Game #885: Mortal Kombat XL

  Budget so high you can smell the money.

 While I love the fighting game genre, or used to anyways, Mortal Kombat was never among my favorites. And yet, ever since MK 9 Netherrealm studios have really poured blood and tears(Alongside a healthy amount of Warner Brothers' money) into making their Fighters really good. Mortal Kombat XL is no exception, taking everything that worked from MK 9, a few contentious elements from Injustice as well as some rather daring new ideas for the genre.

 The core of the game plays exactly like MK 9. Four attack buttons, a block button, Special Moves, EX Special Moves, Kombo Breakers and X-Ray attacks. So far, so good, as MK9 was pretty darn good. From Injustice it takes the ability to interact with certain objects from the background, some are one-time offensive tools, others are reusable jumping pads to gain a better positions. This was a very interesting choice, as interactive Stage Elements weren't universally well received, but MK has always flirted with going outside of the box, I mean, remember Stage Hazards from MK Deception and Armaggeddon? I do. And I wish I could forget.

 There are two big additions to the fighting: Variations and Brutalities. Brutalities are just another way to finish off an enemy with a bit of flair, they are done by fulfilling certain conditions and finishing off an enemy with a special move. Variations is where it gets interesting, because every character has 3 different variations, each variation has access to a few unique special moves, and sometimes, it even changes a few of a character's normal moves. For example, Jax could either go with the Grappler variation, that grants him access to special grabs, or use the Heavy Arms variations that allows him to use his machinegune and rocket launcher. Sub-Zero can only use his Ice Clones when in his GrandMaster variation, but you could also use a variation that lets him use Ice weapons. Every variation adds a little cosmetic addition or change to a character, which applies to every costume, and is a nice detail.

 Now onto what through a few people off.... if you remember MK9, pretty much every body died... so for this game, there's a ton of new characters, a lot of them being offsprings of stablished characters, such as Cassie Cage, daughter of Johnny and Sonya. Most fighting game fans HATE when fighting games do this... but I've always enjoyed it. Tekken 3, Soul Calibur 5, Street Fighter 3 and Garou Mark of the Wolves, I like when the story moves forward, I like the idea of successors. As for the new four main characters, I really liked Cassie and Takeda, Jacqui I didn't care about and Kung Jin I hated, because he is the new arrogant, cocky kid in the block, but I like the fact that someone with that personality is part of the group, adds a bit of variety, which I like. That said, I think they might've shilled the new characters a bit too much, when Takeda beats Scorpion, even if he wasn't taking it seriously, left a sour taste on my mouth. And I like Takeda. Kotal Khan is Shado Khan's successor, and he sucks. Seriously, he is supposed to be the next Khan, but he gets his butt kicked by Kung Jin... and then by pretty much everyone else he fights, probably because his chapter comes very early, so afterwards he turns into someone the player must defeat.

 This version of the game includes the 8 DLC characters. Four of them are returning characters, Bo'Rai Cho, Tremor(MK Special Forces, baby!), Triborg and Tanya... the other four will be a bit more divisive. Look, I was fine with Freddy Kruger in MK 9, and I would've been fine with ONE of these, but were Jason Vorhees, Predator, Alien and LeatherFace really all that requested? When it comes to crossover characters, I'd rather keep them to a minimum, I much prefer having characters that can evolve and/or change, or at least affect the story in any meaningful way. Look, I'm a HUGE horror movie aficionado, Jason, Predator and Alien ARE my childhood, but I would've much rather have other MK characters, like Reiko, Jarek and Mavado over these guests.

 Speaking of the Story Mode... Holy s.... It's amazing. Structurally, it has the same issues MK9 had, basically, every chapter has you playing as the same character for four fights, which means that when you play as someone, suddenly everyone else gets weaker so that your character can shine, and after their chapter is over they turn into punching bags. That aside, the lighting, the camera angles, the dialogue... it feels VERY cinematic. Look, the story itself is nothing to write home about, it really isn't, but it feels like a perfectly fine popcorn movie, and it looks the part too. It's pretty lengthy too, easily taking over 2 hours, although, sadly, you only get to play as 12 of the 32 character roster. They added QTEs to the Story Mode, but failing them has no consequence, except maybe robbing you of your character being a badass for a short while.

 Alright, so Netherrealms has never had the prettiest character models ever, nor the prettiest animations, but... Jesus, these character models range from decent to fantastic, which is a HUGE step up from previous games in the series, in which characters could look like very ugly facsimiles of humans at their worst. The character models themselves are very large and very detailed. The animations are much better than anything NR did before. Most walking animations need some serious, serious polishing, but most of the attack animations are really good, they really do get better after each game. It's still not quite something like Tekken or Street Fighter, but we're getting there! If there's something to complain about it's that the color palette is very subdued, even the red blood looks muddy at times, the game could've used more vibrant colors. Which is something they fixed with MK 11, judging from its bright yellow cover.

 Besides the Story Mode, there are are also Single Player Towers you can partake in, heck, Arcade Mode is now 'Klassik Tower', which rewards the player with a brief ending for your character upon completion. The Krypt returns, and it's now a first person mini-game, not only are you opening up coffins for rewards, you're also collecting items in order to open up other areas! An unnecessary amount of time and care went into something that could've been a boring list of items to unlock. Honestly, this game's production values are through the roof, I don't know how they managed to get so much money to sink into this game, but boy, is it something marvelous.

 One caveat with this disc... It doesn't include every DLC costume. It's missing costumes such as the Medieval pack, the Cosplay pack and even the cool metallic ninja costumes for Scorpion, Sub-Zero and Ermac. If that wasn't disappointing enough, some costumes are locked behind the online modes, which I think should be a BIG no no. At least we get every DLC character, which is what really matters.

 Worth mentioning, the game crashed on me multiple times throughout the Arcade Ladder, which wasn't very fun.

 I always used to think that Mortal Kombat was overrated. Heck, I think the only reason people held it in high regard was because it came out at the right time, and for whatever reason the violence managed to mask how basic and dull the gameplay was, I mean, Mortal Kombat couldn't hold a candle to Street Fighter II. But since MK9 Netherrealms have turned into a heavy-weight of the genre. Sure, the competitive scene might devolve into projectile-fests, but Mortal Kombat and Injustice are quality games that manage to offer fun gameplay, and the right mix of substance and style to keep most people happy. 

9.0