Imagine 2011's MK reboot in a greatly refined form, and you get MK X. You have to accept the fact that it plays how it does (a bit clunky) - that's Mortal Kombat for you. It's a game that's more accessible to newbies than Street Fighter, but it has enough depth for those looking for their competitive streak. There's a smoother transition now between animations - characters don't look as herky jerky anymore. There are also small touches that show the amount of care put into this game, like Erron's twitchy fingers. The fighting also gets the same smoother treatment. Linking combos to special moves feels less detached now. It still can't compete with the fluidity of Street Fighter, but here you would be more inclined to discover the combos yourself without looking at the move list. I love how they made those dialled-in combos short. It eliminates the memorization-heavy problems that plagued the series since they were introduced in MK3. And finally - they've created a final boss that is not cheap as hell. Bravo. If you've played MK9, you'll immediately feel right at home here. These refinements would be noticeable to you but you'll adapt in a few minutes.

It's great that online is not limited to VS battles. There's something for everyone in here. Don't want to get your a-s-s handed to you by more experienced players? Hang out by the Towers or try to fulfill your Faction goals. Heck, there's even the excellent tile-based, FPS RPG-like Krypt too (and, lest we forget to mention, the copious amount of unlockables). Else, if you're the competitive type, there's always the various VS modes. I haven't gone into an online match yet as I have also been plagued by the game's launch woes. Just see my warning at the end of this review. And as before, Story mode is excellent. I wish it had less family drama and more of the big picture stuff though.

Graphical fidelity is sublime. Beads of sweat, skin pores, cloth textures are all seen crystal clear. There also is a way, way better display of damage. Unlike the previous MK, which had what I would say are set orders of damage textures, this one has me looking very closely at my screen to see if it would repeat any blood or damage textures. Zero repeats so far. Either they have much more sets of textures, or the damage modelling is done in real time. Either way, it rocks.

Sound effects are bone-crunchingly impactful, while music is just adequate. Everything is wrapped up in a more elegant and minimalistic interface. I absolutely love how they frame the the end of each round. And the art direction, top notch. It's safe to say that no one will make palette swap jokes this time around, but to replace them would be the next-generation bloodline of some of the human characters (i.e cassie plays like her daddy, johnny). They actually are the ones who are more generic in design, but they're still nice to look at (i owe that to great detail rendering).

As a fighting game fan, this will be another game that I will play for months to come.

CAVEAT EMPTOR: As of now, the game still has bugs that need to be ironed out. I run a rig with an i5-3470 that I overclock at 3.8 ghz, 8GB of RAM, and an AMD R9 290 GPU. The most glaring glitch is that from the Dead Woods stage - it's currently a pixelated, artifact-y mess after the recent 15GB update.

All things considered, if you loved MK9, this is a no brainer. If you want to get into figthing games, this would be a great starting point. It's a complete package that has something for everyone, already content packed even in single player mode.

9/10

About me:
- I consider the Street Fighter 4 series as probably my most played game from the past generation of consoles. Still playing it here on Steam (Ultra SF4)
- Played MK 1, 2, 3, Trilogy a lot. Interest started to wane by MK4. Skipped the PS2-era MKs. Played a LOT of MK9 on PS3.
- I never got into 3D fighters like Tekken, Virtua Fighter, Dead or Alive, etc. Tried them but they never could capture my attention

UPDATE (June 22, 2015):
netcode is still c-r-a-p. buy this mainly for its single player content. if you have friends who own this who are within the same country as you are, then you can consider getting it for the online VS component.

UPDATE (November 24, 2016)
updated to MK XL. this promised improved netcode, but i don't have a way to test it since no one is playing online.

Imagine 2011's MK reboot in a greatly refined form, and you get MK X. You have to accept the fact that it plays how it does (a bit clunky) - that's Mortal Kombat for you. It's a game that's more accessible to newbies than Street Fighter, but it has enough depth for those looking for their competitive streak. There's a smoother transition now between animations - characters don't look as herky jerky anymore. There are also small touches that show the amount of care put into this game, like Erron's twitchy fingers. The fighting also gets the same smoother treatment. Linking combos to special moves feels less detached now. It still can't compete with the fluidity of Street Fighter, but here you would be more inclined to discover the combos yourself without looking at the move list. I love how they made those dialled-in combos short. It eliminates the memorization-heavy problems that plagued the series since they were introduced in MK3. And finally - they've created a final boss that is not cheap as hell. Bravo. If you've played MK9, you'll immediately feel right at home here. These refinements would be noticeable to you but you'll adapt in a few minutes. It's great that online is not limited to VS battles. There's something for everyone in here. Don't want to get your a-s-s handed to you by more experienced players? Hang out by the Towers or try to fulfill your Faction goals. Heck, there's even the excellent tile-based, FPS RPG-like Krypt too (and, lest we forget to mention, the copious amount of unlockables). Else, if you're the competitive type, there's always the various VS modes. I haven't gone into an online match yet as I have also been plagued by the game's launch woes. Just see my warning at the end of this review. And as before, Story mode is excellent. I wish it had less family drama and more of the big picture stuff though. Graphical fidelity is sublime. Beads of sweat, skin pores, cloth textures are all seen crystal clear. There also is a way, way better display of damage. Unlike the previous MK, which had what I would say are set orders of damage textures, this one has me looking very closely at my screen to see if it would repeat any blood or damage textures. Zero repeats so far. Either they have much more sets of textures, or the damage modelling is done in real time. Either way, it rocks. Sound effects are bone-crunchingly impactful, while music is just adequate. Everything is wrapped up in a more elegant and minimalistic interface. I absolutely love how they frame the the end of each round. And the art direction, top notch. It's safe to say that no one will make palette swap jokes this time around, but to replace them would be the next-generation bloodline of some of the human characters (i.e cassie plays like her daddy, johnny). They actually are the ones who are more generic in design, but they're still nice to look at (i owe that to great detail rendering). As a fighting game fan, this will be another game that I will play for months to come. CAVEAT EMPTOR: As of now, the game still has bugs that need to be ironed out. I run a rig with an i5-3470 that I overclock at 3.8 ghz, 8GB of RAM, and an AMD R9 290 GPU. The most glaring glitch is that from the Dead Woods stage - it's currently a pixelated, artifact-y mess after the recent 15GB update. All things considered, if you loved MK9, this is a no brainer. If you want to get into figthing games, this would be a great starting point. It's a complete package that has something for everyone, already content packed even in single player mode. 9/10 About me: - I consider the Street Fighter 4 series as probably my most played game from the past generation of consoles. Still playing it here on Steam (Ultra SF4) - Played MK 1, 2, 3, Trilogy a lot. Interest started to wane by MK4. Skipped the PS2-era MKs. Played a LOT of MK9 on PS3. - I never got into 3D fighters like Tekken, Virtua Fighter, Dead or Alive, etc. Tried them but they never could capture my attention UPDATE (June 22, 2015): netcode is still c-r-a-p. buy this mainly for its single player content. if you have friends who own this who are within the same country as you are, then you can consider getting it for the online VS component. UPDATE (November 24, 2016) updated to MK XL. this promised improved netcode, but i don't have a way to test it since no one is playing online.