NetherRealm Have Done It Again

Mortal Kombat 11 is officially here, and if its metascore tells us anything it's that this is one of the best iterations in the series! NetherRealm should be proud. Starting Tuesday April 23, we'll all be able to take it home and experience the wondrous bloodlust-fueled fantasy fighter that we've been playing since we were too young for grown-up games. 

But MK11 does more than just provide you with satisfyingly gory gameplay. That's expected by now, right? Everything you'd expect from a gameplay standpoint for the 11th game in a franchise is all there. Super polished character models, tight and responsive gameplay, and a fully fleshed out story mode are all there and as great as ever. But perhaps one of the most overlooked features in MK11 is one that didn't even start as a Mortal Kombat feature. 

Cosmetics With a Twist

Before MK11, NetherRealm's most recent game was Injustice 2; a game with the same DNA as mortal Kombat but with a rich story involving 20+ characters in the DC comics universe.

Injustice 2 introduced a brand new feature to these types of games in the form of cosmetic unlocks that slightly altered the stats of the character you unlocked them for. It was so much fun fighting through as Batman to unlock a special cowl that made him look slightly more badass and boosted his abilities, and it really added a light RPG element to a game in a genre where character upgrades and customization are generally tossed aside in favor of larger rosters with more diverse play styles.

Ultimately what these semi-cosmetic unlocks really did though was allow you to figure out a way to slightly tweak your favorite character's stats to fit how YOU play them. Effectively making the character unique to you. 

That being said, these upgrades weren't game-breaking. They never made you feel invincible; a small detail when it comes to balance while playing online. If you like a specific move that in its vanilla state isn't as effective as you want it to be, these upgrades allow you to pick the moves you gravitate towards and extrapolate their stats.  

So naturally, we were ecstatic when we found out that this feature would be coming to a series as legendary as Mortal Kombat. After full-fledged character customization flopped in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, this new system seemed like the perfect way to change the Mortal Kombat 11 Characters around so that it adheres to your specific play style. 

These aren't just simple character skins, mind you. In Mortal Kombat 11, you have "gear" that boosts certain stats along with character skins. 

In Conclusion

Fighting games are weird when it comes to content that fills out that $60 price tag. Many games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and the Soul Calibur series do a really good job at providing endless ways to utilize the game's core mechanics, and it's about time a franchise as storied and classic as Mortal Kombat did the same. 

As of now, we've only gotten to play a few rounds of the game and don't have a whole bunch of opinions on it. IGN's review praised the game, but did criticize the fact that items are randomly dropped, giving it a "loot box" feel, and that unlocking certain items can be a grind. So we'll have to see in the coming weeks if MK11's reward loops are worthwhile or too much of a grind. 

Are you playing MK11 and digging it? Want to hop on our stream and challenge KontrolFreek HQ? Maybe play a few rounds with Bruce?Leave a comment below, and we'll try to set something up! In the mean time, check out our quick tip for more Prayer Beads and Gourd Seeds in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.