Yeah, Invasions is really not making a great impression, I initially liked the idea behind the kombo robots and time trials, but eventually the unpolished nature of it all started to sink in as usual when it comes to this mode.
It's sad cause this game has so much potential, great characters, great assets, the core game is great, but NRS has been struggling to showcase their efforts in a cohesive single player experience, everything always has to be messy.
We've been playing in the same 7 stages for months now, and Invasions skins look like tacky fan mods, the retexturing has been looking a little bootleg-y.
The combo minigames are weird, there is no huge thing you're learning about the game, you're just completing a combo without being interupted by modifiers for once. They should probably try to channel more of what MKDA and MKD Konquest were doing with these.
You play a Test Your Might and there is no sense of progression, collection, you don't even get to see the work they actually put into the finishers for losing, because they don't care to do Test Your Might BATTLES with a PVE element in which if the player beats the timer, the enemy gets chopped by the finisher instead. And why are we not unlocking the materials we already destroyed in a nice trophy-like gallery? Why doesn't materials have tiers that you unlock as your TYM level progresses? Why are we not doing seasonal collectable materials and trophies? These things sound dumb on the surface by they add density to the experience of playing TYM, provided you're gonna do it a LOT playing Invasions.
You play regular battles and you barely get to see mid-fight taunts, you barely get to see personality in these characters because it's all skipped and NRS didn't even bother adapting content that is IN the game to their main single player mode in a varied and meaningful way.
UI is depressing, main menu has nothing, why can't NRS let us create a fight or alliance scene with 3D models on main menu? Let us unlock some backdrops for each stage, lighting settings, poses, let us use our unlocked skins in it, all of it could be tied into Invasions or the Shrine, it would be a nice nod to MKA main menu in which you would see 2 characters in there, let us pick our own 2 characters and make that screen a little more lively, even MKX did it better with the simple faction backdrops, it's wild.
Every screen looks uninspired and basic when it comes to 2D art and motion graphics, it's like a downgrade from previous games, and I can't understand how you end up with that when you have the budget of an MK game. Smaller games like Metaphor Refantazio are doing a better job with great 2D motion graphics and crap 3D models. MK1 needs to FEEL alive and LOOK hype, show some energy, cause right now it's a mood killer, and the (mostly) generic Hollywood music hasn't been helping either in the last few years, as tacky as MK9 was in many aspects, it delivered the music flawlessly.
MK1 is not a bad game, but NRS sure makes it look that way for how messy it is, and that is what bothers me the most: the game could be amazing. And the amazing game is kinda already there, they've just been wasting it because I don't think NRS/WB cares to deliver a long lasting appealing product when the game will sell tons anyway. It's a shame to see a dear franchise, with amazing work being put into it by its developers and artists, being treated like this.
