Mortal Kombat 11 Review: 6 Ups & 4 Downs

I would love to sit here and tell you I was thoroughly blown away by Mortal Kombat 11.

Getting access this past week, I was positively GIDDY across its opening few hours. They consisted of me leaping into a 1v1 so I could see how Liu Kang felt (because boy is my main), and then doing the whole story in essentially one sitting (turns out I was at the end when I turned it off at 2am that night).

And look, don't get me wrong, I’m going to have to delve into a lot of negatives, but as you’ll see, MK 11 is a game of thirds. Two thirds is the immaculate, enjoyably crunchy and bloody combat you’ve come to know and love (with the best fatalities ever), and one third is an obtrusive, demoralising, mobile game-style grind, designed to test your patience and encourage microtransaction spending.

What I initially thought was going to be a perfect score only went down the more I played, but I have reached a point – across what is now closer to 40 hours of play – where I think my star rating reflects everything that’s here.