Mortal Kombat X

Overview

Mortal Kombat X is a 2015 fighting game developed by NetherRealm Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It is the tenth main game in the Mortal Kombat series and a sequel to Mortal Kombat (2011), set 25 years after that game. High Voltage Software made the Windows version, and the Polish studio QLOC took it over shortly after Kombat Pack 1 came out.

Two players, or one player and the computer, fight with a large set of character-specific attacks. Each fighter has three variations with different move sets; Scorpion, for example, has Ninjutsu, Hellfire and Inferno. A three-part energy meter pays for enhanced specials, combo breakers and X-Ray moves, and a stamina meter limits running and dashing. Fighters can use parts of the stage to move around or as weapons. New finishers include Quitality, which kills your own character if you quit a multiplayer match, and Faction Kills tied to the five factions: Black Dragon, Brotherhood of Shadow, Lin Kuei, Special Forces and White Lotus. Brutalities return.

Local single-player modes are Story, with cutscenes between fights, and Living Towers, where the rules of each tower change. Online there are ranked and random 1 vs. 1, King of the Hill, Survivor and Test Your Luck, plus Faction Wars, a lasting cross-platform competition in which you pick one of the five factions and earn points for it. The Krypt is a first-person mode where you explore and unlock items. The game launched with 25 playable characters and 8 more came as downloadable content.

The story starts two years after Shao Kahn is beaten. Shinnok attacks Earthrealm, and the story then jumps ahead twenty years to a new generation of fighters, including Cassie Cage, Takeda, Jacqui Briggs and Kung Jin. New characters include D'Vorah, Ferra/Torr and the Outworld emperor Kotal Kahn. Corrupted Shinnok is the final boss.

NetherRealm began hiring for eighth-generation development in April 2012. The title was revealed on 2 June 2014 with a Scorpion and Sub-Zero trailer. The game runs at 1080p and 60 frames per second and uses Unreal Engine 3. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were cancelled on 28 August 2015 because they could not reach the quality of the current-generation versions.

It came out worldwide on 14 April 2015, except in Germany, where it was delayed to 1 September 2015 after the USK first refused to give it a rating. Goro was a pre-order bonus. Mortal Kombat XL followed on 1 March 2016 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with all the downloadable characters and almost all the extra costumes, a free update with a new stage called The Pit and rollback-based netcode.

The console versions got very good reviews and the Windows version got mixed ones because of technical problems. Reviewers praised the controls, the story and the characters, and some called it the best game in the series; one major review criticised how much of it was sold as downloadable content. It was the fastest-selling game in the series, sold more than 12 million copies by March 2019, and was the ninth best-selling retail game of 2015 in the United States. A sequel, Mortal Kombat 11, came out in 2019.

Screenshots

Game details

Genres

Fighting

Developer

NetherRealm Studios

Publisher

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

Series

Mortal Kombat (tenth main game)

Engine

Unreal Engine 3

Composers

Dynamedion

Designers

Paulo Garcia, John Edwards

Writers

Brian Chard, Dominic Cianciolo, John Vogel, Jon Greenberg

Producers

Hans P. Lo, Adam Urbano

Directors

Ed Boon

Modes

Single player

Yes

Local multiplayer

2

Online multiplayer

2

Release dates

Editions

Buy this game

Subscription history

Achievements

Achievements73 (1,500G)

Total

73

Gamerscore

1500

100% time

60 to 80 hours

Playthroughs for 1000G

1

1000G without online

No

Online trophies

30

Online note

The TrueAchievements walkthrough counts 30 of the 60 base achievements as online only, including faction and King of the Hill achievements, so the base 1000G needs online play.

DLC has trophies

Yes

1000G includes DLC

No

DLC comes in

Mortal Kombat XL

DLC note

One DLC group, Kombat Pack 2, adds 13 achievements for 500G (character tasks such as Classic Tower fights and Alien grapple kills). Mortal Kombat XL bundles Kombat Pack 2, so XL owners should not buy the pack again.

Missable trophies

0

Gamerscore, base game

1000

Gamerscore with DLC

1500

Grind

• Tower achievements (Tower Warrior, Tower God, Challenge Accepted) across the Living Towers and Klassic Towers
• Half the base list is online, including faction progress and King of the Hill

• Tower Kompetitor Complete a single Tower 10G 50.09% of players
• Tower Warrior Complete a Tower with every character 25G 3.19% of players
• Tower Master Complete 10 Living Towers 25G 7.96% of players
• Tower God Complete 50 Living Towers 25G 2.26% of players
• Challenge Accepted Win a single Tower Challenge 10G 2.88% of players
• BUDDY!!! Send a Tower Challenge to a friend 10G Needs online 7.3% of players
• Pledge Yourself Reach level 5 in any faction 5G 73.56% of players
• Faction Champion Reach level 50 in any faction 25G 9.45% of players
• No Loyalty Reach level 50 in all factions 75G 1.33% of players
• Jump Ship Become a member of every faction 10G 7.45% of players
• Time Out Win a match by time out 10G 35.21% of players
• Keep it Secret Find a secret fight in the Living Towers 25G 8.29% of players
• Statistical Advantage View Kombat Kard 5G 39.82% of players
• Moving Up Reach personal level 10 in XP 5G 58.54% of players
• Elder God Reach personal level 65 in XP 50G 1.58% of players
• A New Beginning Complete 50% of Story Mode 10G 40.4% of players
• There is a Ruler Complete 100% of Story Mode 25G 34.91% of players
• Inner Strength Win 1 complete online match 10G Needs online 38.32% of players
• Return Kustomer Play 100 complete online matches 25G Needs online 8.6% of players
• Royalty Win 5 complete Regular King of the hill matches 5G 8.12% of players
• Good to be King Win 1 complete Regular King of the hill match 5G 12.27% of players
• Giving Respect Give Respect points in a King of the hill match 5G 16.21% of players
• Respected Fighter Earn 1,000 Respect points 25G 1.11% of players
• Terrifying Encounter Confront a beast within the Krypt 50G 45.57% of players
• I'm number 1 Win 1 Tower Battle 10G 5.26% of players
• Juggernaut Win 5 Tower Battles 25G 1.81% of players
• A Kontender Complete 1 Tower Battle 10G 7.91% of players
• Bill of Goods Win 1 complete match in Survivor King of the Hill 5G 5% of players
• Dropping Fools Reach a 10 complete game win streak in Ranked 1v1 matches 10G 2.3% of players
• Hit the Dojo Enter Practice mode 5G 50.22% of players
• Unstoppable Play 200 complete online matches 50G Needs online 5.05% of players
• That's How You Do It Complete Tutorial 5G 17.23% of players
• Knockout Perform a 10 hit combo with every character 25G 1.77% of players
• FINISH HIM Perform 1 Fatality in a match 5G 78.19% of players
• Bloody Good Time Perform a Fatality in a match with every character 10G 5.58% of players
• Straight Power Perform 100 Fatalities in matches 25G 13.44% of players
• Brutal End Perform 1 Brutality 5G 45.7% of players
• Dark Future Perform 50 Brutalities 25G 8.15% of players
• Need a Doctor Perform every character's X-Ray 25G 12.79% of players
• Master Win a single complete match with every character variation 25G 3.16% of players
• Only a Real Master Beat an opponent while they still have 90% health and you have 10% or less health remaining 25G 5.74% of players
• Well Rounded Play every character variation 25G 3.58% of players
• It's a Gusher Spill 1,000 pints of blood 10G 74.25% of players
• Blanche Advantage Hit someone with the old lady Level Interaction 25G 61.13% of players
• Hara Kiri Kill yourself with Kotal Kahn for 1 round and win the match 10G 5.95% of players
• Back It Up Equip a new Background image 5G 30.99% of players
• Real Icon Equip a new Icon 5G 30.59% of players
• So Bored Equip a new Border 5G 30.3% of players
• Jumping Bean Jump 30 times in 1 match 5G 83.37% of players
• Trolling Duck 30 times during Fatality sequence 5G 10.53% of players
• All the Pieces Equip a Background, Icon and Border set 5G 9.75% of players
• Luck be a Lady Play 7 complete Test Your Luck matches 10G 26.03% of players
• The Kollector Unlock 50 Kustom Kombat Modifiers 25G 1.27% of players
• Disco Create a sun ray with Kotal Kahn and perform a flip stance 5 times while in the ray 10G 5.45% of players
• Almighty Complete a Test Your Might Tower 10G 14.95% of players
• Not Dead Yet See all Test Your Might deaths 10G 10.62% of players
• Stay Back Play an Invasion Boss fight 5G 15.87% of players
• DIE WILL YOU Deal 1,000 total hits during Invasion Boss fights 50G 1.49% of players
• INVASION Complete an Invasion Tower 10G 9.45% of players
• Can't Stop This Win an Invasion 1v1 fight 5G 14.15% of players
• Where It All Started Perform the Pit Stage Fatality with Leatherface in the Klassic Tower 25G 2.28% of players
• The Kraken Perform the Kove Stage Fatality with Triborg in the Klassic Tower 25G 2.09% of players
• What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Still Alive Perform a Stage Brutality with Alien in the Klassic Tower 25G 2.24% of players
• Lands-Down Don't perform a Kombo over 4 hits with Bo' Rai Cho and win a complete Online Ranked 1v1 match 25G Needs online 1.28% of players
• Fox Finish Win the match with your opponent stepping on Caltrops 50G 3.77% of players
• Dance The Night Away Flip Stance 10 times with a Kombat Pack 2 character during a Fatality sequence in an Online match 25G Needs online 1.7% of players
• Throwback Perform a Klassic Fatality in a Klassic skin 25G 10.59% of players
• Getting Tipsy Perform Bo' Rai Cho's Drinking special 10 times during a match in the Klassic Tower 25G 2.59% of players
• Hug It Out Throw 5 Face Huggers during a match with Alien in the Klassic Tower 25G 3.1% of players
• The Grinder Win a match after connecting all attacks from Leatherface's Berserker Stance in the Klassic Tower 25G 2.87% of players
• Robots Rule Win 5 complete matches with each Robot Type 50G 3.37% of players
• Going the Distance Complete the Klassic Tower with one of the Kombat Pack 2 characters 150G 8.49% of players
• All I Do Is Win Jump back and forth over your opponent 5 times during the Fatality sequence and perform a Fatality 25G 4.21% of players

DLC

Skin packs and guest characters sold as add-ons, mostly in two Kombat Packs.

Items

Name	Adds	Date
Goro	Playable character, a pre-order bonus that was later sold on its own and included in Kombat Pack 2.
Kombat Pack 1	Jason Voorhees, Predator, Tremor and Tanya, with the Samurai Pack, Ultimate Horror Pack, Klassic Pack #1, Predator/Prey Pack and Klassic Pack #2.
Kombat Pack 2	Bo' Rai Cho, Triborg, Leatherface and the Alien, with Goro, Kold War Scorpion, the Kold War Pack, Apocalypse Pack and Klassic Fatalities #1 and #2.	2016-03-01

Playable today

Online

Online play covers ranked and random 1 vs. 1, King of the Hill, Survivor, Test Your Luck and the Faction Wars competition.

Reception

Aggregates

Outlet	Platform	Score	Scale	Reviews
Metacritic	Xbox One	86	100	21
Metacritic	PS4	83	100	81
Metacritic	Windows	76	100	10

Critics

Outlet	Score	Scale
Game Informer	9.25	10
IGN	8.4	10
GameSpot	8	10
GameTrailers	8.4	10
Destructoid	8	10
VideoGamer	8	10
Polygon	8.5	10
Electronic Gaming Monthly	7.5	10
Giant Bomb	4	5
Game Revolution	4	5
GamesRadar	3.5	5
PC Gamer (US)	69	100
VentureBeat	65	100

Staff and cast

Staff

Role	Name
Director	Ed Boon
Producer	Hans P. Lo
Producer	Adam Urbano
Designer	Paulo Garcia
Designer	John Edwards
Programmer	Gavin Freyberg
Artist	Steve Beran
Writer	Brian Chard
Writer	Dominic Cianciolo
Writer	John Vogel
Writer	Jon Greenberg
Composer	Dynamedion

Notes for collectors

• The X is pronounced as the letter, not as ten, and the 2016 edition is Mortal Kombat XL, said as the letters X and L.
• The German release was held back until 1 September 2015 because the USK first refused to rate the game.
• The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were announced for later and then cancelled on 28 August 2015.
• The list has 73 achievements worth 1,500 gamerscore. The last 13, worth 500, are about the Klassic Tower and Kombat Pack 2 characters.
• The Kollector's Edition includes a Scorpion figurine.
• Quitality is a finishing move that kills your own character if you quit an online match.
• The Kombat Pack 2 and XL update added a free stage called The Pit and rollback netcode for everyone.

Credits

Publisher

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

Developer

NetherRealm Studios

Director

Ed Boon

Released

2016-03-01

Region

US

Time to beat

about 5.5 hours

Copies in the shop

• Mortal Kombat X (XBOX ONE) CA$14.99