Well, my 20^th Birthday’s come and gone, and what better way to celebrate my being 20 now than with my 20^th Blog Post? Thus, I thought I’d do just that, and also take the time to review one of my Birthday presents. Now, it’s been a very, very, very long time since I’ve reviewed most anything in great detail on this website, and I almost never (if not never period) do formal video game reviews. But, it can’t hurt to polish my abilities where that’s concerned, considering I fully intend to write a review for Arkham Knight when that game (finally) comes out. Thus, here’s my review for the latest Mortal Kombat game. Please note that, as I believe in being thorough over being concise, this is a pretty long review, so be prepared to see a lot of writing. And, as another warning, this review does contain SPOILERS. So if you haven’t yet played MKX and/or the game’s Story Mode, read at your own risk.

The review will be divided into the following sub-categories: Story, Characters, Setting, Graphics, and Gameplay. Let’s start with that first one…

Story:

Picking up not that long after the end of MK9 and it’s needlessly and gratuitously killing off as many good hero characters from that franchise as it could, MKX’s story is a little bit more streamlined and simplified compared to the more convoluted tale of the previous game. Ironic, considering this game takes place over a greater period of time and actually has flashbacks at different points. But even so, the story is simpler on the whole, and that’s probably a good thing…for the most part. Elements of the tale might come off as clichéd, or even hackneyed to some (the rookies having to learn to work together effectively, the newer generation saving members of the older one, etc.) but overall, I think the story was serviceable, and it’s not like storytelling is what the franchise is legendary for anyway.

One major gripe that I do have though is the fate of Liu Kang, Kitana, and Kung Lao. In all other game modes, they are shown as still being alive and in the case of the two Shaolin, now being the age you’d expect them to be (certainly, they’ve aged much more visibly than Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade have). And yet, for all of that, in the game’s story proper they are Revenants from beginning to end, and even more distressingly, seem destined to stay that way forever thanks to Quan Chi’s dying a little too early (though I must admit, his death at Scorpion’s hands was still satisfying and well-done, as was Sonya’s beating the living crap out of him earlier on). As someone who actually likes Kitana a lot in particular, this is disappointing. I kind of wanted Kitana, Liu Kang, and Kung Lao to return to their mortal forms and age the way their default character models have, but instead they seem cursed to be Revenants forever. Nuts to that.

I also kind of wish that Kotal Kahn’s relations with Earthrealm had been better handled, but that and the above gripe aside, the story is still decent, and again, overall simpler and easier to follow than the MK9 story. And I have to say, disappointed as I was to see Kitana and Liu Kang remain villains, I suppose making them the new rulers of the Neatherrealm as a kind of twisted spin on their sometimes status as a couple isn’t the worst thing to do (especially since Liu Kang’s Dark Emperor costume in particular is kind of cool, and Kitana’s Empress costume ain’t bad either). And not to mention, that the twist ending regarding Raiden’s accidentally turning himself evil courtesy of absorbing too much of Shinnok’s energy was a solid enough one, and I do kind of like Raiden’s bad guy costume in addition. So at least the tease for the inevitable MK XI was a good one.

FINAL GRADE: B-

Characters:

Lot to go over here, but regarding how each character plays, I will be saving that for the gameplay portion of the review. No, this is for the other aspects of the characters.

I’m not gonna lie: Mortal Kombat’s diverse, colorful, and pseudo-superhero assortment of characters is the main reason I’m into the franchise (as opposed to say, the buckets of gore that draw most other people in). Therefore, a case could be made that a Mortal Kombat game would only be as good as the characters in it. So how does this game, that brings in so many newbies, fare? Let’s start by taking a look at those newcomers:

The “second generation” of Cassie Cage, Kung Jin, Jacqui Briggs, and Takeda Takahashi were actually a solid quartet, and I like how each of them represents a different one of the main groups in the MK universe, with the only thing that team’s missing being a Lin Kuei cyborg (though I’d have also settled for Frost, who makes a brief cameo in the game proper). The group had decent enough interactions with one another, and all of them were well-voiced and cool. I appreciate the game’s trying to take a stab (no pun intended) at romance with Takeda and Jacqui, but also keeping it restrained. Kung Jin as the franchise’s first gay character (which has been confirmed), is also laudable, and all of them have pretty cool designs to go along with their solid personalities and voice acting, though the one thing I will say to the contrary on that is that I kind of wish Cassie looked more like her voice actress, which would entail among other things giving her her dad’s hair color. But, I guess they wanted her to look exactly like her mother. As to the inevitable question of which one is my favorite, that would unambiguously be Takeda, by way of his being a badass ninja in a cool armored suit, with retractable bladed whips that come out of his wrists, and in my favorite of his three variations, a pair of what are basically lightsabers. So yeah. Wise-cracking armored ninja with bladed whips and lightsabers. What’s not to love?

As for the other newcomers, I found Kotal Kahn to be decent as a more mild (at least in relation to Shao Kahn) ruler of Outworld without being a straight up good guy, as I feel it would have been too easy to just make Shao Kahn’s successor his complete moral opposite. It rings a bit more true with me that instead Shao Kahn’s successor is shown to be, while not the monster and madman that Shao Kahn was, still not the nicest of folks. Though I suspect I may also be a bit biased in my opinion of the Kahn due to my love for Phil LaMarr’s voice acting.

Kotal Kahn’s collection of goons includes both returning faces (the villainous ninjas Reptile and Ermac), and more newcomers in the form of Erron Black (my personal favorite of the flunkies owing to his deadpan tone and cool Western gunslinger image), D’vorah (who I was neutral about overall), and Ferra/Torr, who I view as a creative concept for a fighting game character but personality-wise consider funny only in small doses, as Ferra’s way of speaking wears thin if you have to listen to it for too long. Honestly, I think Takeda’s describing them as “The Idiot Twins” isn’t too far off. But fortunately, Ermac remains as cool as ever, and Reptile's not bad either.

More disappointing is, as I mentioned earlier, the handling of Kitana, Liu Kang, and Kung Lao (though I did like how Kitana could use Jade’s weapons along with her own), and by extension all of the other good heroes from MK9 who are now little more than zombie thugs (though once again, there is one positive, namely evil Smoke now calling himself “Enenra”). Also disappointing is how my favorite villain in the franchise, Sektor, was killed off-screen and only shows up as a severed head (also in turn robbing me of my chance to have a lightsaber/pulse blade duel between him and Takeda). To any fans of Baraka out there, I also extend my sympathies, as things end pretty dang badly for the Tarkatan General. Youch.

But, overall, I think the roster of playable characters is a very well done one, with a good amount of variety and also being a good size overall. What really makes this part of the game even better though, are the character dialogue exchanges that occur before any given battle. Similar to the clash quotes from Injustice Gods Among Us, only a little longer, and happening at the start of the fight. But where in Injustice not everyone had a unique to thing to say to everyone else, in MKX, every character has something unique to say to every other character, which really goes a long way towards making every fight feel unique and fun. That, and some of the exchanges are just hilarious. Some of my personal favorites involve Kitana, Takeda, Jax, Kung Jin, and Johnny Cage, though the other characters have plenty of good ones too. The things characters will say if they face a copy of themselves also tend to be pretty amusing.

Finally, on the matter of DLC characters, I chose to pass on getting Jason Voorhes due to his lack of good dialogue exchanges with the other characters (their lines with him are by and large pretty generic), but Goro and Tanya are a different story. I like the latter’s being voiced by Jennifer Hale, who does a good job of making her voice less recognizable for the most part. She is also an occasional foe in the Story Mode along with her fellow evil Edenian Rain, though he disappointingly is just an NPC. Whether or not he will be future DLC is thus far unknown, but here’s hoping, as the purple ninja happens to be a favorite of mine.

Time must also be taken to talk about the different character costumes. The default looks by and large are quite good, and though it’s annoying how many hoops you have to jump through to get most of the alternate looks (more on that later), just about every outfit has at least some merits to it, and I like the general variety of them. As it stands, the Poster Boy Scorpion and my girl Kitana have the largest number of good alternate looks in my opinion.

Ultimately, as I said at the beginning, the characters are the big reason why I like and care about Mortal Kombat at all, and where this game is concerned, said characters are done justice barring only a handful of mild disappointments. Fingers crossed for Rain (and maybe even Sareena and the hitherto absent Cyrax) as future DLC.

FINAL GRADE: A-

Setting:

Besides characters, another place where the game really does shine is the variety in fight locations. Rather than feature the arenas with multiple locations like in IGAU (an awesome feature, by the way), MKX just goes for single arena maps, but the level of detail put into them makes them quite the sights to behold. Each one comes out looking great thanks to the graphics that will be discussed more below, and the variety of them further enhances the feeling of uniqueness to any given fight. From the snowy forest to the outside of Raiden’s temple that’s got a pretty intense rain-storm to the sun-soaked Outworld Market/gates that look almost like a more gritty and adult Agrabah, you can’t say that they didn’t put some thought into the arenas. My personal favorite of the lot is difficult to say, but I might just say the beautiful looking rainforest setting, though that aforementioned Outworld Market was also a good one in my mind, as was the ruined and abandoned city with the downed gunship in the background and the mystical chamber where the final battle in both Story Mode and the Arcade ladders takes place.

FINAL GRADE: A

Graphics and Visuals:

A lot of the success of both the characters and the environments is owing to the excellent graphics, which are, if not vastly or overwhelmingly superior to the graphics of the previous game, still a marked improvement and really do a lot to show off both the detail of the environments and of course also the absolutely brutal and grisly detail of the ever-messed up X-Ray attacks and Fatalities. Also praise-worthy about the graphics is the cutscenes, which feature a lot of character action not controlled by the player that, I have to say, looks pretty darn good animation wise. Honestly, with just a bit more of it replacing the actual gameplay, you could have a pretty good CG animated action movie here, albeit one I would never, ever show to anyone under 16.

When it comes to the shocking violence the franchise is both infamous and worshipped for, this entry’s got it. Cutscenes feature heads flying, impalements, a few poor bastards getting ripped apart and/or bisected, and two different MK villains getting two different nasty deaths from D’vorah (again, Baraka fans have my sympathies). All of this is to say nothing for the Fatalities, which are as twisted and macabre as ever. And for any Mortal Kombat fanatic, that’s your money’s worth.

FINAL GRADE: A

Gameplay:

The gameplay overall is tight and well done, with each character having a bevy of impressive (and brutal) attacks, with different Character Variations ensuring that there is even more variety than before, as you can now choose how exactly you want your chosen fighter to be. Myself, I found that for most of the characters all of their variations have some appeal/merit, both aesthetically and with what abilities they add, though I would be lying if I said I didn’t prefer some over others. Regardless, I enjoyed the inclusion of different character variations and on the whole enjoyed what each character had to offer combat-wise. As of this writing I have only played as some of the cast, but I find each of them to be fairly easy to control and use. However, I will say that the characters don’t always respond to the commands that they’re given, even when I input the correct buttons. Now, this is likely owing more to my own noob status and ineptness as a fighting game player, but even so, it did drag down the experience just a little bit. Not too much though. On the whole I definitely had fun beating the crap out of my various opponents, and have enjoyed most every character I've played as. I fully expect to enjoy playing as the rest of the cast just as much, except for maybe Ferra/Torr.

Fans of fatalities should take heart: not only are they back gorier than ever, but they are also now far, far easier to perform, at least the ones I've used anyways. In addition, depending on what faction you choose in the “Faction Wars”, you get a different assortment of “Faction Kills” that entail summoning your chosen allies to kill your defeated opponent for you. So yeah. If you love fatalities, then this game delivers and then some.

A brief word about X-Ray attacks: with they’re being easy to use, connecting more often than not, and doing a large amount of damage, X-Ray attacks are a total godsend for a noob like me. The one exception though, I’m sorry to say, is my favorite’s X-Ray attack. Not only can Takeda’s X-Ray attack only be initiated when he’s airborne, it is also almost impossible to connect with. Seriously, 8-9 out of every 10 times I tried to use it, I failed. Pretty annoying.

Minor quibbles like that above one aside, though the combat in Mortal Kombat X is top-notch and every bit as brutal, bloody, and off-the-rails as any entry in the series ought to be. Time must also be taken to talk about the various game modes: the Living Towers changing regularly is a great idea because it keeps players invested and ensures that they’ll come back to this game over and over to see what new challenges are on hand for them to tackle. The large number of different modes one can play in is also praise worthy, ranging from traditional one-on-ones that are made not so traditional thanks to various modifiers, and the “Test Your Might” mini-game that is easily my single least favorite thing about the whole game. I didn’t even get the Revenant Sub-Zero skin I was supposed to unlock by beating it.

Which brings me to another minor quibble concerning the gameplay: unlocking the costumes. Basically, if you’re looking for cool alternate looks for the characters, I suggest you buy some DLC or else go to the Krypt (more on that later). The Revenant skins that have to be unlocked via various challenges are basically made unobtainable due to how you have to complete these ridiculously challenging tasks to get them, and the fact that even when I did complete the designated challenge I didn’t get my prize really makes the whole thing a complete rip-off. You’re better off ignoring the whole business and just sticking with the default looks or again, the ones unlocked via either DLC or purchased at the Krypt.

Speaking of the Krypt, I’m a little bummed that not everything in it is available from the start, but I suppose that was kind of the point; it gives you incentive to buy everything in it. In fairness, I did enjoy more than just the costumes; the character concept art was fun to unlock because each bit of it gave insight into the developer’s rationale for different character designs. As someone who appreciates that sort of thing, I liked unlocking that. And, there is a kind of fun in opening random graves in the Krypt, like they’re packs of cards and you don’t know what you’re going to get. The overall design of the Krypt in this game was also much better, even if navigating through it felt a lot more awkward this time around.

Finally, I’d like to take the time to note how in this MK game you can actually have single fights against the CPU. In MK9 and MK Vs DCU, you couldn’t do that. You could only have single fights with another player, which was too bad for someone like me who had no player 2 on hand. MKX though has a bit more common sense behind it, and allows players to fight a computer controlled foe in a single fight. It may seem like such a simple and little thing, but it was a simple and little thing that the previous MK game (and the one before that, even) didn’t have, so it’s presence here is noteworthy and praiseworthy.

Overall, I judge the various aspects of the gameplay to be a somewhat mixed bag, but definitely with more good than bad. Combat is good, the Krypt is fairly well done this time around, and the variety of different challenges is appreciated, even if Test Your Might sucks.

FINAL GRADE: A-

Overall:

While I had a few gripes with the game here and there, mostly concerning the story and various things about the gameplay I found annoying rather than fun, to focus on that would be to miss the forest for the trees. On the whole, Mortal Kombat X is an exemplary fighting game and one of the best of it’s kind I’ve ever seen, right up there with it’s predecessor, Injustice Gods Among Us, Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, and the two most recent Soul Calibur games. And honestly, it does some things better than it’s predecessor, which is also noteworthy. In short, Neatherrealm studios have crafted another winner that’s a nice blend of old and new.

FINAL GRADE: A-