Game seems mad slow to me. I'm really not a fan of short, low-hit combos with high damage. Part of the fun in playing MK was executing longer combos. Game seems much less "swag" in terms of the combos, for lack of better term. I played Smoke in 9 and Jax in MKX. Variation system is a mess, massive oversight that the tournament variations aren't set as the default ones. Unsure of the future of the variation system so sticking to tournament variations for now, but then I might be messing up because they may end up changing what is allowed and what isn't. Variation system seems like a total downgrade from MKX, would be different if they let everyone pick what they want. Some of the krushing blows are lame, like 2 consecutive Back 2 on hit on Raiden to activate... I get the mind game it sets up with his low starter but it just seems lame. Not a fan of the krushing blows in general as it's distracting from the view of the fight. Cut the crap, I just want to fight. I could totally do without any type of side scrolling, focused in zooming type moves in these games. It doesn't add anything to the fight for me visually, it's just distracting. Fatal blow wiffs shouldn't allow you to use it again, although only getting to use it once per match balances it some. The grinding part of the Krypt doesn't bother me that much as I end up having extra koins and shit and most of it is just cosmetic stuff. The Krypt itself is fantastic visually, lots of fun to explore. The PC versions menus are 30 FPS, the Krypt is as well. It's 2019, give me a dedicated PC version not just a shitty port, please. Couldn't give a shit less about how revealing the females are or are not. I liked the more realistic approach to char design MKX went for over MK9. Back to gameplay, again, the game feels ultra slow. Some people like the more neutral focused game in MK11, but I miss the fast paced gameplay. I feel like I'm playing a slower street fighter or something. Stages look great, character design looks fantastic. The game just feels boring as fuck, really. I guess whenever the game progresses and more people are using perfect block, get up system, hop attacks, etc. it will add some more flavor. Seems like most characters are bland and missing elements to their gameplay. Playing Jax now and he seems good relative to the rest of the cast. Couple things are concerning, like his strings having big gaps in them. Playing mostly computer now for practice but a lot of the Hard level computer is knocking me out of my strings. I miss dash punch, even after the armor nerf in MKX. Seems like NRS wants everyone to feel more grounded with less options. It's like rather than everyone feeling strong everyone just feels weak, but it's okay because everyone is equally weak. I'd rather have a high-powered character and fight the same, personally. The game felt of a higher intensity that way. I get that it's day 2 but an example of one of the best combos I can come up with on Jax is F33 BF2 (MB) F4 D12 DB1. Conversely, here's a Jax combo from MKX: 123 DB2 (run cancel) 12 BF2 + Down (MB) F21 11 F212 D12 DB1. Even in the corner my combo extenders are something simple like 1 1 1 into D12. In MKX and MK9, it'd be something like 11 11 11 124. Air to air seems worse, it seems super difficult to convert off say air to air punch, might be able to get a 2 hit string off if it starts with a quick start up advancing move. Things like scorpion's spear not being true CC unless you MB it feels watered down. Even the MB version is a super quick CC, not something like MKX where it afforded enough time to do JIP then combo more. Vortex characters seems gone, which some people may be glad about. I thought that was a cool way to play the game. I don't think many characters have true special cancels like LK's fireball, Jax's rocket, etc. I believe Kabal has NDC and that seems like close to it, maybe Jacqui has one and I heard it costs meter. I felt that special cancelling characters were a really fun way to play a pressure character. Seems like a lot of nuance things that were mechanically challenging are gone like converting off Kung Lao's divekick or something like Smoke's air to air into d1 d1 smoke bomb, those types of things. Now you just spend meter and get an extra 8%~ on it. And lastly, RIP neutral jump punch. There was a certain flow to mk9/mkx that doesn't seem present here.
Sorry for the disorganized mess of thoughts here. I love the series and maybe I'm just someone who hates change, I don't know. I don't dislike the game or think it's bad, I'm having fun now and looking forward to the game's progression. I'm just critical of the game because I have a lot of love for the series. Been playing 10~ hours each day the last 2 days. All that being said, I know for a fact the complexity and pace of the game will pick up once more tech is discovered and people are learning matchups better. However, I don't think it's wrong to have an initial impression of the game and share it. Cheers.
