Mortal Kombat 11 Review: 6 Ups & 4 Downs

UPS

6. The Best Story In Mortal Kombat History

Mortal Kombat 11’s story is hands-down the best cinematic embodiment of Mortal Kombat ephemera there has ever been.

Centred on newcomer Kronika – a mysterious controller of time who’s always been in the background, but is now making herself known to put Raiden and Shinnok back in their place – NetherRealm take GREAT delight merging the old and the new. We get Johnny Cage realising how far he’s come as a human being, and everything from old-school Raiden working with Liu Kang and Kung Lao, to Sub-Zero and Scorpion uniting to fight TOGETHER, following MK 10 finally putting them on the same page.

The fight choreography in cutscenes; the triumphant returns of long-lost characters; the twists and reveals that recontextualise – in some cases – the entire saga, all the way back to 1992.

So many lore gaps get plugged in ways we never knew we wanted – races get identified, long-lost individuals get name-checked – even the point in time that the “old school” versions of the characters get plucked from, is a reference to a point in MK history that made me BEAM.