Mortal Kombat 11

Off-Topic
3736

I literally don’t pay for the online access. So no. I have not tried ranked.

As for what I’d like from an MK game in order to keep me playing… I don’t need much. Usually I’m fine just playing vs. matches against the computer endlessly. It’s really just that I don’t find the gameplay satisfying here. I wish it was a bit faster. I wish I could have more in the move-set than what the current system allows. I wish I could do my super moves without sucking in the fight. I don’t know. Maybe if I pop back on and play a few more matches and see how it feels now but… I don’t know.

3737

If you’re not having much fun then just take a break. Way too many people play things out of a misplaced sense of obligation. These things are supposed to be fun, and if they aren’t, then you may as well spend your time doing something else.

If nothing else, taking a break is a good way to reset your feelings on something. I’ve certainly had times where KI was less fun to me, and taking good, long breaks helps to remind me of how much I love it when I come back.

2 Likes
3738

I just wish I could like it more than I am. It’s like I traded gameplay I like for almost all the characters I like coming back.

Am I alone in thinking matches in this one feel rather slow and monotonous?

3739

The matches are certainly slower than MKX - that’s a pretty intentional design decision for this one. They wanted to slow match pace down, and the movement, tools, and strings/specials are all tuned to support that more deliberate pacing.

As to whether or not it’s monotonous, I imagine that depends heavily on what you like or value in a fighter. I find fighting the computer in a FG boring irrespective of the title or mechanics - removal of the human element (adaptability, unpredictability, and fear/conditioning chief among them) removes the things that I actually value in these titles.

If you’re someone who does enjoy grinding against the CPU, then I suspect it is because you find the core gameplay loop interesting and rewarding. I still really like Anthem, a title seemingly everyone else hates (or hates on), because I think its core gameplay loop is both unique and highly engaging (fun). I put up with its flaws in other areas because dancing around wreaking glorious destruction with my Interceptor is an absolute blast.

If MK11’s core gameplay loop doesn’t make you smile and think this “this is so sick”, then it may just be that the title isn’t your cup of tea. I don’t play NRS titles even though I love watching them, simply because the “feel” of them isn’t something that I enjoy. That certainly doesn’t make them “bad” games - it just means they aren’t necessarily for me. Not every game, even exceptionally well-made ones, is going to be a title you love it even enjoy.

3740

I know. And it really disappoints me. Because it’s almost like I can’t have a roster of all my favorite characters AND gameplay I find super fun that I replay over and over.

Like, X had the gameplay, but it ultimately couldn’t hold me for longer than a year and a half of consistent play because of the roster. Well, and Injustice 2 coming out. This title has a roster with almost all my favorites. But gameplay that could’ hold me for more than a week. It’s so ironic that it’s frustrating.

I guess the slower match paces could be fun. But I feel like I spend the whole match doing the same exact move over and over again. Especially as characters like kotal where all I can ever manage to actually do is that dumb saw grab.

3741

For what it’s worth, playing against humans rewards variety a lot more than playing against the CPU. I find that playing the CPU in MK11 is best viewed as combo execution practice.

As far as not getting everything you want… well that just seems like life to me. I have a friend who likes to say “don’t let the perfect stand in the way of the good.” The game is not going to radically change. If you like it enough to keep playing, great. If you don’t, then yeah - it’s okay to move on.

3 Likes
3742

Yeah I’ll say this about MK11’s gameplay. Due to the slower pace and the nature of a substantial portion of combo strings, I find when I play people online, and I’ve played hundreds of matches online now, that a lot of people really try for optimum damage.

Of course, that makes sense. I actually disliked MKX’s gameplay because people just seemed to gravitate toward their biggest combo and just do that and take your life bar for having the audacity to throw out a punch (exaggerating, but still).

In MK11, it feels like they wanted to balance the roster more so not every character is rushdown with one massive damage long combo string that players just sat and watched after they got blown up. You have some zoners, some mid-range types, some grapplers, some rushdown, etc.

But to me, the game still favors the whole “find your most damaging move or combo and repeat ad nauseum.” I think part of that is in the balancing of some of the crushing blows. You have some players that are just obsessed with them. The Sub Zero player that really wants that third slide crushing blow, Erron Black players really want that second big boot crushing blow, or Baraka players that really want that second f+4,4 crushing blow, etc.

In theory, that should help create a bit more variety in approaches to gameplay and in a sense it does. But you also have many characters that can either do 20 hit combos (Liu Kang) or can do a ton of damage with eight or so hits (Geras). You also have a substantial number of players that know their one long string with Scorpion or Noob and they do that over and over again.

My hope for future balancing in this game as that they find a way to give several characters more fun stuff to do in combos and more ways to connect combos. Cetrion, Kollector, Skarlet, Shang Tsung… There are so many characters that feel limited in the ways they can start longer combos or connect combo strings, etc. It’s honestly weird finding a Shang Tsung that doesn’t abuse ground fireballs or a Skarlet that doesn’t use Y,X,Y and then pull out the same optimum combo after. That’s not to say that they can’t hold their own in a fight. It’s more that they’re just not very fun to watch, play as or play against.

I don’t even need them to do a ton of damage, but it feels like right now most players gravitate to a small percentage of the roster that they can get those big combos from, that have high damage, so you see the same stuff over and over and it’s a shame because that tends to make it somewhat monotonous as well. I think they’re SO CLOSE to getting it right in this game, but they’re not there yet.

There’s still a lot that I like about this game, no question. As I believe I said above, it’s my favorite MK since MK2. But I do hope that they can make good on that idea Ed threw out a long while back about possibly adding more moves in the future to characters so they have more options for their arsenal.

TL/DR: I think there are some characters that could use a little more variety in how they combo, how they get damage, etc. There’s a fun chess match to be had in playing human opponents, but having some more pieces on the board beyond a few high/low mixup 3 hit strings or two hit in to special move, crushing blows, and that one optimum combo would be great.

3743

This is all true of course. I think one of the issues is that the combos in MK11 are not terribly difficult. So most people will perform similar nearly optimal combos. But this is just good fighting game play and even on a hypothetical level it makes sense to maximize your damage.

The reasons to vary your combos include some kind of breaker system (like KI), having combos that start with openers that have different speeds/properties, and having combos that end with different game states which may be advantageous at different times during the game.

I think MK11 actually employs all three, although the breakers are generally indifferent to the combo as long as it is a juggle. But this is one reason to use grounded combos while your opponent has meter. Lots of MK11 combos don’t go very far and are suboptimal, but start with overhead or low strikes or oddly timed moves that can hit your opponent. Shao Khan’s best opener leads to a mediocre 3 hit combo. But often it’s the best way to open someone up even though it’s suboptimal. The last one - manipulating the game state, I think exists in MK but is way above the level that most people are playing the game. So you just don’t see people doing suboptimal damage in order to get advantageous positions etc.

3744

As Andy points out, I think this is pretty standard in all FG’s, and especially string based ones. NRS games always “devolve” to this state, because optimal combos exist and are largely attainable (though perhaps moreso in this title, especially for characters like Geras). The slower match pace means you generally get fewer “awkward” touches, which means that combos rarely have to be modified in order to get that “best in this situation” version.

I don’t know that I think MK11’s combos are any more repetitive than MKX’s or Injustice 2 to be honest. There’s about the same variety of combo styles (a few hits into big damage, lots of hits into big damage, a few cooler-than-usual looking juggles) across all the games, just that in MK11 one of the higher tiers has relatively simple looking combos. Ferra/Torr wasn’t super awesome to look at combo-wise either - it’s just that Ferra/Torr wasn’t high tier and so you didn’t see them often.

3745

I’ll give NRS credit for their work. For now.

5 Likes
3746

He looks cool. I’m excited to try him out.

Man. It’s so surreal to have new trailers for MK and SF in my feed at the same time.

3747

Now I have to download the game again to get the next Fire God Liu Kang skin off of the Nightwolf Tower

3748

I’m at a weird place now where I don’t want to assume anything based off of these trailers. Shang Tsung had some really cool stuff in his, but then his tourney variations were considerably less compelling. Nightwolf looks like he has a decent arsenal, even if a lot of his combos doesn’t seem overly flashy.

I like the use of the bear, wolf and eagle, as they bring some different stuff to his arsenal. Just not all that inspired by the moves they have.

The wolf is a passive buff? I dunno, could’ve been cooler if maybe he attacked the opponent for a few hits and you could manually have nightwolf turn him in to lightning or something along those lines for a small distance combo. Maybe even amplify the lightning to allow Nightwolf to shoulder charge in for more damage? I dunno.

Same with the bear. Just another way to deflect projectiles. Guessing it’ll conflict with the projectile reflect, which honestly seems like the more useful move when amplified. The eagle… just a projectile.

Hoping I’m wrong on those and they all have more uses. That’d be awesome. I don’t mean to be all “Simpsons did it” either, but look at all the cool stuff Eagle can do with his buddy in KI and then seeing Nightwolf just send out an eagle as a projectile seemed kinda meh.

But like I said, there could easily be more, and having three buddies instead of one is still a nice idea, even if they’ll all presumably take up a move slot.

Other than that, a lot of it seemed like standard Nightwolf stuff. Shoulder charge, bow and arrow (nice that he can hold the shots now), lots of axe swinging in his combos, some lightning, etc. There’s definitely more style in the subtle aspects, like the cool back turned axe combo finisher looked nice. His throw looked cool. Not particularly interested in his super or his finisher, but oh well.

Overall, I’m kinda having the same reaction to Nightwolf that many have had to Honda’s SFV announcement. “Yep, he’s here. He’s a familiar, classic character. He’s doing Honda things.”

I see this and it reminds me why I want more 3D era characters. Many of them are such basic templates that can be greatly expanded upon with new and fun ideas. Nitara’s a vampire, Reiko’s a scheming general, Havik’s chaos incarnate, Kai is a capoeira chosen one, Mavado has ropes, Sareena’s half demon and so on and so on. They have ideas built in to their characters that can be fleshed out in compelling ways.

With Nightwolf, we’ve already seen about 90% of what he can do. We know most of these moves, even if some of them are applied slightly differently.

That’s not to say that I’m against Nightwolf being here or that Nightwolf fans shouldn’t be excited. He’s not a constantly recycled character, and I’m glad he’s in the game. Nightwolf fans should absolutely celebrate! I just think the main roster of the last 3 MK games has played it really safe, and while MK11 is probably the least safest of the three, it would still be nice if there was more newness, at least in the DLC, and not just from guest characters.

Sorry, a lot of this came off as negative. As I said, I’m happy Nightwolf’s here and I’ll definitely try him out. I hope he has some fun stuff. I just didn’t see a lot in the trailer that felt all that new and exciting, but that’s just me.

1 Like
3749

I’ve been very upfront here and elsewhere about how generally wack I think Nightwolf is, but NRS did a good job here. He looks interesting and unique :+1:t5:

1 Like
3750

That might be the best fatality Nightwolf has ever had, if not one of them.

I love that he uses a variety of weapons, and they’re all visible on his person for the most part. The gunstock club is a nice touch!

I really appreciate that even though he retained his classic moves like the Green Lantern Tomahawk and Orbital Light Beam (obviously not their real names but meh) he has a lot of new tools at his disposal.

2 Likes
3751

I enjoyed the Nightwolf trailer… very cool… I like his combos and how they seem to move slower, with minor pauses to show POWER. Very cool. And the outro…oh man that was sick!!!\

Made the SFV trailer looks so bland and boring. SFV is just bad…so bad lol

3752

NRS:

Added a new reward type (Bonus Character Reward) for Tower completion that awards a random skin, piece of gear, or augment for the character you use to defeat it.

Me: A simple solution to the problem that SOME people really couldn’t see.

Also NRS:

Scorpion - Hell Port and (Air) Hell Port are now high attacks.

Also Me: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Oh and one last thing:

Shao Kahn - Ridicule recovers 36 frames faster and the debuff now lasts 9 seconds (was 6.67 seconds).

Shao Kahn - Humiliate recovers 36 frames faster and the debuff now lasts 9 seconds (was 6.67 seconds).

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Patience is a virtue I guess.

2 Likes
3753

So @Dayv0, looks like our friend Shao Kahn fares well I’m the patch. Have you played any? I’ve been essentially off MK11 for a month or so. Not for any particular reason but sometimes when I travel and come home I just don’t get back into the last game I was playing…

4 Likes
3754

Ive been waiting for Night wolf to come out before I jump back in… I dont want to play too much, get bored once Night wolf drops…Id rather wait and it feel fresh. Im currently playing Shadow of War exclusively…trying to finally beat it. I picked back up at 72% complete and Im just about done with the main story. Hoping to be done by Tuesdays MK update

1 Like
3755

Does Nightwolf have another tower with a Fire God Liu Kang Skin in it?