It’s a soap opera with blood. I’m actually kind of impressed they thought ahead enough to make a reboot/sequel make sense.
Gameplay footage
I’m not a fighting game guy since the arcades, but isn’t that level of juggling frustrating to players? It’s CC but in a twitch game, I’d be screaming at the monitor.
The folks who like it will like it. You remember the combo routes with practice and it just becomes rote.
I’m not impressed by any of this- MK is a hard pass from me these days.
New MK1 trailer with Dave Bautista:
It is an homage to a trailer for the first MK, which is a pretty nice touch:
I watched a streamer on Twitch last night play through the early parts of this game and it looks … kinda awesome? It’s more heavily plotted than I would expect from a Mortal Kombat game - almost like playing one of the movies, as you see the team getting assembled to fight the tournament against the Outworld, meeting each in turn and then getting to play some fights as each character. It looks way better than I expected, I’ll say that.
Have you not played the recent MK games? 10 and 11 are awesome and are kind of the Fast and Furious of gaming in their level of cheese, ridiculousness, and yet high budget amazing cinematic wonder.
The last one I played was on the 360, I forget exactly which one that was but I think it was probably ten years ago or so. I thought it was ok as far as controls and options but I don’t really remember any interesting or gonzo storytelling and cinematics.
Oh wow you’ve missed out. While 9 has story elements that lead into X, you can skip it. The story is gonzo enough that you’ll dive in, be lost, but catch up and just go along for the ride. Seriously, play story mode in X and 11 and just enjoy the hell out of it. Put it on easy and let it wash over you.
@Mike_Cathcart and I played for a couple hours today trying out all the playable characters and assist characters. Smoke was pretty lethal as a beginner choice. I quickly figured out how to be decent with Sub-Zero and Shang Tsung too.
My favorite for hilarity was Johnny Cage. Flipping birds. Nut punching with a split. A move just to gain Star Power? Awesome, and so stupidly Mortal Kombat.
Their gameplay has come a very long way since the original. Where I appreciate that Capcom has fought change to some extent with Street Fighter, most of what’s changed with MK has been great.
It feels like they’re rarely out to perfect or even iterate. Instead, they want each title to have a strong individual gameplay identity while remaining faithful to the tone and overall franchise vision. And then they layer on some over the topness that is always appreciated. I love that they take big swings with each game, even if it makes for rough spots.
I bought this, but not the premium edition, so I should be able to play tomorrow. I’ll probably go first with Rain and Li Mei, but I’ll try most of the roster later. We’ll see.
Well put. I think X is fine, but it does have a somewhat uncanny art style that’s grating for me. 11 really perfects it. That’s the one I’d tell people to go for first. The only benefit to playing X first is that you get some exposition on some of the characters, but the stories work fine separately.
Playing 11 first, I had no idea what the cowboy man or the Mayan king were doing there, but that only added to the insanity, and I think that actually made it better for me :)
No one had said a word to me about the campaign, so once I realized how bonkers and well-crafted it was, my mouth was on the floor. It’s a soap opera, it’s epic fantasy, it’s time travel shenanigans. Now that character is alive - oh now they’re dead - wait, now they’re alive again, and pissed off.
It’s fricken brilliant. Of all the things I expected to get out of a Mortal Kombat game, that was nowhere on my bingo card.
I’m a little apprehensive going into 1 because I think 11 set the bar really high. But you like you said in your other post, they do want to innovate, and they usually do a great job of it.
I picked this up and I’m looking forward to it. I messed a little a few of the characters while I waited for it to download. Is the Kameos mechanic new to MK1 or was it in 11? I played 10 but I’m pretty sure I skipped 11. And will some of the Kameos become playable?
It seems like the easy-to-start-with characters are Scorpion, Liu Kang, Reptile, and Kung Lao. I think I’ll start with one of them.
This is the best advice I got all week! I have both X and XI because I had to buy them when they were on sale, but I never got very far in either because medium difficulty is too much for me :p
I went back now and having a great time on easy 👍
I enjoyed the story more than I thought I would. It’s the perfect mix of call-backs, over the top fights and insanity. They did a nice job using nearly all the characters in a different way.
Plus, it’s the return of Mime Johnny Cage!
Also side note, also in spoilerish territory (though it’s MK, so not really): the story is a hot mess in the final act. Like, not in a great way. They could have had something special, but then it went bananas-level-multiverse and the final fight itself was nothing special because it was like the 4th time fighting Shang Tsung. Also, Ermac is the absolute worst: he’s a punching bag and nothing more.
Now, Invasion? That’s an odd one. I’m doing it for the unlockables, but I’m not sure I love it.
Btw, I learned tonight the Kameos have fatalities too!
I’m playing it too. Still early in the story, but it’s been fun. And I spent an hour or so in practice mode just trying some different characters to see if I pick a main.
The only bad thing is that I get a bit of stutter when transitioning from cutscenes to fight introduction in story mode. I had that problem in other NRS games, but I thought now that wouldn’t be an issue since the game is installed on an NVME SSD, but I guess I was wrong. Minor thing though.
Yeah same, I think everyone gets that ‘feature’ in the PC port. :P
I just finished the story and yeah, it seems Ed Boon is a big fan of Avengers: Endgame. That went… places. Fun (if silly) places. :)
My main is Li Mei, it seems. It was by far the most enjoyable character for me. I also enjoyed Reptile, Sindel and Rain, but not as much as Li Mei. Now to learn all the strengths and weaknesses and combos. This should be fun. ;)