NOTE: This review does not focus on the PC performance issues and online horrible net code it is only based on gameplay and story!
My all time favourite mortal kombat game is MK4 why? because it is the MK game which i played most in my childhoods (after MK Trilogy) with my friends and as you know one of the reasons fans look forward to the next MK is because of nostalgic things, such as favourite characters and stages and so on...
MK X kinda has a game play like MK 4 which you can interact with objects but also you can use some stuff to jump around the arena like injustice. why do i say it is like MK4? it is because gameplay wise you have 4 different air attacks like in MK 4:
1. high air kick
2. low air kick
3. high air punch
4. low air punch
i have to remind some stuff about MK games before i continue:
MK1: all characters had same attacks and they were only different in special attacks
MK2: all characters had same attacks except baraka and Liukang which had a little bit different air kick.
MK3 +UMK3 + MK Trilogy: these 3 games were totally same (if we ignore some MKT bugs) and characters had same basic attacks but different combo attacks.
MK4 (MK Gold): all characters had same basic move but combos were creative you had to create your own combo which was same for every character, characters were divided into 2 groups, the first group (sub-zero+reptile+quan chi+liu kang+Kai+sonya+Noob Saibot) had really long range high air kick and they could also do an uppercut using their high kick while ducking, rest of characters in group 2 (scorpion+fujin+Shinnok+jarek+tanya+and others) they had a long range low air kick but a low range air high kick and they could not do the leg uppercut move. each character had a weapon which could be thrown at enemy and also you could pick up dropped weapons even if your character did not have that weapon by default.
MK Deadly alliance: Characters had limited special moves (each 1 or 2 move) but a huge list of combos each character had 3 fighting style (sort of like variations in MK X). new characters were added but sadly many classic characters were removed and replaced by clone new characters. later i explain what do i mean by clones.
MK Deception: same as MKDA but with more special moves for each character and also with unstable backgrounds for example there was an arena called (clifs) which was falling every 20 seconds and you could do stage fatality during the battle not only in finishing screen. but sadly this MK also had too many Clones. MK Deception was the first MK which introduced combo breaker.
MK Armageddon: probably the most entertaining MK game ever created you had land combos + air combos + costume fatality + stage fatality + 63 characters (sadly too many clones) + and you could create your own fighter. MK Armageddon introduced wake up attacks and reverse attacks for first time in MK. if you were knocked out on the ground you could do a little attack to push back your enemy and get up. sadly this mk suffered a lot from cloning.
Clone charaters: a character which has no original move of his/her own and is only a copy paste of a classic character such as frost + Hsu Hao + Jarek + Kia + Mavado (kabal blades) + Mokap + Li mei + Darrious + Kobra and so on... all these characters were only a copy paste of a classic character or mix of some. and whenever developers were running out of idea for their special move they were adding a combo special move for them such as li mei + taven + sareena combos whcih was in their special moves.
What do i call new character? a character which is totally new such as bo rai chu + D'vorah + Ferra/Torr + Fujin + Reiko + havik and any other character which is not copied and pasted and replaced by a classic one.
one big mistake MK makes in their games is that NRS removes classic characters and character roster is too much depended on story mode which is wrong. all characters from classic games should be there no matter if they take part in story or not. there is no reason to remove johnny cage for example in MKD and replace him by kobra + darius, after all there might be people who play MK cause of johnny cage cause its their favourite character but then suddenly in one MK he disappears and he is replaced by a clone. in MK X this has happened again, we have lost stryker + sektor + smoke + baraka and some other characters and they are replaced by 5 stupid charactesr which not only screwed up the story mode completley but also the roster:
Cassie Cage: nothing new exactly copy and paste from Stryker + sektor + johnny cage (in each of her variation she is respresnting one of these characters)
Jacci briggs: nothing new but a copy paste of Jax + Sektor + stryker with some combo speical moves (PS 2 games mistakes again running out of idea for moves)
Kung Jin: nothing new at all but a copy paste of Kung Lao + night wolf + liu kang and has combo special moves again (running out of idea)
Takeda: nothing new but a copy paste of scorpion + mavado (in each variation he represents one of them) and with combo special moves like Taven in MKA.
Erron Black: i know this guy has too much love just because he is a cowboy but he is nothing new at all except stryker with old western pistols, if you notice his moves you see he exactly acts like stryker except club he is using a tarkatan blade arm (wtf???)
but on other hand ferra/torr + Dvorah are really cool and new because they not clones or copy pastes.
MK X Story suffers too much because it is actually nothing but a DC comic story, there is no mythologies like old mk games there is no MK feeling and spirit inside it, many characters just come with no back ground at all and they just have no role in story but they only appear to say we are here. do you remember MK stories from movies + Games + series? all had bad endings for good guys right? always good guys being outplayed vs bad guys and at last good guys were thinking they have won but in fact they had lost. this was what we all remember from EVERY MK game. but you know in MK X from first moment good guys are out numbering bad guys and being OP without even earning it. can you believe in chapter johnny cage defeats shinnok? yes the boss of game gets defeated in chapter 1 you heard me right.
we had only one jerk-character in MK and that was johnny cage but now we have 5 jerks which are: johnny + cassie + kung jin + sonya (she is such a pain in story) + jax
every 5 minutes cassie is saying "**** me!" kung jin is insulting every one and sonya just using too many ugly words which i do not want to hear in MK, do you remember in MK9 story were jax get hurt by ermac sonya asks subzero for help but subzero walks away and sonya says "son of a ..." does not continue? MK had a mythologies like story and conversations but in MK X it is too much new generation too many words you only hear in 2015 films.
cassie cage beating everyone in story mode and finally defeats the beast shinnok (from MK mythologies subzero final boss if you remember) just because she goes green like her dad. and not even a single good guy dies or gets hurt in MK X story but on the other hand all bad guys die. (ALL OF THEM)
one flaw in MK 9 story was subzero turning into cyborg and we all knew NRS is not gonna let subzero to be cyborg in next game so here is my question WHY DID YOU DO THAT PART NRS? and here is my question again WHY DID YOU DO IT AGAIN TO SCORPION IN MK X???? scorpion turns into human in chapter 1 and remains human until end! come on we all know he is gonna be demon in MK XI so what is the point of doing this to him?? he does not even have skullface in any of his costumes...
Gameplay review:
at first i was hyped for MK X and i was like MAN THIS IS A LOT BETTER THAN MK 9 but on that time i was only playing subzero as i am subzero fan and since he is a lot better in MK X than MK9 i was too blind to see the flaws until i started to learn more characters such as shinnok and ermac ( i have 201 wins and 3 losses in 1v1 ranked MK X and i was pos 29 in MK9 leaders before i stop playing with only 120 losses and over 1500 wins so please consider this part serious and dont be character fanboy)
basically MK X is just injustice with blood, the fighting style is just too wrong it is really unbalanced. each character has different jump animation and this is not only visual effect is has huge impact on gameplay, characters like subzero and scorpion can jump like in MK3 and MK9 landing with airpunch and then continued with mixup combos but some other like kano and shinnok or ermac only jump a very little distance and they jump with a different animation which makes them still in range of projectiles. i am not sure if you have seen Ermac or not but watch his trailer and see he is floating all the time, maybe you think this is only a visual effect and wont have gameplay effect at all but you are wrong, most of ermac combos or basic attacks are in the air when he is preforming them he lifts up his both legs to punch or kick which makes it completely impossible for you to push him back with a little ducking kick because you never hit him since he is in the air.
if you are cornered in MK X you are basically done, without EX wake up attacks you can not get out of corners unlike MK9 which a simple special move could lead to wake up attack with armor to rescue you. some characters like Kung jin attack with weapon in normal style and this gives them HUGE attacking range which is a really big advantage for them and some like mileena have to be so close to enemy to be able to attack but in MK9 all characters had same attack range and not only in MK9 but in all MK games except in MK Armageddeon were only boss characters were different.
Variations: do not be fooled like i was, except maybe 5 characters no other character has variation, for example reptile only has one extra special move in each of his variations and he is pretty much same in all. same about mileena and mileena does not even uses her sais in other two variations (wtf?!) ermac does not have the air lift and that green fireball except in one variation. but scorpion which is ed boon's favourite is the ONLY and ONLY character which is totally new in each variation:
General: he has his 3 classic moves (spear + leg grab + teleport)
Inferno: without losing any of his classic moves he gains 3 more special moves
hellfire: without losing any of his classic moves he gains 3 more special moves
Ninjutsu: without losing any of his classic moves he gains sword combos
another bad thing about this variations is people only stick to one and ignore others because except for scorpion only one of the variations is useful for other characters. for example no one likes to play raiden without his teleport or ermac without his tele lift or subzero without his ice clone and these are only in ONE variation. at first i was happy with variations before game gets released because i thought now i have to learn 3 subzero but in fact it is only one subzero divided into 3 variations with one special move for each. also varitions has effect on characters looks and there is no options to disable this which i find really annoying, i hate to play as a shinnok with skeleton hands or mileena without mask or kenshi without eye bands.
MK X has taken out too many classic elements which made MK a different fighitng game for us. sadly many mistakes they made in PS2 games are back like the clone characters. there are no classic stages there is no stage fatalities everything is too serious and dark and too heroic it has no mythologies inside it at all. MK X was good for a change but a change which i hope it remains and gets barried with MK X and will not follow in MK XI, specially i hope storyline gets forgotten and MK XI starts from where MK9 ended.
Besides all its flaws, i suggest you guys to try the Krypt at least once. it is a brand new single player game experience and it is one of the few things about MK X which is actually awesome.
Thanks for taking time reading this i was thinking to make a video review of this so in each part i have proof of what i say let me know your feedback!