Mortal Kombat 11 Review: 6 Ups & 4 Downs

3. Huge Gameplay Changes For The Better

Mortal Kombat 11 now gives each fighter a two segment offence and two segment defence bar. The former is burned to pull off signature moves or enhance other ones, and the latter plays into defensive tactics in bunch of different ways.

Want to interrupt a combo? You’ll have to pull off a Flawless Block, done by tapping block at the EXACT time an attack connects. You can then reverse with a meter burn into your own move at this exact point, but if they did land a hit, the whole thing is going to play out.

That is unless you get launched into the air, in which case you can burn meter to break out the animation. Attacking while getting up, rolling left or right – even grabbing a piece of the environment all takes chunks of your defense meter, and it adds a tactical edge I’m sure will make some eSports finals VERY intense.

On the offensive side, outside of extending combos or grapples, MK 11 makes small tweaks like nerfing Scorpion’s spear. No longer does it bring an opponent in for an easy uppercut by default, and to get the stagger you’ll have to burn some meter.

These offensive and defensive allocations permeate the flow of a match, putting the emphasis on blocking and evasion at high-level play, and knowing EXACTLY when to go for a combo, charging it as you go. I personally miss being able to reverse my way out of some punishment, but there are more than enough defensive options overall, to make for a furiously intense fight.