Mortal Kombat 11

Anyone enjoying Joker? I played with him for an hour or so. Beat his story ladder. His story ending was really cool! I actually kind of like his combos a bit…he has some 50/50 options that I enjoy, reminds me of MKX. Overall I had fun which i wasnt expecting.
Also Kanos Brazilian “pirate” skin is for sale in the premium store . I snagged it while it was available. its the only way you can get it. Which leads me to believe that Skarlets “Russian” skin will be available eventually. Keep an eye out for that one!

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The Joker is pretty cool. Nice range on his uppercuts, good special moves, etc. I don’t see any problems with him just yet.

Joker is probably the most fun character to use for me atm. But honestly, I don’t do a lot of playing MK11 any more. After a long time with it, I’m falling back on my initial opinion on the initial reveal. It’s just another Mortal Kombat. There’s nothing really special about it, and the few changes they did make make the game worse (for me any way). I really want to see them change things up after injustice 3. And finally slow down on the forced thousand hour grinds. I don’t want a game to feel like my job. But that’s what it feels like playing this one. Especially if I want the handful of skins I actually want (human Liu kang, light Raiden, burned Kabal, young Terminator). I seriously hope one day they just decide to patch it so you can spend coins and buy specific items from the customization menu (but for a higher price then you would get by just finding them in the Krypt).

I really want to love this game. It has undoubtedly my favorite roster of any of the modern games. But the combat is slower and limited to the point of being unfun and boring. Super moves are no longer a reward for playing well but a hand out for sucking. Unlocking customization options (the main focal point of the marketing) is a long and tedious grind that you HAVE to bother with lest you be okay with staring at versions of these characters that are not who they are.

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To be honest…I’ve had more fun on Persona 5 than Mortal Kombat 11. Even now with the Kombat League season almost up, the skins tied to it are too boring to even want to unlock, Revenant Johnny Cage looks he’s been covered in clay with his default skin.

I don’t even want to finish the character towers because not only am I unmotivated to do so, I’m already bored of doing the same tasks for every character (even though its been made easier to do)!

If there was a way to buy Skip Fights, I’d pay, no point in wasting my time being bored yet again of the same old song and dance.

I’ll find a better way to enjoy Mortal Kombat 11 before Spawn comes out but for now, I might just play something else that’s actually fun.

I pretty much stopped playing MK11 before the first DLC character was even announced. MK11’s roster was a dissappointment for me in some respects. I’m still happy for those who wanted Noob saibot and Baraka despite the dissapointment.

Heck I’ve spent more time playing SCVI. But , theirs always MK12.

Oh god I dread MK12. I really want to see them do something else after I3. Touch some other IPs or franchises, heck make a new one if you have to. Just let MK and Injustice sit for a few years after their trilogies are complete.

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I’m really enjoying the Joker. Super super fun, nice gameplay, amazing visuals… I really like him, which I admit wasnt expected.

I just kinda expected him using more knives oriented hits, but he is great as he is

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I enjoy every modern Mortal Kombat game and would recommend all of them, but I do feel like the lack of bigger combos and a much more neutral focus is hurting this game’s replayability.

Granted, I’ve already put in around 225 hours, which is a lot for me!

I’ve gone back a bit more to Mortal Kombat XL lately, and overall, I think I prefer the faster paced offence of that game, even though I loathe Running in the franchise in general.

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Mortal Kombat 11 has been officially unlisted at EVO 2020.

I have literally zero interest in this year EVO lineup, not going to see a single match of the main games.

Feels super ackward. NRS has been listening(fixing most problems with towers/grindy stuff, balancing with quite good eye), they made a good game with good netcode, and being pulled off seems undeserved.

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Meh. I’ve been bored numerous times with playing Mortal Kombat 11 as of last year that it doesn’t look remotely fun to play anymore in my personal opinion. Hell, even Street Fighter V looks more fun to watch in spite of EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED!

Hopefully before Spawn comes out, NRS will bring back gameplay features from MKX, like throwing people mid-combo instead of throwing them mid-combo via Interaction stuff or something.

Mortal Kombat 11 is a boring chore of a game and I refuse to be bored.

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I heard rumors that it has more to do with sponsors and broadcasting commercials during commercial breaks. Cannot confirm so all speculation. Appears to have to do with EVO trying to create a certain image and this only allows for certain degree of visually sexual/violent content not to scare off sponsors… Too bad. Was looking forward to MK11.

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Almost exactly the same except Smash Ultimate still has my interest and Tekken usually has some really hype moments even if I don’t care to play the game myself.

This may be a more valid reason but just rumors and speculation so meh.

Shame because they really are working hard to make it as fun as possible, although (forgive me) you can only polish a turd so much and it still is a turd anyway. IMO, MK11 just isn’t nearly as fun as MKX or even IJ2. Yes IJ2 was Projectile Warfare: The Game, but the cast as a whole to me felt more fun to play than MK11 does.
Also a shame that this is the game that they claim to have decided to support for longer than the previous ones, meaning we might not get an IJ3 or another IP until 2021 when they’re done with KP2.

(Obligatory bring back KI to Evo)

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Why does, IMO, the best roster in recent MK history have to be in a game that’s not fun to actually play.

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Yeah I’d be curious to see the tourney runner(s) actually speak on why this happened. In terms of violence, MK has been violent for years. It strikes me as somewhat odd (though certainly not impossible) that sponsors would suddenly be speaking up about the level of violence now given that both MK9 and MKX as well as MK11 itself has appeared at EVO in the past.

But I’m honestly not sure what the reason could be otherwise. MK9 was the 4th best selling game of 2019, so the argument I’ve seen by some, such as Paul B that the new player-friendly mechanics were somehow a hindrance seems kind of off base.

Some have also said that it’s boring to watch. Not just here but on twitter as well. That’s certainly possible for some people, but it’s still a subjective opinion. Some think that Sam Sho is boring to watch. In terms of regular viewership on streams and what not, I’d find it hard to believe that a game like Sam Sho would be outperforming MK11. That doesn’t necessarily disprove “MK is boring” or whatever, but if the argument is that a game that sold this well can’t bring in viewers, well, I kinda doubt that. I know sales to casuals don’t automatically equate to FGC tourney viewings, of course. But the idea that they can’t get more viewers than some of the games that made it… Yeah I don’t buy that.

I’ve something about ESPN possibly having something to do with it? I have no idea. I don’t know if they have a contract with ESPN, but I’m assuming that’s where the Final Kombat is being shown in March, I believe. If that’s the case, then it seems somewhat odd that NRS would sign some sort of exclusivity deal where only ESPN gets to show their game and EVO can’t stream it being played.

So yeah, I’m not sure if it was politics, ESPN, some issue between EVO and NRS or anything else, but the fact that a game this popular isn’t one of the main games, while SFV, which has had its own problems, is in for a 4th year, and MVC2, a game that’s not even sold anymore, returns after 20 years, and stuff like Sam Sho, Granblu Fantasy Versus and Under Night make it. I’m sorry, that’s just absurd. I’m sure there’s a logical reason, and I’d love to hear it.

My only major issue with MK11 is that there seem to be too few combo options for some of the characters and that kind of limits creativity. I’m really hoping for the next MK game they do away with the variation system entirely and just concentrate on characters have a single, exceedingly deep movelist full of combos, special moves, and moves that connect the two so that players can really incorporate more variety in to how they attack.

I’d also like to see them really focus on making characters fit better in to archetypes and not force them to essentially be majority rushdown. Yes, Cetrion exists, I know. But so does Skarlet and she basically has one decent combo that still does less than 30% damage so if you’re playing someone that can teleport through your zoning, you’re basically screwed.

All that said, and I know I’m in the minority here, but I absolutely prefer MK’s pacing to MKX’s. Playing MKX online meant whiffing and eating a ton of damage from the one overly long combo that people would memorize. It just became this showdown of who’s going to get their one big combo off. Can’t say I enjoyed that too much. Not that it matters, but I also think MKX is hideous compared to MK11, but that’s probably to be expected.

So yeah, more deliberate pacing, where characters don’t look like they’re in fast-forward, a better neutral game, better wakeup options, better meter usage options and an overall more compelling give and take between players makes me enjoy MK11 more, even if I’ll absolutely concede that there are some serious limitations on combo variety and having moves you don’t want forced on you while others you do want aren’t available in tourney variations sucks.

I hope they keep supporting it for a while because I’m not in to Injustice at all. Two games from that series is enough for me. I hope the next one is just Injustice: Gotham and it’s all Batman’s heroes and villains. Most of the rest of DC’s characters don’t really grab me, but again, that’s just me.

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PREACH 407th parrot of Jafar! I’m tired of variations and I’m tired of custom moves. If these characters had ALL of the tools they’re given in custom moves in one variation, now that would be fun.

If you don’t like fast gameplay then why on earth are you on a Killer Instinct forum?

You are definitely in the minority. As someone who’s complained numerous times about the excess of Batman characters compared to other heroes supporting casts and villains, if they made an all-Batman game I would go kill a sheep. I have this friend who’s a butcher.

I want Injustice to be another long term NRS series, just as someone who is really in to DC comics. But I want them to be more… inspired… in the third one then they were with two. The roster was great, but the character designs were boring and so were the choices of stages. Where’s all the fan-service from the first game? And the art style was too… bulky. And the whole game looked like it had this grainy filter over it. The first one still looks way better, even if some of the pre-rendered background images don’t exactly… hold up.

But after they complete both trilogies of Modern MK and Injustice, I do want them to put both on the back burner for a while. I want to see them do something new. Touch some other franchise, or heck make a new IP. I’ll always be excited for Injustice because I’m a huge DC fangirl. But aside from the roster, and by that I mean just who is in it, everything in MK11 bores me. The characters are slow with clunky movesets, the grinding is long and tedious with no guaranteed way to actually get what you want (which is super frustrating as someone who wants to forget that the revenants and Dark Raiden (and Dark Fate) ever existed), and the story is fine in parts but does NOT do a good job wrapping up the end of this trilogy.

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Hahaha! I legit laughed out loud at this. Thanks for that. :smiley:

Agreed. I also think that if they were to give characters a nice, deep moveset of regular moves, unique moves and special moves, that that they could really move more toward making characters control and approach each match differently. MK has been very homogeneous in this regard, where most characters are rushdown and they all fight in mostly similar ways since they all adhere to the same combo forumulas and what not.

That’s part of the reason why I love KI. Yes, they all adhere to the combo system, but because they all have such unique moves and they all do such a great job of fitting in to different and unique archetypes, you can still get a fun, singular experience from playing as Glacius as opposed to Kan Ra or Spinal or Cinder or Eyedol or Hisako or Gargos etc. In MK, a zoner like Jade might box you out for a little bit, but more often than not, they’re going to resort to playing with the same combo system as Kung Lao, Shao Khan, Geras and others. I’d really like to see them expand upon what they can do with individual characters to make them more singular experiences.

Oh I LOVE KI’s gameplay! I just don’t overly love it for Mortal Kombat. See, I loved MK1 and MK2. MK11 reminds me more of those games in terms of pacing, whereas MKX reminds me of MK3/UMK3. Now, I totally get it… A LOT of people consider UMK3 to be one of the best MKs ever made. Personally, I didn’t love it. From my initial experience with MK3, the character and stage designs, the dial-a-combo system, the run button, there was very little that I liked about that game.

So while I did like the character designs a lot more in MKX, I just wasn’t in to the speed of the game and the whole mechanic of two people just trying to do the same long combo on each other at warp speed. The strategy felt somewhat lacking, and the characters still, to me, had that same herky-jerky animation issue that MK had basically since MK4; like startup animations were missing or something.

But yeah, that’s just my specific issues with MKX. There’s still a lot of stuff that I liked about that game, but yeah, for MK specifically, MK11 was the exact kind of game I needed it to be after the experience of MKX’s gameplay. But for Killer Instinct? Yeah that game felt like the perfect evolution of a game series that was always fast to begin with.

Oh I totally get where you’re coming from! I’m not as in to DC comics, so your take makes complete sense to me given your view of the comics.

I think the characters faces looked amazing in I2, but I agree the stages and overall art style could use some inspiration. I think that’s one of the reasons why I2 made me fall off from that series a bit. When you have someone like me, who’s not all that connected to most of the characters, I can still be sucked in by great gameplay, cool visuals, etc… But I2 didn’t really do much of that for me.

Honestly, I think it’s time for NRS to spin off a new studio to get another project going. They have two quality franchises that clearly make a good deal of money for WB. It’d be nice to see Netherealm get another studio that can do another type of game. I believe John Tobias is now at WB and is currently staffing up a studio in California for them. Maybe that’ll be an NRS extension of some sort?

But yeah, I’d like to see NRS do a new Shaolin Monks type of game or try to bring Mace: The Dark Age back so NRS can also have a viable 3D fighter. I love the idea of Mortal Kombat meets Soul Calibur and I think Mace could be that if handled properly.

As for putting MK and Injustice on the back burner though… I dunno if WB would really let that happen. MK11 was the 4th highest selling game in 2019, if I’m not mistaken. I think it’s also the fastest selling MK game. So the fact that it’s on the upswing, at the very least, makes me think they’re not going to let it sit for longer than normal. Plus I’m sure that owning DC means they need to get a certain amount of DC stuff out there every so often.

Yeah I LOVE this roster. I wish they’d mixed more 3D era characters in, but having Kabal, Baraka, Skarlet and Erron Black on the same roster is pretty awesome for me.

I’m curious though what you mean by “clunky movesets.” Can you explain that a little more? Like do you think the animations are clunky? Because I think the animations are the smoothest ever in an MK game. Granted, there’s still some really weird stuff that they need to correct, like uppercuts still connecting with people even when you’re behind the opponent in air and their fist or weapon makes zero contact with you.

As I said above, I also think that the variety of combo options is severely limited in this game. Tthey need to buff certain moves for characters to gain more of ability to combo in to stuff or continue combos etc just to increase the variety. I keep using this example in most places, but Skarlet literally has one long combo. 212, 212, 4, 4, blood comma. It doesn’t even deal 30%. I get that she’s a zoner, but in a game where every character does damage off of longer combo strings or simply has overpowered shorter combos, how are you going to give a character in a game where characters can literally teleport around your zoning such limited combo potential?

So yeah, I’m NOT saying the game is perfect by any means. I think there’s a lot of stuff they can do to improve not only the technical issues, but the combo variety and (hopefully) the all around fun factor as well.

Now, as for the grinding… This is something they should absolutely change by now. Players have been reloading chests for long enough. Just put every item in Kollector’s store and stick a price tag on it in gold, souls and/or hearts and be done with it. Since heart chests don’t refill anyways, I have 20,000+ hearts literally just sitting in my inventory doing nothing. Give them some purpose, ya know? Let people buy what they want. They’ll be much happier to grind for stuff if they know what they’re getting. They’ll also be more likely to collect stuff they might not have normally wanted if they’re not super frustrated about failing to get the stuff they do want.

Just my two cents.

I like that they wiped the slate clean. I think once you enter time travel in to the equation, the best end result has to be a new timeline that basically eliminates time travel (which is what I’m hoping happens). Just tell a new story. No revenants, no dark Raiden, no perpetual battles with Liu Kang and Raiden… They can use this as an opportunity to give us a fresh experience with these characters. New rivalries, new story stuff happening, and the chance (for the love of god) not to retell MK1 again.

Sure, some stuff didn’t work in MK11’s story, but I think it came together the way it ultimately had to in order to set the series up for an infinite number of options going forward. Hopefully they can do a good job with that opportunity. Make characters smarter, expand the number of themes explored, and really surprise us with some fun twists and turns.

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I can understand where you’re coming from too.

What I mean by clunky is that there are so few opportunities to combo. Like, I point to a handful of characters. Every time I try to freestyle it nothing goes into each other. Like I kick and punch right after each other, but unless NRS has specifically designated that string as a combo, I do the kick then pause for half a second and do the punch. And no matter what I do I always end up spamming the same special over and over. As Kotal Kahn no matter how I tap the controller I always just do that stupid saw move. I try to do anything as Joker and just do that Cane twirl. Only when I stop, plonk myself in place on screen, and stare at a combo list can I actually use a variety of attacks. It’s just not fun for me. I want to run at my opponent and pound their face in with all these cool specials that I just sort of figure out on the fly until my meter is full and I unleash my Super to finish them off! It’s so satisfying and fun. But impossible in MK11 (I really don’t like how they do the supers either).

As for where to go next, I really wanna see the story of The Great Kung Lao. Do it MK9 style where it’s a story in multiple parts. Telling the story of how he brought Earthrealm to victory by defeating Shang Tsung leading up to the tournament where he dies at Goro’s hands. There are still plenty of Klassic and 3D era characters you’d be able to use and it would give us a glimpse into a different era of the franchise. Show us the cult that bread Johnny’s ancestors, the original Outworld Cryomancers, Raiden and Fujin’s brothers who died in Shinnok’s attack, a freshly conquered Edenia with some of the architecture still in tact.

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MK11 not being at Evo is a slight surprise to me, but it means that more games get the spotlight who really deserve it imo.

cough SoulCalibur 6 cough

That being said, support your local tourneys for MK, and go to the best tourney I have yet to go to, but support 100%.

Combo Breaker! :smiley:

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