MK1 Invasions Mode: (It Sucks)

[Jynks]

Solid overview of Invasion mode with little to no spoilers
by @Evil Canadian​

 

[Jynks]

I'm very worried about invasion mode.... as it uses the MK11 style "items" mid game...

In MK11, I stopped playing these things pretty quickly, as there was no way to edit the controls for the item use. Meaning I HAD to use pad, and I play on Stick or Hitbox. As I stopped, I have no idea if this was fixed in a patch.

Does anyone know if there is a way to edit the setting to assign a button or a combination of buttons to the function to "use item"?

 

[Kiss the Missile]

I just beat it this morning. God awful grind the entire way through. Its baffling how somebody at NRS can sit down and think that every enemy in the entire mode should have hyper armor, invincible hyper armor. I can't see how anyone found that fun.

I just wanna rant about random shit I guess:

They lead you on early, having you think there's gonna be fun little commentary around each map. There isn't. Liu Kang only shows up on the map's final boss to say some shit like "Scorpion brought in Johnny Cage to stop you!"

The inventory space. By like the 2nd map, you're gonna be maxed out on Talismans, and the game just keeps on giving them to you every other fight. I'm constantly having to go into my inventory and toss them out because no, Reiko, I would not like another level 1 Ice Armor talisman.

They tricked us early on with the footage of Invasions and the Survival missions (where you dodge the fireballs). It looked like it was going to be a callback to MK9 where they had the weird minigames sprinkled throughout the Challenge Tower. No. That is the one, and the only one minigame throughout Invasions. And it does not change. You jump over low projectiles, you crouch under high ones. The patterns never change, the timing never changes.

There is no map. This honestly might be one of the most annoying parts of it. There are little lights on each space that show you if there are uncleared missions in that direction, but beyond that nothing at all. If you missed a chest because you didn't have a key and you're trying to find it again. Good luck, because these areas are mazes. You move slow, and can also be ambushed just adding more to the time sink.

The enemy reuse. Every map in Invasions has a set cast of characters you're going to fight, for the entire time. They aren't random, its always the same. So like in say Sun Do you're gonna be fighting Havik, Reiko, Sub Zero and a handful of others. Over and over, pay attention to how many times you see "Chaosmaker" Havik, because I swear to god I feel like I fought him 20 times in one of the maps.

Talismans are nearly useless, and need to be "recharged".

There are about a 10th of the amount of modifiers MK11 had on launch. The vast majority of them are "Orb comes out of portal" or "toxic cloud"

The XP, oh my god the XP. I used Shang Tsung and Sektor for almost the entire run. 243 fights, about 100 brutalities, around 70 fatalities. And somehow my Sektor is at level 10. They also flat out stop giving you anything at all for Profile Levelups after a while. No currency, nothing. Saving them instead for the larger milestones.

Idk what else, this mode sucks and I hope they drastically reduce the grind for the next season.

 

[Thingy]

I played about 30 mins of it so far. I thought it was a fun distraction. Definitely not the kind of mode I would grind, I will say that. I am just going to pick away at it daily in between online matches.

Good review tho. Definitely not the biggest fan of it, but I do prefer it over towers of time. Steady progress from NRS in the single player department, but slow.

 

[Law Hero]

Sums up my thoughts pretty well. I'm on the last area, and I'm really disappointed because the advertisements for it had me excited despite my reservations. The advertising for Invasions Mode is like those of a bad comedy movie where the only 2 half-decent jokes are in the trailer, and the rest are terrible.

They said several times, "Invasions mode is this giant RPG" and it's like, I don't think you know what an RPG is. An RPG is not, "You put points into stats and numbers go up" which is the only player choice available in Invasions. Honestly, apart from the random loot, I actually prefer MK11's krypt.

One thing I don't think you touched upon that bothers me is the hidden fights. I was excited when they said there was a hidden fight on each panel, but all I get from them are talismans junk. I'm at the point where I actively don't want to accidentally get a hidden fight because it's just a waste of time. Speaking of junk, I literally never use my talisman because you have to recharge it, and after every battle I get a new one that's better anyway. I don't want to use it, I don't want to upgrade it, and I don't want to recharge it.

Lastly, I think the final cherry on top is just how limited all of the available cosmetics are (assuming what I've read is true). I was expecting to be trying to figure everything out because there would be a ton of skins and goodies to unlock on each panel, but now I just want to rush to the end to get the skins from chests and get out. Just like with the MK11 Krypt, there are a lot of good ideas here, but the final product is, in the most generous of terms, unfinished.

 

[TRi4L N 3ЯЯ0R]

It really did surprise me how bad and unrewarding it was. Particularly after you get the netherstone when you beat the final scorpion.
All the previously locked areas are just high bullet sponges enemies where after doing so much already, I am not enjoying the fight at all unlike previous iterations of the tower.

The additional towers unlocked in the mesa table (whatever the central one that appears after the netherstone) doesn't reward you for beating them. They are MAJOR time sinks per battle and when you finally beat one bullet sponge, he just gets up to add some other power and try again... JUST TO DO IT A THIRD TIME AT 5k health! That's the equivalent of 15 fighters in three rounds.

ITS. NOT. FUN.
THERES. NO. REWARD. EITHER.
When you even beat them.

What was NRS thinking with this mode?

I highly suggest if people beat scorpion, to just grind through the previously locked gates (which are multiple fights) for maybe one skin on a character you don't even like in one of those fights. Don't bother with the towers that open because you won't earn anything and you will just end up saying "this... is not fun."

 

[Law Hero]

I would like to add that they somehow even made Test Your Might boring. Firstly, maybe it was always this easy, but I have no issues with any of them whatsoever, so they're pretty boring. But most importantly, it's 99% just breaking character heads. I think I've seen an anvil, an MK logo, and a chicken; the rest have all been heads. I remember in past iterations, when you played TYM it started off as an easily-breakable material, then got progressively more difficult with the materials getting stronger and more intimidating.For example, the easy ones would be made of wood, and the hard ones would be made of diamond. In this it just seems like a random head with a random strike range. Despite not being difficult, even the illusion of difficulty tiers is gone. It REALLY seems like a cut corner to me.

I said it the moment they announced MK1 that I believed it was going to be the NRS title with the shortest development cycle despite the 4 year gap, and I'm starting to feel vindicated on my suspicions.

 

[Agilaz]

It's alright. The super armor on everything sucks but i think it's a gamified way of teaching more casuals audiences when to punish or interrupt things.

 

[Kiss the Missile]

It's alright. The super armor on everything sucks but i think it's a gamified way of teaching more casuals audiences when to punish or interrupt things.

I strongly disagree. Most of those armored moves are armored in their recovery too. Like Mileena's ball, she still has armor after she bounces off your guard, so you go to punish her and then she goes into an armored string. If you want to know true Hell, fight Reiko. Flying across the screen with armored slides, parries and grapples.

And the interruptions make no sense because they're slowed down. You're teaching Casuals to interrupt strings, that are uninterruptable in the actual normal modes.

Thats what I hate the most about Invasions, and even ToT before it. You aren't playing Mortal Kombat when you play it. I can't do normal Shang Tsung combos and gameplay because I'm getting shot at by meteors, I'm choking on smoke clouds, my opponent Infini-armors through any sort of neutral. I beat the entire mode by maxing out Shang's Special stat and spamming triple skulls. If I actually tried to sit down and play neutral with the armored, move reading AI I'd probably still be on the 4th map right now.

 

[Law Hero]

I strongly disagree. Most of those armored moves are armored in their recovery too. Like Mileena's ball, she still has armor after she bounces off your guard, so you go to punish her and then she goes into an armored string. If you want to know true Hell, fight Reiko. Flying across the screen with armored slides, parries and grapples.

And the interruptions make no sense because they're slowed down. You're teaching Casuals to interrupt strings, that are uninterruptable in the actual normal modes.

Thats what I hate the most about Invasions, and even ToT before it. You aren't playing Mortal Kombat when you play it. I can't do normal Shang Tsung combos and gameplay because I'm getting shot at by meteors, I'm choking on smoke clouds, my opponent Infini-armors through any sort of neutral. I beat the entire mode by maxing out Shang's Special stat and spamming triple skulls. If I actually tried to sit down and play neutral with the armored, move reading AI I'd probably still be on the 4th map right now.

I actually think Invasions Mode has made me worse at the game because I'm so used to getting interrupted or bouncing off of armor that when I actually get an opportunity to do a full combo I'm so surprised that I end up forgetting what to do and dropping it.

 

[chud_munson]

I think it's fine. Mostly agree with the things you said, but I've been enjoying its dumb silliness.

Honestly between this and the lack of cosmetics, I'm actually really satisfied. MK11 felt like they put all this time and energy into casual stuff and content around a dry game philosophy, but it feels like this time they started with the idea of fun core gameplay and everything else is second fiddle. Much prefer this route.

 

[Jynks]

I really like invasion mode. I actually played a few worlds more than once as I enjoyed it so much.

I was a little disappointed that it is not free roaming. Moving about, it just a level select really, but once I got into it I actually liked that it was simpler, and I could easily see what I had missed and stuff. It should be noted that a lot of events have "klues"... and these will open other paths not visible before. So if you only have blue lines, that does not mean the map is completed. I'm sure there will be hidden path unlocks in every level as well.

As for the armour thing... it is such a simple thing to play around. There are items, buffs and stuff you can use. I mean if you are fighting full armour you are just playing it wrong. Also, evey armoured fight has very easy to see telegraphs of when they are vulnerable. The entire point of the mode is that it plays diffrent to vs... so I really do not understand what you were expecting.

I'll never understand "grinding"... I mean if you do not like paying it.. why are you playing it? If you just play online you earn koin to buy anything you want form the season store and the shrine for koins gets you other gear and skins as well... so no one is forcing you to play anything.

 

[Kiss the Missile]

I really like invasion mode. I actually played a few worlds more than once as I enjoyed it so much.

What does this mean? You beat the entire thing and played it again?

 

[Jynks]

What does this mean? You beat the entire thing and played it again?

it means instead of moving to other worlds I played most of the same world twice before moving on.

 

[thesacrifist]

I agree with everything OP said. Based on what they said the last Kombat Kast Derek was heavily involved in designing this, which judging from his well,.. frantic personality makes sense. I bet he likes this shit. Good thing it doesn’t seem to be mandatory, or are there invasion-only cosmetics? Hate that the game doesn’t tell us where to get stuff, it all seems a bit rushed compared to the gameplay which is ace. Will hopefully be fixed with some more development time and patches!

 

[Kiss the Missile]

it means instead of moving to other worlds I played most of the same world twice before moving on.

I'm mad confused. Why? Every Mesa has the exact same fights and missions. What made you want to do the same ones you already beat?

That's like playing an arcade tower and quiting at the third fight because you wanna do the first two fights again

 

[Jynks]

Because it's fun.. Why else. You don't need to go through the portal as soon as you discover it. You can go back and do more of the events you liked or wanted more practice with before they get harder.

 

[Felipe_Gewehr]

I was hoping for AT LEAST 2 other silly minigames but nope. This mode is quite dumb tbh. Could be a single mesa + final season boss tbh, the amount of grinding isnt worth it.

 

[TRi4L N 3ЯЯ0R]

Good thing it doesn’t seem to be mandatory, or are there invasion-only cosmetics?

There are some skins that seem to be deliberately only unlockable based on the mesa world you're in when you beat some bosses. Even the treasure chests I don't believe are randomized for rewards because when you do get the skin, it relates to the world you're in.

Which would mean some skins you can only unlock with the netherstone which unlocks gates in previous worlds that you initially had to skip until you beat Scorpion and come back to it. Seems like it's one unique skin per locked netherstone section in each world.

The one world opens up after you beat scorpion in the center and it is challenge towers. Except the towers are not fun, take too long per battle, and reward you with nothing if you beat a tower. It makes no sense to me unless I have just been unlucky with the towers I choose, but there is no indication of a reward before you start, so I think it is intentional. When you have so many random environmental things, and enemy with consistent armor, and interruptions like a completely White screen (smoke environment), tell me who would find that enjoyable? It's poorly thought out.

I think what made the previous game's chaotic environment enjoyable was that the enemy generally had health that wasn't too absurd and did not abuse the armor mechanic where you can get punished as if they blocked your special. You'll see when you unlock these towers after beating scorpion how it's a grind and not fun anymore at that point.

You also end up hating secret fights as they get more constant later on, it's just an ambush and nothing secret about it except in it's ability to slow you down even more. Endurance rounds aren't even Endurance anymore because your health regenerates (which it should given the absurd mechanics they have out in now) but it's no longer endurance like it used to be with limited or no health Regen. It's just another ambush/secret fight/revival of the character after the round, they're literally all the same thing the way the game is now.

 

[Dankster Morgan]

It's really boring. The AI is too braindead for there to be any kind of stimulating gameplay. The super armor ruins the fun of doing your flashiest combos to entertain yourself.

I'm still in the first zone, does it get better?

Is there any good stuff you have to play invasions for?

 

[Nickolaidas]

Missile, I agree 100%. It starts ok, but by the time we got to the 2nd map, I was already seeing where this going to.

Agree 100% on the armor. Jesus fuck, every time I do a combo I feel a stressful feeling on the back of my head that it's not going to work because my opponent will randomly 'armor' it. It's like you are fighting someone who constantly spams cancellable FBs.

Agree on everything else you said as well, though Armor is my biggest problem.

HOWEVER.

The ToT in MK11 were unfun and unfair as fuck in the beginning, and they patched them to be much more enjoyable. I WANT to BELIEVE they'll iron and patch things out as the game goes and they get feedback.

I think more mini-games will be added. I think the armor will be gone or will be nerfed to hell. I think the opponents will become random. I think they'll add more stuff as they go on because the game was rushed, and it hurt the content (thankfully not the gameplay).

And yeah. The guy who had the armor idea on every opponent needs to be fired.

 

[Nickolaidas]

So basically.

I have to fight an enemy who has armor, makes the screen goes pitch black when I'm next to them, has unblockables and -

FUCK OFF.

Whoever it was to have those ideas and think that was fun to put them in the game,

GO.

FUCK.

YOURSELF.

 

[Immortal]

The whole game was crazy rushed to release. It's underbaked anywhere you look, not Invasion only.

Even the single player modes which are the main focus of MK games are lacking. Story mode is even flatter than in MK11 with no choices outside one. Invasion... well everything is already said in this topic. Towers? No point.

Competitive side/Multiplayer - a complete afterthought, nothing is balanced at all, people already are doing crazy things(80% combos, 50% for no bar, 50% from AA, 30% chip etc...), simple things like pinning moves are missing, frame data is wrong in many places coz nobody updated it since the first time somebody added any values as a placeholders. There is no crossplay, coz there was no time to add it.

There are also visual glitches, which granted are few and far between but when you encounter one its very visible.

Like seriously this game was released at least 6 months to early. Probably even more.

 

[Toonen1988]

I wouldn't say the game mode completely sucks. I do like the idea but the executing is poorly done. As first, I don't like how the game keeps throwing talismans in your face, but yet you never get upgrade items for talismans or relics. The drops needs to be balanced.

I'm getting to many secret fights, I just had like 4 secret fights after eachother. Yet another 4 talismans in under then 10 minutes. It's need to be a secret fight, not getting spammed.

I also don't like the fact that they keep using the same modifiers over and over again. Like almost every enemy you face in Invasion has super armor. I do get it that we need a challenge, but this is just getting hideous. Variation in modifiers would be wonderful. I won't mind if they had super armor in one area, but not in the other. I'm now at the end of the lab, and all area's had super armor.

The stats doesn't work either. It only says that I have collected 12 talismans, while I had atleast 3 times more. It also says that I only competed 2 gateway towers while I completed way more.

I also don't use the talismans to be honest and I also don't bother in upgrading them. They are basically non-existing, I can fight easy without talisman. If they could fix many of these issue's in this topic, then it would be a way better gamemode.

 

[Nickolaidas]

The whole game was crazy rushed to release. It's underbaked anywhere you look, not Invasion only.

Even the single player modes which are the main focus of MK games are lacking. Story mode is even flatter than in MK11 with no choices outside one. Invasion... well everything is already said in this topic. Towers? No point.

Competitive side/Multiplayer - a complete afterthought, nothing is balanced at all, people already are doing crazy things(80% combos, 50% for no bar, 50% from AA, 30% chip etc...), simple things like pinning moves are missing, frame data is wrong i many places coz nobody updated it since the first time somebody added any values as a placeholders. There is no crossplay, coz there was no time to add it.

There are also visual glitches, which granted are few and far between but when you encounter one its very visible.

Like seriously this game was released at least 6 months to early. Probably even more.

Dude. Just think about it.

It's the first MK game which doesn't have a REAL boss and a REAL sub-boss.

Game needed 6 months more at least.

Nothing that can't be patched or DLC'd, but still, yes, very rushed.