Who's ready for some gratuitous gore and violence? You are? Well, that's great because Mortal Kombat 11 is here! And luckily, it's also a blast to play. MK11 is the most polished iteration of the franchise to date, with even more realistic fatalities, brutalities, and even quit-alities? But, like any fighting game, it's insanely deep with a shockingly high skill ceiling. Though, to be fair, the game goes a long way towards trying to explain everything to you. But, what it forgot/couldn't, I didn't. So, here's 10 Things Casual Fans Had No Idea They Could Do In Mortal Kombat 11.
10 Perform QTE's During Fatal Blows
Netherealm has always tried to innovate when it comes to their fighting games. Whether it's a block button, stage interactables, or the new "Fatal Blow" system in MK11. And guess what, just like everything else, they're absolutely brutal.
Now, at first glance, they just seem like simple cinematics that do a chunk of damage. But, as it turns out, if you time a button press during certain moments in the scene, you can actually buff the individual hits for a smidge of extra oomph. It only adds up to I think like 10% more damage, but every bit helps.
9 Perform Brutalities
We all know about Fatalities, but people kind of forget about the whole Brutality mechanic as well. Which is weird because they've been around since MK3. These are similar to Fatalities in that they end the opponent in a shower of blood and gore, but it's quicker and must be executed under certain conditions. Now for some characters, it can be as simple as "Finish the opponent with your down-light punch" but some are a bit more complex. Frankly, I wished these were used online more because seeing the same Fatality for the 15th time gets a bit tiring, while Brutalities only take half the time.
8 Execute Stage Brutalities
And while we're on that train of thought, let's talk about Stage Brutalities! These things are somehow even harder to execute than Brutalities. Of course, like the name implies, they're tied to specific stages. And, within those stages, there are certain interactables that cause the cinematic to happen. But, only if you use the interactable to deal the finishing blow. Quite honestly, just look up which interactables on what stages cause them, because that is way too much work to figure out on your own. Still, great that they're in the game though.
7 Play As A Bug-Vorah
Let's just get this out there, D'Vorah is one of the best new MK characters in years. She's got such a striking silhouette, a great gimmick, and is quite frankly disgusting. She's basically a walking insectarium, as most of the bugs she uses to attack live within her body. But, one bug people didn't expect is tied to the "Mother Bug" move in her variation list. Equip this and lose two rounds. Once you do, you'll see that D'vorah explodes and in her place is a chunky flying insect that you now control. Win in this form, and you get a unique win animation!
6 Grant Mercy Then Take It Away
Alright, let's take this next entry in a bit of a different direction. Picture this, it's Round 2, you just emptied the opponent's health bar. And, the classic "Finish Them" pops up on the screen in big bloody letters, what do you do?
Well, normally you'd end the match with a sickeningly satisfying Fatality and call it a day. But, with MK11, you can now oddly enough...show mercy? Inputting a command allows the opponent to regain a bit of their health bar and continue the fight. But why? Well, because it's how you get a good chunk of the brutalities of course.
5 Pin Command Inputs On Screen
I'm so ecstatic that fighting games have finally become big again. For a while there they were slowly fading out of existence. But, to be fair, they're pretty hard for more casual gamers to connect with. Simply because of how innately competitive and complex they are. But MK11 does something to streamline that complexity that makes a huge difference, and that's giving us the ability to pin input commands on the screen while we fight. Gone are the days of pausing every 10 seconds to see how to do a Shoryuken, and I say good riddance!
4 Unlock Costumes/Gear By Completing Tutorials
Tutorials should be mandatory in online games. They just should be. Because once you go online, you're not just experiencing the game by yourself anymore. But, forcing every single player through a series of simple to insanely complex tutorials seems like going overboard, so what do we do? Well, MK11's attempting to get players tutorialized by offering them sweet costumes when they finish a series of them. Want a skin for Sub-Zero without even playing online once? Do his tutorials and you're golden. Things like this really help widen the target demographic for fighters when even the most ignorant of players can learn the mechanically deep systems.
3 Let The Computer Grind For You
Boy, the launch of Mortal Kombat 11 had its ups and downs. The game plays incredibly well, but the cosmetics and consumables within the game ended up being locked behind quite the grind.
Luckily, Neatherealm recently put out a hotfix for these issues. But, before that, AI battles were the way to go. Basically, AI Battles are a mode where you set up an AI bot to play a character of your choosing in the way you choose. And, the best part is, you can let them loose on the towers which earn you currency! Sure it's a bit weird that the game essentially plays itself, but whatever works I guess.
2 Fight One Super Tough Baddie With Friends
So, as I said before, fighting games are competitive, they just are. You're going toe to toe with another person, to prove who has definitively invested more time and effort into a game. But, not many people know that MK11 also has a co-op mode as well! It's called Team Battle, where you and three friends face off against a big beefy AI fighter. Now each player gets their chance to do as much damage as possible, while the other three buff you or weaken the opponent. Sure, it's really janky and feels like a side project, but I personally think it's a ton of fun.
1 And, Get Crushed By A Space Rock
One of the best new changes with MK11 is their rendition of the Krypt. This time around it's a fully explorable map with puzzles, traps, and secrets galore. But did you know that space rocks fall from time to time while running around? And if you manage to know where it's coming from, you can actually crush yourself underneath the meteor? Pretty pointless but hilarious nonetheless.