Mortal Kombat 11

[Andrew]

Reveal trailer has been...well, revealed.

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Looks like they're still rolling with the new/current timeline, with Raiden becoming corrupted once more. Also seems that Shao Kahn is back, though it remains to be seen whether he'll be involved in the story or just there to fight with in Arcade mode.

[shadowgrin]

As it should be.

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[Andrew]

Does feel like a better fit.

[Andrew]

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So among other things, Ronda Rousey is voicing Sonya Blade in this one, several familiar faces are returning, and the basic story is that they're trying to take down Raiden, who has become corrupted once more in the current timeline, much as he did in the original (mild spoilers for those who haven't finished Mortal Kombat X, yet).

Currently revealed roster is as follows:

Scorpion
Raiden
Liu Kang
Sonya Blade
Sub-Zero
Kung Lao
Baraka
Kitana
Kabal
Skarlet
Cassie Cage
Kronika (New Boss)
Geras
Shao Kahn (Pre-Order Bonus)

Shinnok, Johnny Cage and Kano haven't been confirmed as playable, but have a presence in the story. I'd be surprised if the latter two aren't playable, though. Movesets can also be altered, and costumes can be customised in a manner similar to Injustice 2.

[Andrew]

Hands On With Mortal Kombat 11

Looks like the story is going to be jumping around throughout the new and old timeline, thanks to the new boss being the one manipulating all the events since the beginning.

MK11 is a continuation of a story beat that was core to the 2011 series’ reboot. There, the story told across the 1992 original and its two sequels was changed due to a warning sent back through time to Raiden. The message came from a future version of himself, in the hope that foreknowledge would alter events and prevent his defeat at a later date. Subsequently characters, events and more were changed — but not all for the better.

The fallout of that intervention will be dealt directly in MK11, with the reveal of new big bad, Kronica. She’s “the boss of bosses,” director Ed Boon explains. “She’s been staging all the events since MK1 to MKX.”

And thus, a time travel caper forms the spine of the MK11 story. “We’re taking all the events of MK1, MK2, and MK3, and folding them on top of the current timeline,” Boon continues. “We have time quakes, characters meeting their former selves…[for example], young Liu Kang meeting revenant Liu Kang. It’s so cool.”

It sounds promising, though I'm usually not a big fan of introducing a new character and suggesting that they've actually been involved since the beginning, overriding the established canon and lore with a massive retcon. That's not to say MK's canon hasn't become a little messy anyway over the years, but it does feel a little forced. Still, it does fit with the notion of messing around with history that's been a big part of the current canon and timeline.

I was hoping that Shang Tsung would return as the Big Bad this time around though, especially after a couple of the Arcade Ladder endings in MKX where he came back from the dead.

[[Q]]

Picked this up yesterday on sale and I got caught up playing towers and the story and stayed up way too late. Collecting (or kollecting) things is way too addictive, and I have to admit I spent too much time in the krypt

I did like some of the tag team/ 3 on 1 matches online. It adds a new dimension to the game. I played through most of the tutorial and enjoyed learning how to play the game. Had way more fun than I ever did playing SF V and I grew up on SF and not on MK

[Andrew]

I did the same thing, staying up late to finish the story. What did you think of it?

The onboarding of the tutorial modes is really impressive, especially coming from NBA 2K where the meta is so important, but left to trial and error.

[[Q]]

I've only finished up to chapter 4 to unlock Frost. Pretty cool so far, as I have always liked time travel/ alternate universe stories in general.

I liked how the tutorial explained concepts that I've heard of playing street fighter that were just never explained, frame data concepts and all that

[Andrew]

I'll wait until you're finished to talk about the ending, then! It was interesting, but I was a little underwhelmed. There is one very cool scene, however. I'm sure you'll know which one when you get there.

[[Q]]

Finished the story tonight. I liked the alternate universes coming together and the characters learning their future and their fate. Ronda Rousey isn't the best actress but somehow still worked for Sonya

Gameplay wise I did like being able to select a character to play as at certain points. I did enjoy the story for the most part. I didn't play MK growing up so I was kinda learning the lore as the story went on

Boss is tough as hell. I did have to lower the difficulty to beat her lol. My ass got sent back in a body bag on medium

[[Q]]

I feel like I've done just about everything there is to do in the game now. I finished the story, and have worked hard at progressing through the krypt. I've made it to the last section but I need 10 severed heads to get in

I have gotten deep into the AI battles, as I have been working on unlocking augments to improve my team. I've zeroed in on a great team of Sonya, Cetrion, and Noob. I think my record is like 35-7 with a rating of around 1500

Thinking about trading in the game at the point when there's still some value

[Andrew]

Teaser for new story DLC.

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Suffice to say, it's got my attention. The original story was alright, but I wasn't too happy about the ending. I also wasn't all that keen on the retcon of Kronika manipulating events from the beginning, though it was kind of an interesting twist and the scene where all the alternate Raidens and Liu Kangs fight was cool (that's the one I was alluding to before). Considering how we've traditionally had to wait until the next game to wrap up loose ends, fix plot holes, and get a new story, I'm in favour of some DLC to continue the tale and write a new canonical ending. Hey, it worked pretty well for Fallout 3 with Broken Steel!

[Andrew]

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Not surprised at the price tag, but if it's essentially a second game's worth of story plus new characters, that's not too bad. Great to see Friendships return, too.

[[Q]]

I remember being surprised stage fatalities, something that has been a big part of MK games, was not in the game when i had it earlier this year. Especially during the scenes of the Pit, which reminded me of the uppercut to the bottom of the Pit in older games. Cool to see Friendships return as well, as they will probably be as funny as the fatalities are brutal.

I enjoyed the game, but I found myself playing less as I reached my limit in the Krypt before needing heads from fatalities for each character. I'm not that great at the game, so the online fighting didn't suck me in as much as the story mode.

[Andrew]

For as long as I've been playing Mortal Kombat, I'm definitely not good enough at the online scene for it to be of interest to me. It's something they're focusing on a lot more of course, which is par for the course with games these days.

[[Q]]

I have trouble Even in the tower matches online against difficult CPU opponents so that's a bit of a bummer for me too. plus it's a lot of grinding so I get lazy and let the CPU fight for me which did help a little

[Andrew]

Definitely a by-product of the game getting into the competitive scene. As with the online and offline content in NBA 2K, it highlights the disconnect within the userbase. I remember seeing comments during the character reveals along the lines of "Why is this character in, they're no good for online/comp!", and thinking yeah, but they're well-established characters in MK's lore and have dangling plot threads.

[[Q]]

I watched Zelina Vega play through the new story and although it was a cool story, she is a fan of Sindel so she sided with them and not "the good guys" lol
There seems to be 2 different endings

Also, AT&T is rumored to be shopping their WB games so MK could be purchased by the likes of Take Two, EA, or Activision. Being purchased by a bigger company like that usually doesn't bode well for a franchise but I feel like Take Two would be the most intrusive

Imagine having the next game being called 2k Mortal Kombat Battlegrounds 12 2k22

[Andrew]

They've already gone with microtransactions in MK 11, but I suppose it could always be worse. NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 coming under the Take-Two umbrella had its benefits, like getting MJ, Kobe, and Kareem into the game, but they also really put the 2K in Playgrounds as far as microtransactions and the like.

I reckon I'll pick up the Aftermath DLC fairly soon, especially as I wasn't overly thrilled with the original ending. Hopefully it'll be to MK 11 what Broken Steel was to Fallout 3.

[Andrew]

Bought the Aftermath DLC and played through the story.

It was cool playing as the villains for the latter half of the story, and I liked that it came down to Liu Kang vs Shang Tsung. A throwback to the very first game, and it was cool having Shang as the Big Bad again. However, I wasn't too thrilled with some of the retcons to the original timeline, which was my problem with the original MK 11 story and the concept of Kronika in the first place. Sindel was more interesting when she wasn't always evi (secretly or otherwise)l, and there are some plot holes and sloppy retcons here and there. I also have no idea where they can go from here in future games, except to start over with new characters (not a good idea) or go into a whole other continuity (a bit of a wasteful cop out, but arguably a better idea all the same).

It wasn't terrible though, and it was fun to play through. Getting to choose between characters to see different cutscenes was nice, though that's something they've been doing since Injustice 2. I like that I was able to go back and play the ending and choose the other path, jumping in at that point without playing through it all again. I'll always appreciate little touches like that in a story mode, particularly one that's otherwise fairly on rails and has no free roam gameplay.