2. 'Unlock-All' Options & Micro-Transactions Kill The Game's Value
There's something about a game that's been laboured over by a team of talented designers, only for it to appear on shelves with an 'Unlock everything for £15.99!' prompt, that's instantly deflating. Like, there's already the barest sense of progression in term of in-game assets (outside of costumes) anyway, and now you want to do away with the assumption that your game is even worth playing outside of that, because you'd rather just ask for more cash and be done with it? It makes it feel like the things in the Krypt aren't that important, and nor are they earned through your skill and dedication to the game itself (something that gaming as a medium was built on), instead by making it so easily-obtainable it flies in the face of everything that defines gaming as an artform overall; actually playing the game. Throw in the strange 'easy fatality' tokens you get a handful of in the Krypt - themselves a feature that used to be a cheat code in older entries, but are now being charged for, as console gaming forever takes from the mobile school of money-grabbing - and it all starts to feel pretty soulless. Mortal Kombat is one of the most recognisable franchises out there to all generations currently on this planet, and to see Warner Bros./NetherRealm try to exploit that for the sake of easy extra cash is simply just depressing.