Mortal Kombat X: Greatest Hits - PlayStation 4

The best way to describe Mortal Kombat X would probably be to say it picks up where MK9 left off and expands upon it, the story, the fight mechanics, the entire formula. The first thing one might notice is the upgrade to the graphics. The grittier, more realistic style than previous entries shows off the current gen capabilities nicely, and all of the stages look unique and beautiful. The kombos feel like they take more precise timing than before, though a button masher will still occasionally get lucky. It feels rewarding learning the correct inputs and the right timing required to make your character viciously maim another. The complexity grows deeper still with the newly added variation system, giving each character three versions, each with their own tools and tricks. One variation may grant a weapon with specialized kombos, another may change the properties of certain special moves, or have new ones altogether. It keeps the characters interesting, yet largely familiar.There's plenty of content packed onto the disc, as well. The story mode, though comprised of fewer chapters than the previous game's, feels to be about the same length, and is even more cinematic, and probably more entertaining. Quick time events are spread throughout the cinematic segments to keep you on edge during cut scenes. Unfortunately, the outcome of the these quick time events don't seem to affect the fights that follow them, though it's still entertaining to see how differently a scripted fight can turn out depending on your reactions. MKX consolidates the arcade ladder and the challenge tower of the previous game with the new tower mode, which includes the "klassic tower," test your luck, test your might, endless, and survivor. Added to these are the "Living Towers" with three separate challenge towers that change at various intervals, though these require an internet connection to access. There's quite a bit to choose from for anyone looking for a single player experience.As for multi player modes, it's unfortunate that the tag team options did not return, but there's a decent amount of choices for you and your friends. There is, of course, the standard versus match, which is as fun as ever, though thanks to the new variation system, match ups can be a bit more unpredictable. Even less predictable is the test your luck versus mode, which randomly grants one or both players various status effects which can help or hinder and can potentially give a new comer to Mortal Kombat the upper hand over a seasoned veteran. The "Kustom Kombat" mode allows players to pick and choose these status effects, or at least the ones that have been thus far unlocked, making for some very interesting matches. As for the online components of the game, my experience has been limited. Mortal Kobat X's netcode seems to be about the same as Injustice's, which is to say not very good. I don't actually care for playing online, but I gave it a try just to see how it would work, it takes a while to find a match, and once one has been found, the main problem I've experienced is lag. My character is unresponsive, taking half a second or more to execute any command. From what I hear, online matches also drop frequently due to desynchronization. Online is probably the game's weakest aspect, but for someone like me who doesn't play online, this isn't actually a big issue.I can't say I completely understand all the backlash this game and the developers are getting for their DLC policies. It's all optional, no one is forcing anyone to buy it. If you can't pull off a fatality, then instead of purchasing easy fatality tokens with your money, go spend some time in fatality practice mode, it costs nothing extra. Don't want to pay $20 to unlock the krypt? Then don't, spend some time playing the game and earn koins, and have a little patience. There's a lot in there, you won't unlock everything instantly (I mean, unless you want to spend actual cash). I played the game before and after the day one patch, it's not drastically harder to earn in game currency now then it was then. I can play for an hour or two and earn enough to unlock a decent handful of content in the krypt. I was less enthused with the patch nerfing Erron Black though.I especially don't understand the reaction to Downloadable characters. Goro, I get, he had to have been on disc from the start because the download wouldn't have been big enough to contain the data required for a new character and all that goes with it. I can understand why people don't want to have to pay extra for something that is essentially already there, but being that I pre-ordered, I didn't have to pay extra for Goro, so, personally, I'm not bitter about it. The rest of the downloadable characters, however, are being subtly and gradually included in game patches to allow trial based access via the living towers so everyone can try the new characters before they buy them. I believe this to be a good play, it'll give people opportunities to play as characters they may have otherwise had no interest in. Honestly I don't see the problem with it. The characters aren't included on disc, they're not even clomplete yet, and at five dollars per individual character or 30 for the season pass, which I understand to come with extra skins and such, the price doesn't seem too terrible. But if you find the price too steep, again, you don't have to buy it and the base game itself is already enjoyable.At its core, Mortal Kombat X is a great game, almost certainly the best installment in the series and it should be judged for the quality of its game play rather than for individual opinions of video game politics. The content released on disc at launch is by no means lacking and everything that's there is solid. The game deserves recognition no matter how you feel about how the developers and their parent company handles post launch content. If you enjoy the game, why not leave it at that?

I must say, this game is really beautiful. The stages are busy with background characters. The cut scenes are nicely done. The characters look great. The voice acting is awesome. It really is a great game.The story mode is great, especially for a fighting game. You get to fight with a few of the older characters, but are also introduced to fresh new characters. Most of them are children of, or at least kin to the other characters. The older characters are just that, older. It's nice to have a game that is almost 25 years old, have characters finally look like they are close to 25 years older. The story picks up right after MK 9, and pulls you in from there.The fighting in this game is very similar to Injustice: Gods Among Us. The game allows you to interact with the background, using boards, people and other things to your advantage. This go around they have added a few QTEs. They're spread out enough that you don't get board with them. Actually, I looked forward to doing them. Most of the characters specials are the same as in the earlier games, so you will be comfortable straight from the start. The options button brings up the menu for the controls so you can learn the move sets easier.I've played through the story mode and it does keep your attention. After you play, stay for the end credit movie. I will say this about the story mode. It introduces some characters with little to no background on them. Some seemed to be rushed. Others just disappear with no real reason as to why. It's still good, but sort of leaves you wondering.This game has a lot of characters from the get go. A lot of older faces return, mixed with the new younger crowd. If you bought this as a pre order, you can play as Goro. As most have heard, you will be able to buy more characters -- looks to be about $30. Not sure what all comes with the DLC, so I'll keep my opinion on that to myself. I know that Jason Vorhees and the Predator are part of that DLC. It'll be interesting to see how they fight, their specials and of course the fatalities.That's one thing that I don't really like -- the fatalities. A lot are really good, others just seem to be sort of repetitive, or at least very similar. They're of course as gruesome as ever, but almost seem to be repeats of earlier games. There are several videos on YouTube, so you can watch them to see which ones you like.I will caution this. When I put the disc in and it downloaded, it added the update. Once the game started, a few seconds after it got to the main menu, it crashed. The PS4 said that the Mortal Kombat App crashed and had me send a report. It did this 3 times. I deleted the game, and re-downloaded everything. Again, it crashed. Finally, I got it to work. Not sure why this happened. I was able to play the story mode with no problems and also play a Tower game this morning.Overall, I would say this is one of, if not the best MK game out.