About the game
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.
The text above is adapted from Wikipedia and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
What critics said
Metacritic 86 out of 100 from 21 reviews (Xbox One). Metacritic 83 out of 100 from 81 reviews (PS4). Metacritic 76 out of 100 from 10 reviews (Windows). Individual reviews: Game Informer 9.3/10, 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.
Extra content
Skin packs and guest characters sold as add-ons, mostly in two Kombat Packs.
- 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.
Good to know
- 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.
Made by
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.
