Mortal Kombat [Review]

FULL REVIEW

Mortal Kombat has been a big part of gaming as well as pop culture, catchphrases like Fatality, and Finish Him!, told in the gruff voice of Shao Khan send waves of nostalgia down an entire generation of console gamers.  The biggest selling point being the realistic depictions of violence, and it’s fascinating and hammy mythology.

With 3D graphics getting better and better over the years, it’s been harder for the MK franchise to revitalise itself to keep gamers coming back. With the storylines going haywire, the fighting engine changing again and again, the endless additions of palette swapped characters and the recent Mortal Kombat vs DC debacle, the series had hit a wall. The new Mortal Kombat marks a comeback for the series, a blank slate.  The end result is one of the most entertaining and polished fighting games out there, packed with blood, gore and oodles of personality.

The Story Mode
Most fighting games out there have a thread of a story, more of an excuse to get to the figthing, with a intro and outro dialogue that's rehashed again and again. NetherRealm Studios has done something completely different by sculpting a proper plot and campaign into the single player experience. The end result is excellent. The plot starts where the last Mortal Kombat game left off, as Raiden is overwhelmed by Shao Khan, with everyone lying dead around him. Before dying he alters time and sends a message into the past, just before the first Mortal Kombat tournament is about to begin about the outcome of things. The story starts off, as Raiden tries to do things differently to alter the story. As you play through the 5 odd hour campaign, you get a chance to play as multiple characters and seeing the plot unfold through their eyes. The plot itself is a nostalgic ride, as you see the storyline progress from Mortal Kombat 1, 2 and 3 finally culminating in a great ending. Along the way you experience the back stories and origins of all your favourite classic and new characters. From the epic feud between Sub Zero and Scorpion to the birth of Mileena, the origins of Kabal to how Jax lost his arms. All of it told with lots of hammy dialogue and a superb B-Movie vibe.

Battle System
Mortal Kombat may be 3D, but the fighting is restricted to a 2D plane, keeping things simple. The fighting system is extremely deep, with varying levels of depth. It’s a system that discourages mashing and actually lets you think about your next moves and encourages you to master it. Yet, its a system any newbie will pick up immediately.



All the moves are accessible through the pause menu. The best part is that all of the characters play differently, suited to their personality. Each character’s move set is fine tuned, with no cheap juggles or stupid fireball spams. Sonya Blade is nimble and acrobatic with extremely powerful kicks, Jax has a set of wrestling-like moves, the ninja fighters are quick and dirty, and rely a lot on trickery and deception, like teleports, or ice dummies. Most of the moves have remained the same, with down-forwards, down-backs and back-fronts. Spam moves have been made a lot less spammable. The combo system takes the cake, with button combos that start with normal moves and graduate it to special attacks. Every move flows into each other, and in the hands of experienced players each fight looks like you’re watching a kung-fu movie.
While the story mode is a brilliant experience, you may be put off by the frustrating boss battles as the bigger bosses execute cheating moves at an alarming rate. Especially Shao Khan. However, if you lose a few times, the game automatically makes the boss characters docile and easy to beat.

The X-Ray System
One of the best points in the game is the X-Ray attack, similar to the attacks in Romeo Must Die movie. As you take damage your power bar fills, once it’s full you can execute a powerful attack by just tapping both shoulder buttons together at a certain range that varies with each character.

These moves will make your hairs stand on end, and even cause you to cringe, no matter how many times you see it. Noob Saibot kicks you hard in the stomach causing you to puke on a boot, Mileena shoves two sai daggers into your eye sockets, then into the back of your head. The sound effects are some of the most brutal, as bones crack and internal organs explode with impact. These X-ray moves aren’t just for show, if used strategically, it can turn the tides in your favour causing some immense damage if connected. Be careful though, they are hard to block and easy to counter.

The Fatalities
As always, finishing moves are the bloody red dripping cherry on a perfect gateaux. The games designers have locked themselves in the deepest pits of their imaginations, personal hells, (or in-laws houses), and have come back with the most creative ways to dismember, brutalise and shame your opponents. The developers are so proud of their creations, they have even given you a Fatality practice mode, so you can keep unleashing those fatalities. Each character has 3 fatalities, two of them have to be unlocked. In addition there are stage fatalities where you can knock your opponent into the dangerous environments to finish them off. The best of them is the acid pit, as you watch the acid eat through your opponent slowly as they dissolve. All very appetizing.

The Babalities have made it back too and they are extremely funny, if not bordering on cute as the babies try to pull off some moves but always fall and cry puddles of tears. 

Unlockables and Hidden stuff
Mortal Kombat is choc full of unlockable goodies. As you keep winning battles, either online or offline, you gain koins, which you can spend at the Krypt. There’s the fan goodies, like artwork or concept stuff you can unlock, to alternate costumes, classic costumes for your characters to fatalities. Unlocking all this stuff is fun and adds in aspirational value and replayability to the game. Thankfully after you finish the story mode, there’s lots more ways to earn koins in the other modes.
In addition there are lots of hidden surprises in the backgrounds. From playable characters to pieces of pop art from the MK universes. So keep your eye out.

Other Playable Modes
There is a tag team mode, where you can choose two characters, and you can switch between them freely, also you can execute follow up tag moves, where you can surprise your opponent by calling in another character for a combo attack, which uses up one bar of charge.

The Challenge tower works like a puzzle game where you have to execute some predefined goals, with over 300 odd challenges that net you a lot of koins. You can also do the classic “test your might” and “test your sight” type challenges.
There’s even a normal single player tower that lets you practice and get perfect on your skills, so you can take your game online, where the real challenge resides.

Multiplayer
The PSN was down due to the hack attack delaying this review a bit. However now that it’s back up, we tested the game both on the Xbox 360 and PS3. The effect is a lot like that of entering an arcade. Those good old days where you had to wait your turn to defeat the champion playing for the last 20 hours on one coin. There's a king of the hill mode which works a lot like that - you can act as a spectator and finally play the winner. Theres also a chat room and rating systems for matches which is a sort of forum for people to discuss the game. There was a bit of lag on matches, especially on crowded rooms. Sometimes there was a slight delay in move executions. However, there is a patch slated for release which should address those issues.

Graphics and Sound
Mortal Kombat has 26 characters, two of them downloadable. Each of these characters look stunning. Sporting a spectacular level of detail on their costumes. Each and every moveset has their distinct animations. The cyborg characters and outworld characters bleed and damage differently. The character faces look as well worn, like after a 4 day drinking binge. The X-ray moves look believable and extremely detailed, if not medically accurate. Again, the cyborgs and outworld characters have different internal anatomies, which is great attention to detail. The character models reflect appropriate damage as they progress further through matches. Characters bruise and clothes tear, which looks especially good on the scantily clad female characters with super exaggerated proportions.

The backgrounds are beautiful and detailed. Mortal Kombat fans will love the old classic backgrounds like the Pit, Outworld, The Living Forest all come to life. The destroyed city from MK3 looks great, as Outworld creatures tear the city apart in the background. Everything looks alive with lots of movement.
Mortal Kombat was entirely done in a modified version of the Unreal Engine 3, which produces some incredible visuals. Theres always so much going on screen, with no slowdown whatsoever. The sound design is perfect. With each punch and kick hitting flesh or metal with sickening bone crunching thuds, the backgrounds sound great adding lots of atmosphere to the game. The fatalities have a lot of detail, as muscle tendons rip, giving way to the bone detaching itself in a mushy crunch, as the characters scream in agony. The effect is excellent.

Xbox 360 or PS3
Both versions look and play great, with the Xbox 360 version looking slightly better in colours and quality than the PS3. However, what the Xbox 360 lacks is Kratos. Which is the biggest selling point for the PS3 version. The God of War plays excellently, with a great set of moves from the last game. Most of his moves have the classic active button presses just like in the God of War games. All in all a great character addition and probably the most badass of the lot.

Formats: PS3, X360

Out: 21/04/2011
Publisher: Warner Bros.
Developer: NetherRealm Studios