Finish him! Mortal Combat X is about to bring the likes of Scorpion, Raiden and Sub-zero back to the gaming world with the most advanced looking fighting game in the series in 2015. With an ancient series leading all the way back to the original game’s release back in 1992, a set of much loved characters and some of the most ferocious finishing moves ever seen in the history of gaming, there’s inevitably going to be a lot of excitement about the game’s release.
When Midway Games, the original developers of Mortal Combat, went bankrupt in 2009, things started to look pretty bleak for the franchise, but out the vestiges of the development team Warner Bros. swooped in to secure the rights to the series and pull together a life line for the gods and warriors that make up the fight roster. The resulting band of brothers, which includes the original co-creator, Ed Boon, went on to become NetherRealm Studios and following up on their first entry in 2009, they’re set to confirm the ongoing presence of the series in the future of gaming with Mortal Kombat X.
Release date
It’s been confirmed for a release date of the 14th April 2014 and it’s set to be available on both the new generation of games consoles as well as the old. While it’s not going to be released on the Wii U, or any of the held held systems as things stand at the moment, it will be hitting the PlayStation 3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox ONE just in time for some serious spring havoc. It’s also been confirmed for Microsoft Windows PC gaming, so if that include you, you’ll need a pretty decent controller to make it really worth it’s while.
Storyline
The plot for the game looks set to be a continuation of the franchise reboot that happened in the storyline for NetherRealm Studios’ 2009 Mortal Kombat release. It’s set in various different times of the whole Mortal Kombat timeline, with one being five years in the future, one ten years and one twenty five years, so there’s a very broad spectrum to the delivery of the game’s plot as the game jumps back and forward through time to tell the story.
Other than that, not a lot is known definitively about the full plot for the game and Ed Boom and pals appear to be keeping schtum for the time being. However, what we do know is that Cassie Cage, one of the new characters we’ll go into more detail about below, is the daughter of Sonya Blade and Johnny Cage, who clear got it together after the events of the 2011 reboot. Cassie Cage, Raiden and gang will face off against Kotal Kahn and the rest of his Outworld cohorts in yet another bid to keep the dark forces out of Earthrealm.
Gameplay
While you might imagine that with such a well established gaming franchise there’s little scope to improve on the tried and tested formula, the reality is that the developers have put a lot of effort in to doing just that. The first big change is that they’ve given each of the characters (see list below) three different versions of themselves, each having a different style of fighting. This means that you’ll be able to try your hand at each of the different styles until you find the right one for you, but it also enables you to be a bit more strategic about you selections when you’re facing off against a player in Versus mode.
In addition to all of the new and incredibly gory death moves that have been developed for the game, there’s also a new type of brutal move to look forward to called X-Ray. It’s an in-fight move, as opposed to being a finisher, but delivers a lot of damage and results in a fairly graphical visual that sees close up shots of the damage being sustained by the opposition in the form of bones crunching and organs mashing, which is pretty grim all by itself.
Another cool new feature that’s been introduced in Mortal Kombat X is the ability to leverage off the background to get out of a tight spot or to pull off a cool move or two. It’s a bit like an advanced version of Vega’s flying Barcelona attack in Street Fighter II, but it’s something every character can do whenever they want with slightly different actions and attack moves tagged on to the end of it. You can also grab items from the background and use them as weapons in the game.
However, maybe the biggest announcement in the run up to the game’s release date is that it will a continuous online competition as standard, so every fight you take part in will contribute to you community score. Full details haven’t been released on the mechanics of the feature, but it sounds a bit like it’ll work in a similar way to the system in Forza 5.
Characters
There are nine standard characters confirmed for Mortal Kombat X and one pre-order character that we’re expecting to be available to all as DLC after the game’s release. Check out the list below for more details and you can watch the gameplay trailer character walk-through to see most of them in action. We wouldn’t be surprised if there aren’t more characters announced for the game too and we may also see yet more added as DLC later on down the line, so while it looks like a small roster at the moment, it could end up being epic.
Kotal Kahn – the new ruler of Outworld following the defeat of Shao Kahn in Mortal Kombat (2011). Kotal Kahn is referred to as a god and looks a lot like an Aztec king with stone-like grey skin and a wicked headdress. His three variations are Sun God, Blood God and War God.
Ferra & Torr – two characters wrapped into one hulking form, Ferra & Torr look like they were inspired by the combination of Master Blaster in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Ferra is a small women that straddles the shoulders of the massive Torr. Their variations are Ruthless, Vicious and Lackey.
Cassie Cage – as the daughter of Sonia Blade and Johnny Cage, Cassie combines elements of both fighting styles, as well as being a bit of a Hollywood martial arts starlet fitty. Her variants are Spec-Ops, Brawler and Hollywood.
Sub-Zero – the ice controlling ninja is back in action once again in Mortal Kombat X and he looks as cool as ever. His three fight styles are Cryomancer, Unbreakable and Grandmaster.
D’vorah – like Ferra & Torr, D’vorah is a brand new Outworld warrior and with arachnid-like extendable limbs and the power to control insects to do her dirty work, she’s got a lot of menace in her bag of tricks. Her variations are Brood Mother, Swarm Queen and Venomous.
Scorpion – Sub-Zero’s arch-nemesis also puts in another shadowy showing in the latest game in the series, bringing his chain blade sting back for yet more vicious attacks. His styles are Ninjutsu, Hellfire and Inferno.
Raiden – the Thunder God is also back in action again, wielding his power over electricity to dish out the punishment in either his Thunder God, Displacer or Storm Lord variation.
Kano – yet another returning character from the 1992 origins of the series is the cybernetic thug that is Kano. His three fighting incarnations are made up of Cutthroat, Cybernetic and Commando.
Quan Chi – the powerful sorcerer and necromancer looks pretty impressive in Mortal Kombat X with his psycho eyes and horned shoulder guard. His three variants are Sorcerer, Warlock and Summoner.
Goro – confirmed by Ed Boon himself and announced by NetherRealm as a pre-order bonus character, Goro is set to return to the series with yet more devastating mayhem. His fight variations haven’t been confirmed as of yet, but we’re expecting more info shortly.
Graphics
Graphically, it’s a fairly good looking game, but we wouldn’t say it’s ground breaking. The details in the background are pretty impressive, especially the waves lapping up against the pier in the trailer below, occasionally washing up a dead body here and there.
The character rendering is incredibly detailed and the contact animation feels like it delivers a good connection. Added to that is the sheer unadulterated visuals for both the finishing death moves and the X-Ray moves, which look pretty ferocious in general.
First impressions
The more we learn about Mortal Kombat X, the more excited we get at the prospect of it’s release date in 2015. It’s by far the best looking realisation of the MK universe we’ve ever seen and the gameplay additions look set to bring a new dimension to the series, especially the continuous online competition .
While we like the concept of the three variants for each character in the game, we can’t help but feel that NetherRealm could have gone even further with this as a strategic element of the gameplay. It looks set to be an element that you predefine when you choose your character before a fight, but it might have been a whole lot cooler if it had been something that you can control mid way through the fight.
The character roster is small, but impressive, and we fully expect NetherRealm to announce one or two more before the game hits the shelves in April. It also looks like there’s a whole lot of new moves to learn for all of the characters, including for original characters like of Sub-Zero, Raiden and Scorpion, which should be a lot of fun.
