Finishing Strokes

It’s impossible to have grown up in the ’90s not having heard of Mortal Kombat (MK). The latest Mortal Kombat is the fighting game you have been waiting for.

It’s impossible to have grown up in the ’90s not having heard of Mortal Kombat (MK). As we entered the 21st century, Ed Boon and his team decided to break away from the game’s violent roots, dabbling with a crossover to the DC Comics universe. This resulted in a diluted game that ended up disappointing fans. Thankfully, Nether Realm have got their act together for a sequel that goes back to its ultra-violent and over-the-top roots. This is the Mortal Kombat you’ve been waiting for.

For the unintiated, Mortal Kombat is a fighting game where your goal is to defeat your enemy and then humiliate them using insanely violent finishing moves called Fatalities. Older versions of the game made players memorise tons of complicated moves, but this time around, controls have been streamlined making the game more accessible to newcomers. This means you can just dab away at your controller, or learn intricate moves.

As if tearing someone in half wasn’t enough, the game even introduces something called x-ray moves that allow players to assault their opponents in x-ray vision. Unlike fatalities, x-ray moves can be pulled off during a match too.

After understanding the basics, you can head into the game’s single player campaign that features a robust career mode. This allows you to experiment with every fighter in the game, and by the end of the story, you’d have chosen your favourite. You can then proceed to play online or try the Challenge Tower where you’ll undergo 300 diverse challenges.

Gorgeous looking
Visually, MK is one of the most gorgeous fighting games on the block. Thanks to the Unreal 3 engine, the detailing on each fighter is highly impressive. Fatalities and bone-crunching x-ray moves look terrific. During combat, every fighter bears testament to sustained damage via cuts, bruises, nasty gashes and tons of gore. Levels also pack in a lot of visual detail, but we missed the environmental destruction in the older games where you could send enemies through roofs or walls, thereby unlocking newer areas of the map.

HT Image

Verdict
Mortal Kombat is a game that can be enjoyed by all. It’s ridiculously violent but gorgeous, and packs in a huge amount of
content that will provide players with hours of entertainment both online and offline.

Rating: ****1/2