Game #897: Mortal Kombat 11 - Aftermath Kollection

 Can't wait until 'games as a service' gets a fatality.

 What a disappointing way to start off 2021. I had nothing but praise to say about Mortal Kombat XL, but with Mortal Kombat 11 Netherrealm Studio went the way of the money, turning this 'game' into more of a live service than anything else... It's sad, because I was gonna play Netherrealm Studios games in order, but sin MKXL impressed me so much I skipped over Injustice 2....

 So, I'll start with the ugly truth, everything in the game is locked behind online verification. Well, not everything, but you can't unlock costumes or customization pieces without logging in online. This means that, if like me, you avoid the online service, because a game should be be completely available offline, then you're out of luck. You'll NEVER unlock any other skin, and characters don't get default alternate costumes, just colors. This means that you'll be stuck with the lame revenant versions of Liu Kang, Kitana, Kaval and Kung Lao, even though you use their human forms in the Story Mode. This was absolutely idiotic. The Krypt, where you'd unlock extra content. The Krypt, which was SO good in the previous game? Online only. Get wrecked. Customizing characters is temporary until you log in online. Warner Brothers massive greed cripples this game. As soon as the PS4 servers go down, you'll be left with half a game, that's the honest to goodness truth. They are so greedy, that you can buy access to Frost in case you can't be bothered to play until chapter 4, or in case you make a mistake and think she has to be purchased separately. What a joke.

 Well then, let's get into the story mode. I really like what they did to Sonya, she was extremely unlikeable in the previous game, but in this one? I dug her. A lot. Ronda Rousey makes for a decent Sonya. That said, she and Johnny Cage make it until half of the game, and then they get benched never to be seen in the story mode again. Why? Who knows, they must've forgotten about them. Present(OH boy) Johnny gets shot in the knee, but hey, Cassie gets shot in the shoulder and she's perfectly fine later.  Hopefully you don't mind time travelling shenanigans, because just like they did with Mortal Kombat 9 and Injustice(Kinda, alternate timelines count. Kinda), there's alternate timelines involved. The Elder God Kronika decides to mess with time, so she recruits enemies from the past, but in turn, this also brings back heroes from the past. So we have present day Evil Liu Kang facing past Good guy Liu Kang. Kronika's powers never make much sense, she can do some things, but she can't do others, and... it's not ver clear. Heck, near the end of the game, Raiden defeats an enemy that can turn into sand and teleport by.... tying him with the chain of an anchor? What? He could've easily slipped through. Jacqui and Cassie return, but.... not having Takeda and Kung Jin return makes them kinda stand out. You've got these two rookies fighting the veterans? It made more sense when they were a four-man team. And this is coming from someone who loves Cassie. Speaking of Cassie, I liked how she remained relevant throughout the entire game, I really like her.

 The story has a ton of very sappy and very cheesy, almost cringy, moments, and some of the voice acting isn't up to snuff, sadly. I hated how Frost, one of my favorite characters of the PS2 era, got turned into a Cyborg, and worst of all, it isn't even Sub-Zero who defeats her. Some characters share chapters, and you can pick between either of them on any of the chapter's fights, which is a really neat idea and does away with some of the limitations of having one chapter per character. That said.. Scorpion and Sub-Zero share a chapter, but then Scorpion gets his own chapter, so Subby gets screwed. Likewise with Liu Kang and Kung Lao, they share a chapter, but then later on Liu gets his own chapter.

 I'll say this about the story, it has some very cool moments, and the fact that the graphics are SO DARN GOOD only makes them better. Heck, this game features some of the best designs these characters have ever had. Erron Black looked kinda goofy in XL, but he looks badass in this one. That said, it also has a lot of dumb, dull very, VERY low moments. The ending was sappy and very unsatisfying. I don't know, I like the story modes Netherrealm has produced for their fighters, but I think this one is the worst one so far. It's too uneven, and they added so many moments trying to be 'emotional' that it doesn't feel like the Mortal Kombat we were used to.

 The graphics? Amazing. The character designs? The best in the series. And yet... I don't think the animations are any better... as a matter of fact, I think this game has jankier animations than XL. Y'know, I think maybe exactly because the graphics are so good that it's so much easier to see the jank and how unnaturally so many characters move sometimes. It's a bit disappointing because Netherrealm had been doing steady progress on their animations. That said, while the in-game animations are a bit janky, their cinematic animations, y'know, like the ones in the fatalities? Those ones are really good.

 So, onto the gameplay... Character variations are gone, because now you get different 'slots' to customize your characters with different moves. I... can't say I'm a fan. The fact that I get a handicapped customization system because I refuse to go online is part of the reason, but it's also because I've always preferred having pre-set moves, y'know? I feel like fighting games should be clear with what each character can do and can't do. And this goes against that.

 The fighting has changed a lot, for good or bad. Now there's no proper energy gauge, you get two two-tiered gauges, one for defensive maneuvers, such as falling to the ground faster or wake-up attacks, and another one to enhance your offensive attacks. These gauges fill over time and not by landing hits, which... is different. EX attacks no longer exist, now we get 'amplified' attacks, which are pretty much exactly the same, except that now you must press R1 at the right time to enhance your special move. Not all moves can be amplified, but you can also amplify stage interactions. X-Ray attacks are now called Fatal Blows, they can only be done once in a match, and can only be used once you hit the 30% health threshold. There are other new techniques, like the small hop that can be turned into new overhead attacks, and flawless blocking, by blocking at the right time in order to reduce incoming damage. I wouldn't say the game plays better or worse than XL, but I'll commend them for doing something new, I can appreciate it when developers try changing things instead of reskining their old games, something all too common with fighting games. Plus, the fact that they added all sorts of defensive and offensive options proves that they weren't just trying to streamline everything for a casual audience, but rather, add more depth to the game.

 Another thing I want to give props to the game is for how deep the tutorial mode is. It goes over every mechanic in the game, you also get individual tutorials for each character. But best of all, it also includes frame data and tells you how to read recovery/wind up frames, how safe and unsafe attacks work, the whole 9 yards. It really goes beyond what most tutorials go, giving ArkSys and their tutorials a run for their money.

 And then comes the... Aftermath. The add on DLC that includes a new campaign as well as new characters. Fujin? I love him, and he looks better than ever. Sheeva, Shang Tsung and Nightwolf? Great additions. Sindel? Eh, I've never liked her much, but I think she's iconic to the franchise. And then there's... Spawn? What... why? The Joker?.... WHAT? Robocop?.... this is just silly. Terminator? Alright, whoever is in charge of the DLC characters is fired. I can't be the only person who is tired of these 'guest' characters. Mortal Kombat has a deceptively deep lore and a large pool of characters to pick from, and we get comic book guests? Movie guests? Jesus Christ, give me back Kenshi, Smoke, Takeda, Tanya, Ermac, Reptile... heck, I'd even take Havik.

 As for the story.... I hope you REALLY like time travelling shenanigans, because now Liu Kang sends Shang Tsung, Nightwolf and Fujin back in time. It really does feel like filler, as the first game had a proper conclusion, not a satisfying one, but a conclusion nonetheless. This only adds extra steps to the end. It does have a fair share of cool moments, I'll give it that, and as someone who really likes Fujin they did my boy justice, as now I like him more than ever.

 Well, I gave up and logged in online, unlocked a bunch of costumes but I won't get anything for the stuff I've already done unless I do it again. No thank you. The Krypt is a sham, rewards are filled with useless garbage, like dumb icons or 'forge items' to pad out the whole thing and prevent you from getting the stuff you actually want... and now I'll have to download the patch every single time I want to play the game after I uninstall it. FUN!

 Well... this is a disappointment. I mean, you can tell that there was a lot of money behind this project, and Netherrealm Studios cared about the game, they really did. But the pervasive online elements to turn this game into a live service just sours the entire experience. The story mode also left something to be desired, I mean, I'm not looking for the best script ever written, not from Mortal Kombat anyways, but this game's plot was hit or miss.

 7.5