It is the moment of truth. KJ reviews Mortal Kombat X. Earthrealm and Outworld clash yet again. It’s future warfare! Despite aggressive pay-walls and roster adjustments, is there a great time to be had at launch? KJ covers all angles, and gives his brutally honest opinion.

Reviewer Quick Notes Below:

• The result of a double KO equals more life, and more time to fight.
  X-rays are still nasty, the same can be said for fatalities. Brutalities are quick versions of fatalities, that can only be performed given the right situation.
• Combat feels balanced and satisfying.  Stage fatalities are absent, but stage interactions Ala injustice are here for your enjoyment.
• Story mode is shorter than 9, it focuses around the new heroes of the game led by Cassie Cage the daughter of Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade. The story is loaded with cheese, as certain arcs are finally resolved, and other questions are raised.

• Overall i’m happy with the roster, but you’re never going to please everyone. Netherrealm kept highlight characters, and even advanced them in age.  Some are dead, other just didn’t make the playable roster. They took a major risk with this game, and ultimately it paid off. It does suck to see Fujin and Bo Rai Cho doing work in cut-scenes, knowing you can no longer play as them.

• Another note is that a few random Quick time event segments for key action scenes are shoved in sloppily.

• They said they removed Tag mode from the game to accommodate the 3 Variants style of play, and still release the game in time. Also, because they say many weren’t playing it. Well that was a highlight for me in MK 9 couch play with my boys. Ever since MKX’s reveal, I was thinking wow, how will they do it this time? Have four people fighting each other over the web simultaneously? Many enjoy playing online and tag wasn’t available online in MK9 so I think that had a lot to do with it not being played as much.

• Graphics have that gritty tone. Blood clothing, animations look great. The art direction on these areas look amazing, with many environments having a lot of activity, the visuals in some areas aren’t as detailed. In cut scenes some side characters simply don’t look as good as the main. It is certainly clear that MKX is a cross-gen title.

• Online is pretty solid. Though I have experienced slight input lag at times.

• My main complaints don’t really affect the awesome job netherrealm did, it’s The WB. The micro-transactions in this game are borderline insulting. Pay 20 bucks to unlock everything in the Krypt. What happened to cheat codes? No thank you, ill just play the game, and earn everything. you can pay for instant fatalities. so you pay for a handful of quick fatalities, and when they run out, pay for more. What the hell?

• Also i understand that the characters in the Kombat pack are DLC, because their not ready. That’s fine. What is puzzling to me is why are they $29.99? Four characters for 30 dollars? Okay you get costumes coming too. Maybe we were spoiled with MK 9 and Injustice. Those packs were each $14.99 and offered close to the same amount of content.

#MKX @Playlegit