Let's Talk - "Mortal Kombat X"

I had a lot of hopes riding on the release of 'Mortal Kombat X'. I hoped that it's new character variation system would be a blessing to the fighting game genre, and I hoped that it would revive my faith in the gaming genre that I grew up loving. Unfortunately as I poured hours of time into back to back playthroughs experiencing all that the game had to offer it became evident that MKX was to be another casualty in the growing trend of development half-assery. Everything from the story, to the actual kombat in the offline, and online scenarios suffered a fate worse than death. It was obvious that despite the effort put forth to push the graphics, and to make the variation system work that the game was lacking in so many ways. The roster, for one was so unbalanced with characters doing different amounts of damage per attacks, and throws that it made for a less than fair fight. That coupled with the button input delays in both the offline, and online environments only acted to add salt to the growing wound.

In regards to the story in MKX Ed Boon, and his team at Netherrealm studios went out of their way to make the story mode playthrough the most nerve racking yet. The matches which popped up between the QTE events were geared towards players who actually knew the characters they were playing as, and that they knew them on an expert level. Sure there were some instances where the AI/CPU was easier to defeat, but 80% of the time you were up against a pro level AI/CPU opponent that was overly aggressive. Even with the option to skip past the fight I felt the matches should not have been that difficult. Perhaps Netherrealm was thinking about the faction points, and bonus items that were awarded for winning though. In any case a story mode is meant to be enjoyable, and not frustrating to the point that you want too chuck your controller at the television screen. Don't even get me started on that final boss either. I don't know what it is with fighting game developers these days, but they seem to want to make that final boss fight like a Gradius shooter. They make it hard for the sake of being hard. It's BS.

Secondly the faction wars were totally screwed from the start, because Ed Boon and his team failed to consider the fact that word of mouth is an issue. With the full faction standings shown for everyone to see, and the fact that people can research online, or through friends which faction is winning the faction wars are no longer a fair event. The only way to counter this would be to make the players' chosen faction standings the only one visible to them. Sadly, and most unfortunately though the Lin Kuei are now in the lead (likely to the attraction of Sub-Zero's Illuminati emblem), and will more than likely win this time around. I only hope Ed Boon listens to what I have said, and upon next month's/week's reset makes a change to the game as I have mentioned. In saying that though I fear it may already be too late as the Lin Kuei faction probably has more members than any other faction. Flawless failure Ed Boon, flawless failure.

For now that is the bulk of my "Koncerns". I think factions are screwed, and I think the game needs a lot of fixing. The character's damage output definitely needs to be balanced so we don't end up fighting against a multitude of players using the same character/s online. I also think the online needs to be fixed, because the input delays are severe. I'd also say that the online rankings could use a reset as the players who are on top are likely using the input delay to their advantage. That's likely why "Four_Wude" has 118 wins, and only 3 losses. It's not an accurate leaderboard standing if the wins are gained unfairly. I think players who cheat should be penalized with their ranking spot taken from them, and their win/loss reset. In order to fairly do this though Netherrealm needs to implement a reporting system. Otherwise the leaderboards in MKX will mean jack sh*t like the leaderboards in INJUSTICE did.

I will continue to play MKX regularly, and will update you on any new findings should I find them. Until then I'm a wee bit salty, and will stand behind what I've said here.

Your Last Samurai,
Brad C. (OtakuDante)