Mortal Kombat X – (Spoiler Free!) Review

Round 10 – FIGHT! Yes folks, this is Mortal Kombat X and after a 5 hour marathon last night, I am here to tell you all about my experience with the Story Mode.  Love, vengeance, betrayal, forgiveness, friendship and sacrifice are just a few of the themes peppered within this surprisingly well thought out story.  

Mortal Kombat X occurs 25 years after the previous installation in which  Shao Khan was defeated and Raiden and the gang banished the fallen god Shinnok into an amulet after he attacked Earthrealm – which brings us to the start of our journey. With a civil war going on in Outworld and Quan-Chi stirring up trouble, the weathered heroes of old and their children are forced to once again, step into well….mortal combat. Essentially, Shinnok’s lackey Quan-Chi still has some familiar faces trapped as his slaves and is trying to obtain the amulet to release his master to take over Earth. Kotal Kahn of Outworld is trying to settle this civil war and put down the rebels led by Mileena and regain the amulet in efforts to protect it. All of the factions clash as old disputes are settled, families are re-united and the new generation of Kombatants emerge to save us all

The story mode takes you through most all of the playable characters during chapters, outlining and highlighting their big moments in the past and current timelines. There are a few things that are explained this way (such as why on earth Scorpion and Sub Zero are all BFF’s now after being enemies for as long as I can remember) and the flashbacks fill in some blanks and reference the previous game to tie in aspects of the new one.
There are some new faces in the roster this time around, as well as many of our favorites. Among the new faces emerge Cassie Cage, daughter of the estranged Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade, Kung Lao’s younger cousin Kung Jin, Jaqui Brigg’s daughter of Jax and Kenshi’s son Takahashi Takeda. *sniffle* Look at that, all grown up and stepping into the family business!
Other notable mentions go to D’Vorah for being entirely disgusting and Ferra/Torr for being just kind of ridiculous.

In klassic MK fashion, you can take on the ladder style arena to battle to the death with the character of your choice, kick your friends butts in kouch ko-op as well as spend your koins in the krypt unlocking shiny things.

If you bought the Premium Edition or higher, your game comes with the otherwise available for purchase Kombat Pack featuring some additonal playable characters such as Jason and Predator, along with some skins and other junk. You can also pick it up in the marketplace for an overpriced $29.99. Otherwise, simply pre-ordering the title will award you Goro as a playable character.

Here is a quick bullet point round-up of the hits and misses from Mortal Kombat X:

Hits:

– Some interesting fun new characters

– Introduction of “variations” of each characters fighting style/abilities select-able before matches

– Surprisingly entertaining story line for an MK game

– X-Ray moves are back as well as some cool fatalities

– Graphics and characters look great

– DESTRUCTIBLE, INTERACTIVE ENVIRONMENTS! (Just sayin’, I hit a guy with a monk. A live, monk.)

– More “technical” fighting style, button mashing wasn’t as effective as previous installations

– Genuine relationships and quasi-corny dialogue between characters (love it!)

– Gory, awful, wonderful fatalities

Misses:

– Some story aspects were not explained (like how Scorpion escaped Quan-Chi’s grip?)

– Nobody bothered to write Johnny Cage some better one liners yet. Poor guy.

– Story Mode completion on “medium” or “normal” was very easy. Only one match was actually lost and it was the final battle.

– The DLC with the awesome characters costs WAY too much.

– New generation of fighters massively overshadowed the classic characters

 

 

Overall, if you are a fan of fighters Mortal Kombat X is absolutely for you. The developers did a fantastic job on this title and their hard work shows in every punch to the face.