Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsFun, until it's not.
Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2019
I want to make it clear that MX11 is a fun game and well worth the $60 price tag (or whatever price it’s at now because of all the apparent review-bombing and refund requests on this title). The Krypt, Towers of Time and in-game progression and currencies were mismanaged and poorly communicated to even the hardcore Mortal Kombat gaming community, and I think Nether Realm studios are aware of this now.
For those of you who don’t know what the controversy around this game is, basically, after beating the story mode there is in-game progression to make your favorite fighters look cooler through cosmetics, and more powerful for AI fights against other AI or the AI of other opponents online in some of the various modes. But really, it’s mostly cosmetics.
One controversial mode is an optional, single-player adventure called the Krypt where you take an unnamed character and spend hours travelling through an open world (Shang Tsung’s island rebuilt for this game, and it’s incredible) to gain more cool looking items for MK11 fighters including gear, modifiers, skins, character intros, victory poses, brutalities, fatalities, etc. (basically stuff that isn’t pay-to-win and is purely to make your fighters look cooler). The problem here is it takes massive amounts of multiple in-game currencies to get through this mode, and you only obtain items through randomly generated treasure chests which smells a little too much like loot boxes to me. If you’re trying to deck out your favorite fighter with the best and coolest looking gear possible, this mode is pointless for you which unfortunately is most people playing through this mode.
The other problem is that after beating the game, you don’t have much to do but play the arcade mode and the Towers of Time. When this game launched, the Towers of Time were insanely difficult to the point of stupidity. These towers were patched, and it’s now more balanced. But, alas, more problems in that you get this in-game currency called Time Krystals by beating specific towers to buy randomly generated cosmetics on the MK11 store for random fighters. Yep, I also see a pattern here. And THIS is where the microtransactions come in because you can just pay for Time Krystals with real-world money to get these randomly generated cosmetics that refresh and shuffle every day (about every 10 – 12 hours).
Gaining in-game currency in this game (please don’t spend your hard-earned money beyond buying the base game) is seemingly convoluted. You get “Koins” for doing most activities like any fighting (either yourself or with your built AI fighters), but the other currencies are somewhat of a mystery to me. I sometimes get a few souls alongside Koins, and I get Hearts (yes, another currency) from performing fatalities and grabbing randomly generated dead bodies in the Krypt. I only get Time Krystals from beating one specific challenge tower in the Towers of Time repeatedly (it’s also on an online, daily reset timer), solving puzzles in the Krypt and other activities...maybe, I think? I almost forgot, you can also grind XP to level up your fighters, and I noticed the game teasing XP boosters to me (I’m hoping those aren’t for real money purchases). I could go on, but this is just ridiculous – farming for konsumables, forge items, easy fatalities, and skip-fight tokens? Can I use in-game currency to skip fights?
I wish I could give more concrete information, but I’ve played the game for about 12 hours, and it’s enjoyable, but I just hit this wall, as you can see. I’m afraid if I dig too deep to get through the game, I may accidentally start making extra, real-world, money purchases that I shouldn’t be making or endlessly grind for a hood or hat of a fighter I never plan on using. Until all this progression gets patched through, balanced and currency systems get overhauled you wouldn’t hurt yourself just to rent this game, beat the story mode and wait for the Game of the Year edition. I feel that my 12 hours with the game was well worth the $60 but maybe not the following confusion and frustration the game offered in its post-game content and progression.
P.S. If you were thinking of spending extra money to get the MK11 season pass currently available, the full roster of additional fighters (like the roster of this game before it released) already leaked on the internet. Just look up “MK11 DLC roster,” and you’ll see the full list. These internet leaks are just more damage control on this game.
