Developer: NetherRealm Studios, QLOC, Shiver
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive
Platform: PS4, PC, Switch, Xbox One
Tested on: PS4
Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath – Review
In April of 2019, we took a look at the newest installment of the Mortal Kombat franchise. The game proved to be an exquisite MK experience, with many fighters to choose from, solid mechanics, a great storyline to plow through, and above all, a lot of guts and gore. Now, the expansion, dubbed Aftermath, has been released, to present us with both purchasable content, as well as some free updates. As the base game remains the same, we’re not going to go through all the basics in this review, as you can find a very good review by my fellow writer here. In this short review, we’ll be taking a closer look at the newest additions to the game.
The game expands on its earlier storyline with a new one, which adds several hours of content to the already lengthy story of Mortal Kombat 11. Once again shit hits the fan, and things are messed up in the different realms that incorporate the universe of Mortal Kombat. This time we add Shang Tsung to the equation, who is sculpted like the actor from the original Mortal Kombat movie, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. Of course, this rendition of the character is a bit buffed up, which can clearly be seen by the somewhat ‘thick’ face and neck of the digital character. Nonetheless, it’s fun that the developers did a subtle wink to the original movie, which was actually quite decent for the time it was released. We’re not considering the movies that were made after the first one, as they were all extremely crappy.
Not only Shang Tsung has entered the fray. We already saw The Joker a while ago, but now we are also able to play with Spawn, the forsaken soldier who sold his soul to the devil, but perhaps even cooler, we can also play as Robocop (the original) and The Terminator. These mechanic bad boys each have their own set of skills and they also include their own brutal finishing moves. The game also sculpted these characters to their ‘real-life’ counterparts, meaning we get to see the original Robocop from his 1987 appearance, and the Terminator has been molded to a somewhat aged Arnold Schwarzenegger, probably referring to his latest appearance in Dark Fate. Both franchises hold up quite well, and even though these fighters don’t really fit the Mortal Kombat narrative, they fit well into the diverse cast of characters. In many ways, Mortal Kombat always had a lackluster cast of misfits, but for some reason, it always worked and everything still goes hand in hand. It’s not that common for a fighting game to involve normal humans, zombies, spell casters, gods and ghastly creatures side by side, fighting battles with equal skills. We do hope we get a few more special characters, like we got the Turtles in Injustice, or even that time we got to play with Jason, Alien and Predator.
While the above additions to the cast are fairly cool ones, we also get to see an updated, and almost cute version of Sheeva. This character originally made its appearance in Mortal Kombat 3 and was pretty much a strong short-ranged fighter. This time she seems to be rejuvenated and looks a bit less ghastly. We also saw a poor rendition of this character in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, the second movie of the franchise, and we’re quite happy to see her reappear, revamped, and nicely animated.
Other than that, this new expansion comes with the addition of new arenas, the friendship finishing moves and we expect that the game will still receive regular updates, and we also hope new characters still make the cut. Overall you’re getting a decent amount of content for a game that’s already more than a year old.
Conclusion
Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath is a worthy expansion to an already great title. It seems that the Mortal Kombat franchise still has a lot of tricks up its sleeves, and we hope to see more content reach this title in the near future. The new storyline adds a lot of fun content to plow through, together with the newly added fighters. There’s something very satisfying to this series, be it the unlikely band of characters, the violence, or even its lackluster story that simply works.
Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath - Review,
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