The final ultimate chapter

“Nothing can prepare you.” That’s the tagline of quite frankly the best Mortal Kombat game ever done. But I’m pretty sure the Boon, Tobias, and the crew at Midway now NetherRealm didn’t anticipate that it could apply to another game in the series. Mortal Kombat 11 snuck in and usurped the tagline from its ancestor and then proceeded to blow up everything we ever knew about Mortal Kombat. It’s not quite clear, though, if the game got out of that explosion cleanly.

I am that weird Mortal Kombat oldhead that the young folks in the fandom talk about in hushed tones with shame in their voices. I have been a diehard MK fan since the heady days of MKII, when it was fashionable to have posters on the wall of your favorite characters and you talked shop with other likeminded folks in something called an arcade. I was the superfan who went to see MK ’95 at the theater on opening day dressed head-to-toe in MK garb while fighting dudes in MK3 before and after the show. But then MK4 hit, and I found myself out of the loop. I slowly made my way back into the fandom, having missed most of the 3D era and some of the Reboot era. But when I saw MK11 in its beta period, I was hyped again. It was like 1993 all over again.

And the plot assumes that you believe it’s 1993 again. Familiar fighters – or rather versions of fighters from that specific era – come forward in time, brought ahead by series newcomer and villain Kronika. Through various events, the story unfolds that Kronika has been pulling the puppet strings the entire time, literally manipulating the sands of time to rewrite the history of the MK universe to her whims and desires. Yes, the entire time. That means she’s been the one responsible for everything that we know to be true about MK lore: Bi-Han/Sub-Zero killing Scorpion and Scorpion killing him in return to create Noob Saibot, Shao Kahn defeating Blaze in Armageddon, Shinook’s failed invasions in MK4 and MKX.

But alas, there is a further spin on that hourglass she’s been twirling: Everything is a retread of something that’s already happened numerous times. All eras have happened countless times; in other words, Kronika resets and wipes everything to start over with a fresh boot every time something doesn’t go her way. And, to further complicate things, Raiden is at the center of it all every time, which is why Raiden was central to the ending of Armageddon and MK9 happening the way canon establishes.

These twists and turns in the established lore of Mortal Kombat are absolutely astounding and had me questioning lore I’d burned into my brain from attract modes of arcades past. It’s also a fresh take that allows the explanation for multiple takes on the same story across the games and media of the franchise. It’s ingenious and really what Mortal Kombat needed. And while I say the story needed this, I want to take a minute to thank the sequel for fixing some of the messy, nonsensical story beats that came out of MK11 with more multiversal madness. Because as much as the MK multiverse is cool, concepts such as Sindel being evil all along, Scorpion’s character regression and messing up Kabal’s super speed was not cool.

Something else MK needed was a new, modern look. MK has never been a slouch in the graphics realm, and it’s with MK11 that everything comes full circle. The franchise has never looked as beautiful as it does with this game. Sure, MK9 is nice and MKX improved on that by a good bit, but MK11 is the pinnacle of the modern Mortal Kombat graphics game. Every character looks extremely lifelike and realistic. As much as I played the guessing game with the MKX character select screen, I do it even more with the MK11 select screen. I’m not sure if it’s solely because NRS used facial scans of real people or that they mastered the Unreal Engine, but everything looks fantastic. It’s easily the best-looking Mortal Kombat game ever created and that’s accounting for the arcade era that featured the facial scan ancestor of digitization.

 

Another throwback but good reminder is the soundtrack. Will Roget, as I’ve noted in other modern MK music reviews we’ve done, is a master of his craft. MK11’s soundtrack is not your typical Mortal Kombat sound of tournament fare, but it’s something else. It’s a cinematic feast of mandolin, horns and violins coming together to tell a modern tournament story. This soundtrack is here to remind you that Mortal Kombat is an elder statesman lest you forget that it’s a story-driven experience now.

MK11 has so much going for it that you might be remiss in forgetting there are some flaws here. For one, as much as I love the story and the direction it took, I do not like the reboot aspect. This is the second one in nearly as many games, which is ridiculous. While it cleans up a lot of the old lore, we really shouldn’t be having the discussion about this being a reboot after MK9 did its thing. I’m also not enthused about the lack of activities. While I’m not a big fan of mini-games in general, there simply isn’t enough to do in MK11. There’s the Towers of Time, the Krypt and the story mode. That’s about it. I was kind of hoping for more, but not something like Motor Kombat.

 

And, while I’m aware that the Krypt took the place of Konquest mode, I’m not thrilled with it. It’s annoying and some of the mechanics are terrible (atrocious loot system and swinging blades recycled from Mythologies, I’m looking at you). And as usual, none of the guest characters were necessary. I’m never going to like guests but since NRS apparently heard some of the complaints about guests outnumbering the DLC MK characters, I’ll let this slide. But know that I don’t really play with the guest characters and I’m not jumping for joy over their inclusion.

With the future already here for the Mortal Kombat franchise in the dumbly named Mortal Kombat One, MK11 seems like a distant memory. Thankfully, though, it’s mostly a good memory filled with crisp beautiful design, stunning music, and a long-needed introduction to multiversal storytelling. MK11 isn’t the newest kid on the block but it’s still a decent entry into the series at a time when the old franchise needs something to remind folks that it can still pull off the badass walk-off.

Score: 4 out of 5