After having played this game for around 40 hours here's what I have to say.

Pros:
- Tutorial system is excellent. It provides detailed, structured explanations to bring you up to a decent level.

- Graphics are fantastic although the anti-aliasing could be improved but is fine for the most part!

- Game-play is phenomenal, the flow of combat is extremely satisfying and smooth way better then MK-X.

- Fatalities are insane, the best in the series hands down!

- Sound design is excellent, punches and kicks sound satisfying alongside all the other weapons. Music could be a bit better however you rarely even focus in on it in the heat of combat so it's not such a big deal.

- Challenge towers. After the terrible and frustrating state these towers were in at launch I am pleased to say they are now doable and are actually quite a bit of fun. The rewards are varied with each tower and so you can take on the challenge to unlock gear, intros, brutalities, stones and player icons for your characters. You can also team up with other people online to take on a "Boss" type battle similar to tag team in MK9.

Cons:

- Varied framerates. 30 FPS in the Main Menu, Fatalities, Fatal Blows and Kritical Strikes and Krypt whereas the rest of the game runs at 60 FPS. This can sometimes be a bit jarring however I, for the most part, don't even notice it and in my opinion it does not detract from the flow of the game.

- Krypt: An excellent premise however the randomisation of loot and extremely expensive chests (13,000 for anything half decent) makes it so that you rarely get anything you want, with most of the rewards being items for the forge and challenge tower consumables rather than costumes and gear. Another thing to point out is that some items in the Krypt require currencies to use, mainly Kenshi's headband that requires orbs (which are used for crafting in the Krypt and are rather scarce to begin with) and eats them up at a rate of roughly 2 per second which is absolutely absurd! You get a large sum of Koins to begin with however once they're gone, and they go quickly mind you as everything is so expensive!, You can gain a fair amount of Koins and Hearts in a short amount of time however YOU HAVE TO SPEND KOINS TO RESTOCK THE CHESTS IN THE KRYPT!!! as once you've opened them they don't refresh! Meaning you have to spend even more time grinding for Koins which you won't get rewards from!

- Kustomisation: An absolute tragedy of a system, apparently borrowed from Injustice 2 (although I have never played it so cannot confirm) this system makes it so that you have to level up the gear that you wear in order to slot in stones that modify your characters stats in some way, be it bonus damage with a certain move or resistance to certain types of damage. Doesn't sound too bad right? WRONG! You have to level up EACH PIECE OF GEAR, so if you equip a new helmet you're back to square ONE!!! Also guess where all the gear/stones and skins are unlocked? That's right! the Krypt, so you have to spend HOURS grinding for Koins in order to even have a CHANCE at getting a piece of gear you want. Also you have to have the correct stone for the correct slot in that gear making the chances of having a matching set of stones for your gear EVEN SMALLER!!!

- Story. A crippling issue of audio video de-sync has ruined all enjoyment of the story.
I'd like to note that changing the in-game setting all to their lowest settings HAD NO EFFECT!!. Such as shame as what I did get to experience was brilliant!

UPDATE: A workaround is to pause the game, wait 5 seconds and then resume however while this does work be ready to keep pausing every 10 seconds as the game will quickly de-sync itself again.

Note: I have not had any connections issues or random crashes that other people have experienced however that's not to say these issues do not occur.

As a final verdict, which i hope will change in the future, I would still NOT recommend that you purchase this game and it absolutely pains me to say that. But it's clear this game has MAJOR issues. Even after two patches which shouldn't have been needed in the first place (it's like they didn't even play-test their own game!) issues are still present, the story de-sync being a hard hitter, the RNG Krypt system alongside the awful gear level up system and augments are still major gripes which is a shame as the amount of customisation is great, just don't expect to get the gear or skins you want anytime soon, unless of course they pop up in the store in which case you can purchase it with micro-transactions!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just to clarify a few points made in the comments:

My Computers specifications (or at least the most important ones):

i5-7600k OC to 4.5Ghz
Nvidia GTX 970
16GB DDR4 RAM

I can run the game at stable 60fps with High/Very High settings.

@barkythekat about entitlement:

No, this is not what this is about. If you spend £50 on a game, which mind you is a lot of money for a game, you expect to be able to unlock and have access to all the content in the game in a reasonable manner since you have indeed paid for it. If you have to then spend even more money on top of what you paid initially for the game to access over 50% of the games content, then something is terribly wrong.

@MADMAN:

I have over 300 games in my steam account, most of which I picked up at launch. I have only written 4 reviews, 2 of which are public. Why? well, most of those games were great at launch! and so I had no need to vent my frustrations! Also, my review is my opinion you may not agree with it but just shrugging it off and saying that I "just love to complain" is a pretty weak rebuttal of the points I have made.

@arracatinga:

I saw an interview with Ed Boon where he said they would be at 30fps, I understand they are "meant" to be at 30. However, his reasoning was that in order to do slow motion the frame-rate has to be halved as the mechanics are tied to the frame-rate of the game. (i.e 60fps full speed 30fps half speed) I dont have complete knowledge of the workings of the game so that may not be the full answer. I also said in my review that the fatalities and other x-ray type scenes do not detract from the flow of the game. The menus and Krpyt however, should be at 60 and I can't think of a reason for them to be at 30.

@Jan: about "inflation" and necessity of micro-transactions.

That is absurd!! you think these multi billion dollar publishers need micro-transactions to help with development costs!

The exact development cost of MKX, MK9 and MK11 by Netherrealm (a subsidiary of Warner Bros) is hard to find. However if we assume MK 11's to be in the range of $100M USD and your claim is that these systems are in place to help fund against rising development costs due to inflation.

Well, Warner Bros' total revenue in 2016 was $13.04 Billion!! Granted, not all of that would go to Netherrealm, however they clearly have more than enough to support MK11 over its lifespan.

To put that into perspective. CD Projekt Red who made the Witcher 3 spent $81 Million on its development and brought in 463.1M PLN (roughly $120Million) in terms of revenue in 2017 a far lesser amount than Warner Bros. Do you see them using micro-transactions or other systems in their games to help fund the development of Cyberpunk2077 or other titles they may be working on?

No, you don't. That's because if you make a good game, more copies will sell and you will get more money. Warner Bros have added this micro-transaction system not because they are short of money but because they want MORE money and this has to STOP.


A final note about the political controversy in the game. It may be a rather cheap shot to include politics in gaming. However, I personally don't hold it against the game and does not affect my rating as I am looking purely at the game play and mechanics.

After having played this game for around 40 hours here's what I have to say. Pros: - Tutorial system is excellent. It provides detailed, structured explanations to bring you up to a decent level. - Graphics are fantastic although the anti-aliasing could be improved but is fine for the most part! - Game-play is phenomenal, the flow of combat is extremely satisfying and smooth way better then MK-X. - Fatalities are insane, the best in the series hands down! - Sound design is excellent, punches and kicks sound satisfying alongside all the other weapons. Music could be a bit better however you rarely even focus in on it in the heat of combat so it's not such a big deal. - Challenge towers. After the terrible and frustrating state these towers were in at launch I am pleased to say they are now doable and are actually quite a bit of fun. The rewards are varied with each tower and so you can take on the challenge to unlock gear, intros, brutalities, stones and player icons for your characters. You can also team up with other people online to take on a "Boss" type battle similar to tag team in MK9. Cons: - Varied framerates. 30 FPS in the Main Menu, Fatalities, Fatal Blows and Kritical Strikes and Krypt whereas the rest of the game runs at 60 FPS. This can sometimes be a bit jarring however I, for the most part, don't even notice it and in my opinion it does not detract from the flow of the game. - Krypt: An excellent premise however the randomisation of loot and extremely expensive chests (13,000 for anything half decent) makes it so that you rarely get anything you want, with most of the rewards being items for the forge and challenge tower consumables rather than costumes and gear. Another thing to point out is that some items in the Krypt require currencies to use, mainly Kenshi's headband that requires orbs (which are used for crafting in the Krypt and are rather scarce to begin with) and eats them up at a rate of roughly 2 per second which is absolutely absurd! You get a large sum of Koins to begin with however once they're gone, and they go quickly mind you as everything is so expensive!, You can gain a fair amount of Koins and Hearts in a short amount of time however YOU HAVE TO SPEND KOINS TO RESTOCK THE CHESTS IN THE KRYPT!!! as once you've opened them they don't refresh! Meaning you have to spend even more time grinding for Koins which you won't get rewards from! - Kustomisation: An absolute tragedy of a system, apparently borrowed from Injustice 2 (although I have never played it so cannot confirm) this system makes it so that you have to level up the gear that you wear in order to slot in stones that modify your characters stats in some way, be it bonus damage with a certain move or resistance to certain types of damage. Doesn't sound too bad right? WRONG! You have to level up EACH PIECE OF GEAR, so if you equip a new helmet you're back to square ONE!!! Also guess where all the gear/stones and skins are unlocked? That's right! the Krypt, so you have to spend HOURS grinding for Koins in order to even have a CHANCE at getting a piece of gear you want. Also you have to have the correct stone for the correct slot in that gear making the chances of having a matching set of stones for your gear EVEN SMALLER!!! - Story. A crippling issue of audio video de-sync has ruined all enjoyment of the story. I'd like to note that changing the in-game setting all to their lowest settings HAD NO EFFECT!!. Such as shame as what I did get to experience was brilliant! UPDATE: A workaround is to pause the game, wait 5 seconds and then resume however while this does work be ready to keep pausing every 10 seconds as the game will quickly de-sync itself again. Note: I have not had any connections issues or random crashes that other people have experienced however that's not to say these issues do not occur. As a final verdict, which i hope will change in the future, I would still NOT recommend that you purchase this game and it absolutely pains me to say that. But it's clear this game has MAJOR issues. Even after two patches which shouldn't have been needed in the first place (it's like they didn't even play-test their own game!) issues are still present, the story de-sync being a hard hitter, the RNG Krypt system alongside the awful gear level up system and augments are still major gripes which is a shame as the amount of customisation is great, just don't expect to get the gear or skins you want anytime soon, unless of course they pop up in the store in which case you can purchase it with micro-transactions! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Just to clarify a few points made in the comments: My Computers specifications (or at least the most important ones): i5-7600k OC to 4.5Ghz Nvidia GTX 970 16GB DDR4 RAM I can run the game at stable 60fps with High/Very High settings. @barkythekat about entitlement: No, this is not what this is about. If you spend £50 on a game, which mind you is a lot of money for a game, you expect to be able to unlock and have access to all the content in the game in a reasonable manner since you have indeed paid for it. If you have to then spend even more money on top of what you paid initially for the game to access over 50% of the games content, then something is terribly wrong. @MADMAN: I have over 300 games in my steam account, most of which I picked up at launch. I have only written 4 reviews, 2 of which are public. Why? well, most of those games were great at launch! and so I had no need to vent my frustrations! Also, my review is my opinion you may not agree with it but just shrugging it off and saying that I "just love to complain" is a pretty weak rebuttal of the points I have made. @arracatinga: I saw an interview with Ed Boon where he said they would be at 30fps, I understand they are "meant" to be at 30. However, his reasoning was that in order to do slow motion the frame-rate has to be halved as the mechanics are tied to the frame-rate of the game. (i.e 60fps full speed 30fps half speed) I dont have complete knowledge of the workings of the game so that may not be the full answer. I also said in my review that the fatalities and other x-ray type scenes do not detract from the flow of the game. The menus and Krpyt however, should be at 60 and I can't think of a reason for them to be at 30. @Jan: about "inflation" and necessity of micro-transactions. That is absurd!! you think these multi billion dollar publishers need micro-transactions to help with development costs! The exact development cost of MKX, MK9 and MK11 by Netherrealm (a subsidiary of Warner Bros) is hard to find. However if we assume MK 11's to be in the range of $100M USD and your claim is that these systems are in place to help fund against rising development costs due to inflation. Well, Warner Bros' total revenue in 2016 was $13.04 Billion!! Granted, not all of that would go to Netherrealm, however they clearly have more than enough to support MK11 over its lifespan. To put that into perspective. CD Projekt Red who made the Witcher 3 spent $81 Million on its development and brought in 463.1M PLN (roughly $120Million) in terms of revenue in 2017 a far lesser amount than Warner Bros. Do you see them using micro-transactions or other systems in their games to help fund the development of Cyberpunk2077 or other titles they may be working on? No, you don't. That's because if you make a good game, more copies will sell and you will get more money. Warner Bros have added this micro-transaction system not because they are short of money but because they want MORE money and this has to STOP. A final note about the political controversy in the game. It may be a rather cheap shot to include politics in gaming. However, I personally don't hold it against the game and does not affect my rating as I am looking purely at the game play and mechanics.