REVIEW – If there is a game that we don’t need to introduce to parents, it is Mortal Kombat. Deadly combat, vicious moves, death screams, flying limbs, and blood and gore everywhere. Be ready mortals! Buy extra controllers. Ed Boon and NetherRealm Studios went crazy.

How is the new Mortal Kombat? Multiply the previous game with three and you’ll get the result. Everything that we experienced int he series was just pink clouds compared to what the new game provides. When a fatality or an X-Ray is on the screen, you can feel the punches. Same goes for brutalities that with its full bloody gore, we can say that it’s a dark, evil and great product.

Round 1 – FIGHT!

I would like to detail the story mode without spoilers first, before detailing any of the other game modes. Since the previous Mortal Kombat, many thought that the horrible events would not reoccur after the defeat of Shao Khan. However they were wrong, as Quan Chi, the cunning necromancer let the old fallen god Shinnok free. He and Quan Chi now continue where Shao Khan stopped and wished to enslave all of the humanity. Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade, Raiden, and Kenshi are not on vacation in Hawaii.

They go ahead on to meet the dangers to send Shinnok to back where he came from. Through flashbacks, we will have the opportunity to see what happened after reboot.

It’s gory, and they recaptured the second Mortal Kombat’s dark, and disgusting atmosphere.

Furthermore, this game contains (albeit not too long) quick time events that feel pointless, however still are well done and spectacular. If you are the fan of some of the characters, then a few of the scenes will have you on your edge as the story unfolds.

Round 2 –FIGHT!

Besides the fan favorites, there are a few that were in previous Mortal Kombat games, who now return. Such as Kenshi, or Goro the giant four armed monster that demolishes everyone in sight. The roster is not slim, and there are many new fighter joining the struggle such as Kotal Kahn, Ferra &Torr, Takeda Takahashi, Jacqueline Briggs, Kung Jin, D’Vorah, Cassie Cage, and Erron Black.

He is awesome and he will have a message for us personally during the combat. Every one of the characters has their unique moves, personality, Fatality, and Brutality. Also, all of the characters have three separate fighting styles that are reminiscent of the old Deadly Alliance game.

One of the advantages of Deadly Alliance was that you could switch game, however here you have to select the style before the match begins. The styles only have a bearing on the individual abilities, so the basic move sets stay the same. For Kitana in Royal Storm, the main special attack and defensive moves will be dealt with her fans. The mournful style is similar to Jade’s MK 9 style while Assassin style has teleportation and agility.

Final Round – FIGHT!

A major part of the multiplayer section of the game is the newly introduced faction system. As once we select our faction (there are five: White Lotus, Special Forces, Black Dragon, Brotherhood of Shadow, Lin Kuei). Once done we can start gaining XP, completing challenges in the towers to raise the achievement of the clan. Besides the original tower, there are two new modes.

The first and most important is the Living Towers, which depending on height, will sometimes collapse, change, and rebuild themselves with new challenges. So do not be surprised that bombs will fall during a match or that the HP of a character will start to deplete because that means that the character is poisoned.

They do challenge the player as the rules can be absurd such as no jumping. Which is not a problem up until we realize that the enemy laughs in the face of these rules and can do whatever he wants. You know why this is not an issue? It forces the player to be more tactical and to play in a different style. Beware that the higher you get to the towers the challenges can be combined and become tougher.

“The fatalities are more visceral than ever.”

There’s also Tower Challenge, which does not have the same rules as the Living one, but if the secondary objectives are completed, then personal and faction XP, items, coins and other currencies are provided which can be spent in the Crypt for skins, fatalities, concept arts. I think it’s still great when you and your friend beat each other up, I mean in the game.

Brutality

The atmosphere is heightened by the fact that before Kombat begins, the two fighters share banter. It’s not the cliché stuff, as in the previous game, but personalized against each fighter. Thanks to next-gen technology, the X-Ray moves are now more bone cracking, and the fatalities are more visceral than ever.

The visuals and sound effects are done well enough, and fit the game’s tone. There are some issues with the graphics that for a second seemed to be scenes from a previous generation game. Also, it appears that Sonya Blade’s looks were toned downed, which was disappointing, and pissed me off.

… so we had to put this picture in just for Parzifal of course… 😉 (BadSector)

The fighting arenas are well made and are constantly in motion. While fighting at the docks, corpses would appear from the stormy waves, and if timed correctly we can throw them against the enemy. In the Dead Woods, we can use the branches as a weapon, or leap from them to stomp an enemy fighter.

Who’s Next?

We get such brutal combat and violence that is unbelievable and does not discredit the series’ long-standing history of being one of the fierce fighters of all time. It’s gory, and they recaptured the second Mortal Kombat’s dark, and creepy atmosphere, and reinserted it into the current generation. If there is something like the above but masterfully made, and a quality product then it is certainly Mortal Kombat X. We receive such limitless brutality that it is the number one in fighting games.

-Parzifal-

Publisher:  Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

Developer: Nether Realms

Genres: Fighting

Release date: 2015 April 14th