other hand, Jax carries a combo strike that allows him to increase its damage with every successful attack. His attacks are melee and punch heat up with every landed blow that increases the damage more and more. Baraka increases the damage for a short time with its War banner move. Each character has an extraordinary variety and provides unique variations to the gameplay.

A wide range of customizations for each character is available in MK 11. You have the liability for choosing from the consistent abilities of the characters. Each character can have three abilities as the ability slot is limited to 3 slots per character. If you are going with Scorpion in the game, keep in mind that you have a spear and Heel Port moves as special attacks. You can select Demon Breath, Burning Spear, and Hell Flame fireball aside from these specials. One ability you choose to take a single slot while the other two take the other remaining slots. These variations allow a great range of flexibility in the game and enable you to modify character abilities at will.

Mortal Kombat 11 hosts many variations and an extensive roster of 25 characters to play around. The game covers tutorials that cover all the offensive and defensive moves aside from basic moves. You can check the strategies, character-specific mechanics and master the practical application of the moves and strategies. You can even record the moves and get full details of the damage done to the opponents. Practicing the fatalities is also possible with the dedicated mode.

Leveling up

Leveling up in the games is a tiresome process and requires patience, mainly farming the unique resources. There are different ways to farm materials in Mortal Kombat 11, and we will be covering these all methods. Koins, Souls, and Hearts need to gather from regular gameplay.

Hearts are one of the most challenging resources to collect in MK 11. They contribute towards the chest buying and need at least 100 to 250 for the chests. And if you perform Mercy, then the number increase for six for Fatalities and Brutalities; it piles up to eight. There is a fatalities guide where you get fatality codes and list all the Brutalities discovered in the game.

Another more straightforward method for farming hearts is by the Krypt. You rip apart the hung bodies and get hearts in the Krypt using the Scorpian” Spear. Each corpse yields up to three hearts, but the problem is that the corpse does not respawn regularly. This method is not the fastest method to farm the hearts, but it is still the quickest method discovered.

Koins in the game is easy to get with little effort towards farming. You get easy 1000 Koins by completing Dragon Challenges. An alternative way is to create a character variation aiming towards dealing with AI opponents. Then guide that created character to fight through Klassic Tower, specially Endless Tower. You only need little effort by continuing the character to the next fights.

As compared to Koins, Soul Fragments are challenging to get. You can farm at the Tower of Time and have a better rate of spawning. You can get tips regarding the Soul Fragments on Youtube, “Maximilian Dood” explained in detail.

Graphics and Sound Quality

The game’s graphics and presentation are top-notch and one of the finest in the Mortal Kombat series. NetherRealms has brought exceptional detailing to the character models. Characters appear very well detailed, and a significant improvement is the detailing of the faces. The characters seem to be more janky and missing details towards graphics in the series’s previous games. But in Mortal Kombat 11, this visual gap got filled with excellent development of character’s faces.

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Mortal Kombat 11 comes with highly detailed and well-developed graphics and makes the character stand out from the competition. The graphics improved for the characters but also the gears. The damage model is also well developed with an element of supremacy.

Behind all the brutality and dropouts, there are some gorgeous visuals which we usually overlook. One of the finest detail about the game is the damage that characters take over time. The character clearly shows the beating that it took in the game after the endgame. Adding these minor but excellent visual improvements adds a nice touch to the game.

The fighting levels are also well detailed and present some of the cool graphical features. You can see blood absorbing into the sand with time while it stays on stone and wood. The graphics carry a crispy look and are more accurate as compared to Mortal Kombat X. The game plays fine on 60 fps, and the backgrounds work to match the sharp visual elements. The action in the foreground seems more fluent as compared to the background animations. For example, you can see your character in better FPS than the sea of blood’s floating background on one level.

What the game does right?

Mortal Kombat 11 is about the story, fatalities, brutalities, and one of the best graphics in the whole series. You can feel the story through outstanding visuals and well-designed animations. Graphics and story are some of the plus points that we noted in this edition of Mortal Kombat.

What brings it Down?

One main concern about Mortal Kombat 11 is its extensive farming for the upgrade resources. You spend time more and more towards unlocking stuff in the Krypt. The game circles around the three primary resources, and each of them are quite difficult to collect and needs to invest time. There are shortcuts for getting these, but they need a bit of luck and time investment.

Another frustrating aspect of the game is its unlocking system. You spend Koins for unlocking the second Fatality of the characters. And for getting a hold of Koins, Krypt mode and towers are the two places that give Koins after extensive farming. You get bored easily when unlocking the fatalities and spend a lot of time farming them in the unique modes.

Minimum Requirements

Minimum requirements to run Mortal Kombat 11 are following:

  • Operating System: 64-bit Windows 7 / Windows 10
  • Processor: Intel Core i5-750, 2.66 GHz / AMD Phenom II X4 965, 3.4 GHz or AMD Ryzen™ 3 1200, 3.1 GHz
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM
  • Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 670 or NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 1050 / AMD® Radeon™ HD 7950 or AMD® Radeon™ R9 270
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Network: Broadband Internet connection

Recommended Requirements

Recommended requirements for Mortal Kombat 11 are following:

  • Operating System: 64-bit Windows 7 / Windows 10
  • Processor: Intel Core i5-2300, 2.8 GHz / AMD FX-6300, 3.5GHz or AMD Ryzen™ 5 1400, 3.2 GHz
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM
  • Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 780 or NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 1060-6GB / AMD® Radeon™ R9 290 or RX 570
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Network: Broadband Internet connection

Parental Guide

Mortal Kombat 11 got an M rating due to excessive violence, gore, and blood. The brutalities and fatalities are designed in a way that they give a close view of the events. They involve tearing body parts, blood, fractures, and brutal events that may not be suitable for kids. Although these events are animations, they still carry the violence theme.

Final Verdict

The Mortal Kombat series always gave their fans a seamless experience of hardcore gaming with brutal fatalities. Since the game improved a lot in Mortal Kombat 11 with new mechanics and events, it got better and got your dose of brutalities in a fun-packed game. If you are a fan of violence and brutal events in the games, then there is no game better than this, and if you are looking for story-oriented gameplay, then there are much better options out there.

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Mathew Bradford

Hey! Mathew Bradford Here, A proud member of GamingExpert Team. I love playing games with new gaming gadgets. Our team is here to help you find the best gaming products, reviews of videos games and to help you decide which one is best for your. You can contact me if you need further assistance.