Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate Review

2015’s Mortal Kombat 10 signalled the beginning of an evolutionary turn for Netherrealm Studios’ storied fighting game series, featuring fresh new characters, a compelling story and the ability to select different fighting styles for every combatant.

Mortal Kombat 11 continues this evolution, but not every aspect of the game is moving in the right direction. Though it taps into the series’ entire 27-year history, Mortal Kombat 11 is the second sequel to Netherrealm Studios’ 2011 retcon/reboot, which was simply titled Mortal Kombat.

The 2011 release took Mortal Kombat back to its roots. It got rid of the clumsy 3D fighting the series had become, replacing it with stylish, impactful battles along a 2D plane. It also rolled back the series’ storyline, retelling the events of the first three Mortal Kombat games with a more satisfying and cinematic narrative.

Mortal Kombat 10 picked up 25 years later, introducing new characters such as Cassie Cage, the daughter of Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade, and Jacqui Briggs, the daughter of cybernetic special forces member Jax.

Older, wiser versions of classic characters fighting side-by-side with the next generation made for an exciting storyline and helped Mortal Kombat 10 feel like a brand-new direction for the series.

Mortal Kombat 11, out now for the PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, builds upon the story and game mechanics established in Mortal Kombat 10 beautifully, for the most part.

The game’s story is even more involved and engaging. The fighting feels more deliberate and calculated. Where Mortal Kombat 10 featured multiple fighting styles for each character, Mortal Kombat 11 lets players create their own fighting styles, picking and choosing which moves they wish to include.

The treasure-filled Krypt returns, and it… well, the Krypt could use some work. We’ll get there.

Test Your Might Netherrealm Studios makes fighting games that hit hard. Between the ongoing progression of Mortal Kombat and its sister series, the DC superhero-powered Injustice, Netherrealm’s fight games have exquisitely calculated fighting.

They have a slower, more methodical combat system than most other fighting games. Players execute fast and brutal moves, but the fight moves at a measured pace. There is time to react, time to ponder how one’s opponent might react to a combo or a blocked attack.

There’s time to think, which is ironic given Mortal Kombat’s trademark mindless gory violence. It’s like chess, only the pieces murder each other.

Mortal Kombat 11 continues the trend, adding more ways to outmanoeuvre foes.

There are two new meters in the corner of the screen, defence and offence. The defence meter lets players perform special escapes, such as forward and backward getup rolls. The offence meter lets players tweak existing moves, adding more damage or additional hits. Managing and taking advantage of these two new meters can make a huge difference in the outcome of a battle.

The new Perfect Block mechanic gives players who time defence perfectly a slightly wider window to counterattack, making tapping the block button more attractive than simply holding it down.

Also new in Mortal Kombat 11 are Fatal Blows, gruesome, blood-drenched attacks each character can perform once per round if their health meter drops below 30 per cent. These last-ditch desperation moves do a ton of damage, but they are easily blocked, easy to anticipate, and, since each player can only perform them once in a round, best saved for the clutchiest of clutch moments.

They’re also ridiculous, since each involves acts of violence that would kill any normal person. It’s hilarious to watch a character get stabbed deep in both of their eyes and then recover as if nothing happened. It’s part of the game’s charm.

Mortal Kombat 11 includes many ways for players to put its brutal fighting mechanics to the test. Multiplayer-minded fighters can hop into ranked sets online in preparation for the upcoming “Kombat League” series, which launches a month after the game’s release.

Players can create private rooms with custom rulesets, play King of the Hill and even create custom practice matches to hone skills. Local competitors can play against friends however they see fit, including tournaments.

Solo players can head to the Klassic Towers section to take on traditional single-player modes such as arcade, survival or the endless gauntlet. It’s also where players can unlock “what if?” endings, to learn what each character might do if they defeated Kronika, the game’s new big bad, and gained her power over time.

The Towers of Time are a series of rotating themed challenges that offer players various rewards for completion, including character outfits, equipment and currency to unlock those things in the game’s Krypt.

At launch many players, myself included, are finding some of the Tower of Time challenges ridiculously difficult. Level modifiers such as player-seeking death missiles and gouts of super-damaging fire are making completion near impossible, even when players stack consumable buffs on their fighters.

Fortunately, Netherrealm has already tweaked the difficulty of the Towers of Time post-launch. The frequency of player-damaging hazards has been reduced, unblockable hazards have been made blockable, and enemy health has been reduced. In a Kombat Kast stream on Twitch, developers stated an upcoming patch will further lower the difficulty of the towers.

There’s also the story mode, where you can practice having feelings about series’ regulars. It’s excellent.

Test Your Feels Netherrealm is one of the best storytelling studios in the fighting game business. They craft stories heavy on emotional beats, plot twists and cinematic pageantry. But if someone had told me 10 years ago that a Mortal Kombat game would make me cry, even a little bit, I would have stared at them all funny-like.

When a classic character gets a big win, I cheered. When someone dies, outside of the normal, fatality-style dying, I teared up. I gritted my teeth and shouted “FUCK YEAH!” at least once.

Following the events of Mortal Kombat 10, Cassie Cage is promoted to commanding officer in the Earth special forces (no nepotism there from General Sonya “Mum” Blade) and leads a mission to take down the fortress of Shinnok, the big bad of the previous game. Though the mission is successful, Earth’s forces are struck a major blow.

Then along comes Kronika, goddess of time, who rebuilds Shinnok’s ruined fortress. She has a plan to reset the timeline, leaving Earth’s primary protector, Raiden the thunder god, out of the loop. Using her timey-wimey powers, she pulls heroes and villains from the early days of Mortal Kombat to help put her plan in motion.

Older and younger versions of Mortal Kombat characters interacting with each other is just as charming an idea as it sounds. The plot is filled with outstanding character moments, which I will not spoil here. I wrote more in-depth and slightly more spoilery about the story mode earlier this week, if you want to know more.

The only downside is the story follows the same one or two characters per chapter formula as previous instalments. As the story’s 12 chapters unfold, players are bound to be saddled with a character they don’t like or don’t know how to play. Fortunately, Mortal Kombat 11 is a damn fine teacher.

Test Your Learning Ability Mortal Kombat 11’s tutorial is the best I’ve come across in a fighting game. It covers the basics — attacking, blocking, special moves — as expected. Then it goes further.

It doesn’t just cover super moves and how to perform complex fatalities without having to purchase “easy fatality” tokens. I’m talking tearing down moves into their component frames and explaining why one move might have a slight advantage over another. How a move that is devastating when it lands can be an excellent opportunity for punishment if blocked.

Mortal Kombat 11 doesn’t just list combos. It explains how players can build them on their own and which moves work together well. Character-specific tutorials don’t just list moves. They demonstrate how the moves are performed, explain the advantages and disadvantages, and suggest ways each move can be expanded into a more complex combo.