Yo my QT-GF Xorph wrote this review and she says she's not sorry at all for the overdone "replace the Cs with Ks" jokes.

Mortal Kombat 11's economy and single-player content were -really- rough at launch, but some patches have mostly smoothed things over, and its kore kombat mechanics are the best the series have ever seen. Though MKX did come pretty klose, it's only now that I think the series genuinely stands alongside all of the big eastern franchises as being something with enough depth to satisfy hardkore fighting game fans, while retaining the overall style and accessibility that have made it popular with a more kasual audience.


MK11 has taken the modern MK style set forth by 9 and X and refined it to near-perfection. On the kontrols side of things it's about the same as the previous games, though it's even more responsive and easier to jump into than before thanks to multiple different shortcut and input sensitivity options for special actions. Significantly more depth has been added to the kombat thanks to new features such as a Perfect Guard system and a "Krushing Blow" mechanic where certain moves will deal bonus damage once per match if special conditions are met (such as landing the move from max range). If I have one small komplaint, it's that Wakeup Actions (such as evasive rolling after being knocked down) have no input buffering, meaning you need to press their inputs within an incredibly short time frame kompared to what most fighting games allow.

The overall flow of fights has improved immensely thanks to the new meters and changes to how X-Ray supers (now kalled Fatal Blows) work. FBs have been entirely separated from your meter, instead becoming ready when your health hits 30%, and can only be used once per match (though if they miss you can try again after a kooldown), so on top of now being actually viable for high-level play, you have to put a lot more thought into when you'll use it. The special and stamina meters are now the Offensive and Defensive meters, each of which have two bars that gradually regenerate over time. OM is used for things like enhancing specials or performing a counter after a Perfect Guard, while DM is spent on combo breakers and environment interactions, with some actions using a block of -both- meters (and dashes, thankfully, now using neither). This new system promotes fully utilizing your arsenal of techniques, kompared to the previous games where most of the cool stuff pulled from the same meter, meaning you'd be stuck deciding to only use your X-ray, or only enhances, or etc, and now being able to experience your full moveset every match does absolute wonders to improving the pace of the fight.

All of the new features are backed up with an incredibly in-depth tutorial that'll teach you everything from the basics of a special input to high-level maneuvers where exact frame data starts to come into play. It lets you choose exactly how much of the tutorial you want to play, so people just looking for a quick explanation of the central mechanics don't have to risk being overwhelmed by the advanced stuff.


The roster itself offers a solid choice of characters, dropping a few veterans and some of the less popular additions from X in favor of bringing a number of favorites back from 9, alongside Frost and 3 all-new characters. Moveset variety is even better than before thanks to the new Variations system, where instead of selecting one of three styles as X had, you can create kustom styles by equipping up to 3 extra specials (or other changes such as extra kombos) from a selection of 8 or so per character.

The kosmetics build on the systems used in Injustice 2, and are a massive step up kompared to that game's konvoluted loot boxes and stat number micromanagment. Rather than just shaders, you'll unlock kolor changes, slight kosmetic varieties, and multiple entirely different kostumes. Gear pieces now unlock from set locations, with solo-mode stat boosts being earned separately and then equipped to your gear, so you no longer have to worry about waiting for RNG to give you the right kombination of appearance and stats.


As far as PvP goes, the game is fantastically balanced. I've yet to find a character that feels over- or under-powered, and just about any matchup is fun to play, though on the AI-vs-AI side of things it gets a bit dicier, with Noob now being a meme for being so OP, while other AIs practically play like a 13-year-old.

PvE was an absolute mess when the game came out, with AIs in the timed towers often being set to Very Hard, with 5x your HP, while you also had to deal with multiple environmental hazards or buffs, to the point that some of the towers were functionally impossible. But, they patched this a week after release, and now everything's mostly fine! AIs have normal health, medium difficulty, and toned-down hazards, and the towers are really fun to play now. However, a small number of tower sets seem to have been missed, resulting in the occasional ludicrous difficulty jump, and though you can have AIs handle them, it's not exactly enjoyable to watch the game play itself for 20 minutes due to the balance being so ♥♥♥♥♥♥ in these spots.

There's a heavy focus towards using konsumables that do stuff like let you heal HP during a fight, but even the hardest patched towers can be kompleted without using them. Plus, you receive them at a constant rate, so you don't have to worry about being caught in the "I need to save these for the super hard stuff!" mentality if you're having trouble on a lower-difficulty fight.

The economy was bonkers at launch, with the three kurrencies being awarded to you at a trickle so small that it'd have taken 100s of hours to open every chest in the Krypt. This has likewise been fixed. I've got 52 hours right now, a decent chunk of which was the story mode and ragequitting pre-patch towers, and I've already opened almost every chest. Coin and heart drops were boosted by 4x (souls by 50%, but they were fine before anyway), so you'll be unlocking new stuff at a konstant rate. Though, if I have one komplaint, it's that the sheer randomness of what towers are available and everyone's chests being in different places (e.g. no drop location guides) makes it really hard to get specific loot.


The main story is absolutely garbage, ridden with plot holes and asinine character writing, and so much can be said about it that I had to relegate it to This post to get around character limits.

Arcade endings are mostly enjoyable little what-ifs, but Jax's shoehorns in hamfisted political kommentary that comes across as annoying & out-of-place.


Graphically it's the best the series has seen, with stages especially undergoing a -massive- quality leap, as you'll now see some pretty elaborate stuff going on in the backgrounds. IMO, MKX had a number of pretty lacklustre fatalities, but the new aesthetic of all fatalities ending on a freeze-frame means that even the less-eventful ones still have some flair to them.

The soundtrack mixes epic orchestrals, electric guitars, and EDM-type stuff depending on the theme of the stage, forming a huge variety of solidly-produced stuff that's nice to listen to, albeit nothing mind-blowing.


With most of its balance issues polished out, MK11 has quickly captivated me in a way that no other western fighting game has managed to. Fans of the series will no doubt be incredibly satisfied by this entry in the series, with its simultaneous depth of mechanics and ease of entry giving it appeal to any sort of person who enjoys fighting games.

8.4/10

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