Mortal Kombat (2011) Review - Gory action rebooted for the 7th generation.

By Sam Coles:

The Mortal Kombat series had a big hiatus during the 7^th generation of gaming after the mixed reception of the last game to appear on the PS2 in the form of Armageddon, they did release Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe which I enjoyed but it was an MK game rated a 15+, yes a T rated MK game. It wasn’t until 2011 when they decided to reboot the series by releasing a game simply titled Mortal Kombat in mid-2011 on the Xbox 360 and PS3, with a Vita and PC release later down the line.

Mortal Kombat begins after the events of Armageddon where Raiden and Shao Kahn are the last standing with everyone else dead with their corpses strung across the battlefield. Raiden is defeated and Shao Kahn has him at his mercy, before Kahn can finish him off Raiden reverses time all the back to the first game, where he finds himself on Shang Tsung’s island. The game’s story mode is a lot of fun and shows there was actual effort put into it; it goes through the events of Mortal Kombat 1, 2 and 3 where Raiden is trying to fix things so Shao Kahn doesn’t become the ultimate being during Armageddon.  

Mortal Kombat goes back to the routes of the series by going back to a 2D plain where you can’t move side to side, not that it makes it simple but instead makes it a skilful fighting experience. All the classic characters are back such as my favourite Scorpion, with all of their iconic special moves brought back with a huge amount of gory detail. What is new is the new power meter what this can do is help parry and perform breakers, as well as executing more powerful special attacks. If you fill up the special meter you can pull off an x-ray move which is great if you’re losing as it does a lot of damage, plus it shows the damage you do to their bones as you snap their pelvis or shatter their ribs.

Controls in this game are extremely tight and responsive, not that I did not like the games on the PS2 but they were very stiff, however in this game everything just clicks when you get going. It also helps that the game runs at a buttery smooth 60 frames per second, which should be expected when it comes to a fighting game.

The presentation is fantastic, you see every detail when it comes to the brutal violence as you see the outcome of your character after the fight where you see skin hanging off his or her face, with bruised skin. The fatalities are almost stomatch churning especial Noob Saiboot’s, where he spawns a clone and they grab a leg each and pull, slowly split the unfortunate victim in half.

The only problem with this game is that there isn’t really anything worthwhile to unlock from the Krypt minus new characters, you no longer get the behind the scenes videos like you did in Deception and Armageddon. Besides that there is nothing inherently wrong with Mortal Kombat.  

Mortal Kombat is a fantastic game and was a return to form for the series, if you haven’t played it grab for the Xbox 360 or if you want to play as Kratos get it on the PS3 or Vita. The game is relatively cheap these days and you’ll get more than your money’s worth.