Mortal Kombat will be a 2.5D fighting game. It will feature 3D graphics but the gameplay will be strictly 2D. This is quite similar to Street Fighter IV and seeing as how that game revived the 2D fighting genre, it really is no surprise that Mortal Kombat is being designed in such a manner.
Mortal Kombat seems to be a reboot and it will essentially retell the events of Mortal Kombat – Mortal Kombat 3. It looks to be a great way for the new generation of gamers to get into the franchise, starting from its roots.
Anything Street Fighter can do, Mortal Kombat can do too.
One of the biggest beefs gamers often had with the Mortal Kombat series were the character designs, a lot of them were simply lazy colour swaps. This time however, the character designs are far more detailed and have flair and personality, for example Johnny Cage has a tattoo of ‘JOHNNY’ across his chest and Scorpion has a much more ornate mask and headpiece. The characters that we saw were Kung Lao, Johnny Cage, Sub Zero, Scorpion, Sector, Mileena and Reptile.
In terms of gameplay, Mortal Kombat will play a lot like the classic 2D Mortal Kombat games but with some cool new additions. The game has a new special move system along with a 3 bar special gauge. Fill up the first bar and you can do a special move, fill up to the second bar and you get a combo breaker move, and finally filling up all 3 bars always you to perform the deadly ‘X-Ray’ move. This brand new attack gives you a close x-ray vision view of the damage you inflict with upon your opponent, allowing you see their bones break and shatter in great detail and inflict more damage. Also worth noting is the fact that the ’Pit’ from Mortal Kombat II will be making a return in this game. Another interesting addition to this game are Tag Battles, allowing players to pick a team to two characters and pull off some really cool team combos, much like in the Marvel vs Capcom games.
No Mortal Kombat game would be complete without the gruesome Fatalities, and these finishing maneuvers are now more brutal and wince-inducing than ever before. Johnny pounds guys in the groin, Kung Lao slices opponents in half with his sharp steel hat (the most wince-inducing one we saw), Reptile spews burning acid that burns the opponent inside out and Scorpion separates his opponent from their spinal system.
More characters on screen = more gore.
Graphically, the game looks fantastic as there is a lot of attention to detail and the animations looks fine. It certainly does look a lot more polished and technical than the previous games, and this time the moves are timed to frame which will make things more accurate and balanced. The real-time damage system looks positively gruesome and graphic, and the damage is retained throughout a fight. Torsos get bloodied and characters get injured and bleed profusely. We saw Reptile literally gouge an opponent’s eye, and the damage remained for the entire duration of the battle. With Mortal Kombat, the developers have built and designed characters starting from the inside, meaning that they first designed the skeleton, then they placed the flesh and organs, and finally the skin and clothing. This explains why the damage system and X-Ray attacks are so realistic and graphic.
Mortal Kombat looks to be a fantastic reboot for the franchise. It has all the right elements of a Mortal Kombat game and more. Fans should be excited about this one.
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