The Mortal Kombat 11: The Reveal event has just happened. While The Game Awards 2018 only had a pre-rendered cinematic trailer, this time we got to see some real gameplay, and then some.
Here’s all what we’ve learned from the various announcements and gameplay showcase:
Eight Characters Revealed So Far
From the first trailer, we know that Raiden, Sub Zero and Scorpion are playable characters, plus Shao Kahn who is the pre-order bonus.
The reveal event showed four more. Skarlet, first appeared as DLC in Mortal Kombat 9 returns with all her blood-bending-ish powers by popular demand. And old pick, Barakka from Mortal Kombat 2, also joined the roster.
New to MK 11 is Geras, a tough brute with the power of time-stopping and sand to smash people’s brains out. Literally. Also, Sonya Blade is back but is now voiced by UFC Champion, WWE Superstar and big Sonya Blade fan Ronda Rousey.
More characters to be revealed as we get closer to the release, with one already hinted at on the event livestream.
Gameplay Tweaks
Instead of one bar as your resource for special moves, now you have two bars. The horizontal bar is still used for offensive special moves, while the new vertical bar on the bottom left screen is used for defensive options. Perfect Blocks can be pulled off by blocking at the right frame, which will launch into a combo.
Also, you can use your supers, Fatal Blow, with no bars needed but is now tied to your health. It must be under 30%. Fatal Blow will be on cooldown if it did not connect.
Variations
Mortal Kombat X features the variation system where each character gets three move lists with different moves. For MK 11, the system is taking inspiration from the Injustice 2 gear system, but scales it down a bit. Each character gets three slots of gear you can change and acquire. You can create your own custom variation, with different abilities and gear you acquire.
Aside from that, there are also cosme- ahem, “kosmetics” where you can acquire different skins, cinematic intros, and even fatalities.
Fatalities
A Mortal Kombat staple, the gory fatalities are as ridiculous as ever. A montage of all the fatalities from the revealed characters so far can be seen here.
Air juggle someone with pistol shots until they get their head sliced from a helicopter rotor blade? Sure. Suck out blood, suspend them mid-air into sharp solids, then push one into the eye sockets to form a Neversoft logo? Yep. Freeze the body, chop the head, then freeze the said head and punch it into smithereens? That’s a good one too.
Did we mention that it’s ridicilous?
Story Mode
Developers NetherRealm Studios are the leaders when it comes to story mode in fighting games, and MK11 will continue to have it. Set after the events of MK X, the story will see some time-hopping shenanigans where characters meet their past selves.
You can watch the opening intro sequence of the story mode here.
That’s all we know so far, you can watch the reveal livestream here, which also features gameplay by pro fighting game players afterward.
Mortal Kombat 11 is coming out on April 23rd for the PS4, PC (Steam), Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.