Mortal Kombat X Review (Xbox One)

The Mortal Kombat series has been around for decades, and many current fighting game fans can certainly remember the time they spent in arcades or on early consoles trying to master the gory fatalities and the flawless victories.

After a successful reboot in 2009 and a bit of time off thanks to Injustice: Gods Among Us, developer NetherRealm is back with Mortal Kombat X, a new-generation fighting experience that not only brings back some classic combatants but also introduces many new faces, fresh mechanics, and other such enhancements to the recipe.

Does the new Mortal Kombat X nail its moves or should we just finish it and await another? Let’s find out.

Story

Mortal Kombat games may be more about fighting than story, but this doesn’t mean that MKX doesn’t try its hand at delivering a meaningful plot. This new entry takes quite a few liberties with the franchise’s universe, taking place 25 years after the previous game, as this allows it to bring back some old characters but also quite a few new faces.

The main focus is on the Cage family, as between the last game and the new one, fan favorites Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade got together, had a girl named Cassie, and then divorced. While Cassie’s coming-of-age story is done pretty well, it doesn’t match up to what the Mortal Kombat series is all about. Fortunately, the other elements that see Outworld inhabitants fight for supremacy, as well as Earth realm citizens try to defend their land, present a much better backdrop for all the fighting that takes place.

Overall, while it’s not the most entertaining or the best written, the Mortal Kombat X story mode provides a pretty interesting journey and helps newcomers come to grips with the many fighters that compose the roster and their various reasons for duking it out to the death against others.

Gory combat in Mortal Kombat X

Gameplay

First and foremost, Mortal Kombat X is most deserving of the name, as it nails the classic fighting experience’s mechanics, from blocking to performing all sorts of gory moves like the X-ray ones, provided your focus meter is full, and culminating with the Fatalities, which are more gruesome than ever, thanks to the power of the new platforms.

NetherRealm emphasized that its violence is over the top, and while the visuals are pretty realistic and the moves might shock you at first, you’ll soon laugh when punching holes through the chest of your opponents or, in Cassie’s Selfie Fatality, taking a photo with your slaughtered opponent to brag on social media.

However, this doesn’t mean that Mortal Kombat X isn’t innovating. Quite the opposite, as NetherRealm has not only come up with new fighters, moves, fatalities, and other such things, but also with an intriguing variation system for each character.

More specifically, each fighter has three different variations that, while sharing the same common basic moves and abilities, spin off in different areas. As such, while you may not like Johnny Cage’s A-list variation that is more akin to his original form in past games, you might enjoy the Stunt Double one that brings a clone of himself to keep combos going.

Throw in the 24 regular characters, 25 if you pre-ordered and got Goro, the three variations for each, and the array of basic, special and Fatality moves, and you have lots of content to devour.

The single-player story mode lasts around four hours, depending on your skill and difficulty setting, but the game provides the player with so many other things that it’s a solid value proposition. There are the new living towers that consist of new challenges that are rotated by NetherRealm hourly, daily, or through special events. Extra game modes like Test Your Luck throw in random modifiers to keep things fresh. The regular challenge towers are still here and bring even more stages that will test your skills.

Mortal Kombat X also has the Faction War system, which, besides offering yet another layer of motivation for players, brings a meta game for the whole userbase. More specifically, at the beginning of the game, you pick a faction and every action and match you perform count for the weekly challenge. The winning faction receives various rewards, while the rest must double down on their efforts.

The Krypt mechanic is back, only this time it’s a first-person experience that allows players not only to spend their hard-earned coins on unlocking mystery rewards that range from artwork to new skins or fatalities but also to engage in quick-time events against spooky creatures.

While it's not great and many will find things to be disappointed about, MKX manages to offer a pretty great time both to newcomers and long-time veterans, and what’s more, it’s not afraid to take a few risks and innovate.

Faction War in Mortal Kombat X

Multiplayer

You can go online and play against others through the competitive multiplayer mode. The netcode is pretty good and responsive, but at least until the ranked system kicks into full gear, your matched opponents might be way tougher or way easier than you might expect.

Even so, thanks to the aforementioned Faction War experience, those that don’t spend that much time going up against others can still feel like they’re interacting and competing with the rest of the community.

Visuals and sound

The visuals in Mortal Kombat X look quite good. Most characters and most stages feature many detailed elements, but some specific fighters or environments could use a bit more work. There are also situations in which character models are way too shiny or have a plastic feel. Even so, the visual effects and the fast 60fps framerate look great in motion, so you won’t notice this all that often.

The soundtrack is quite good and manages to really complement the action on the screen. Unfortunately, voice acting is hit and miss, as you can tell that some actors had more fun than others while bringing to life the different characters in the game.

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The Good

The Bad

Conclusion