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What will Mortal Kombat 11's legacy be if there are no more Kombat Packs/patches?

How would you grade Mortal Kombat 11 if the product were finished?


  • Total voters
    192

M2Dave

Zoning Master
My co-hosts and I were discussing this topic on one of the previous podcast episodes. Let us entertain the thought that this version of Mortal Kombat 11 is the final one because NRS is currently working on a new project. Where do you rank Mortal Kombat 11 alongside Mortal Kombat 9 and X, and even Injustice 1 and 2? In my humble opinion, Mortal Kombat 11 must be the most stagnant fighting game that I ever recall playing. I do not think that the game is bad, though. The balance is evidently the best out of any other NRS game while most glitches and inconsistencies that pestered preceding installments such as hitbox and block stun issues have been resolved. However, the meta, which may fairly be described as "low poke / throw / mid string / jump kick", is excruciatingly dull to engage in and observe. I also think that the manner in which fatal blows, the wake up system, and breakaways function is counterintuitive, at least in comparison to games like Street Fighter 5 and Tekken 7. The most unappealing aspect of the game to me remains the dismantling of character archetypes. The fact that you are not allowed to have access to full-screen zoning, defensive special moves, plus frames, powerful okizeme options, etc. makes the game offensively dull and unplayable.

What do the people think, though?
 

xWildx

What a day. What a lovely day.
Personally, I think this game will be go down as the one that caused the most rifts in the NRS community.

Whether it be shills or haters of the game itself, discrepancies of viability within character communities, or thoughts on the various mechanics, I don’t remember another NRS title being this embroiled with arguments within the community as a whole.
 
The games not horrible, I've had fun at times, but I think it will for sure be remembered as NRS's weakest title. Still a solid game and I chose it over other fighters, and I still like NRS, but its just so watered down and basic. As far as promising lots of support for a long time which seems to be turning into bullshit, I kinda give em a pass cause covid and all, but some communication at the very least would have been nice.

I think worst case scenario tho is that MK11 leaves a scary precedent: huge sales with minimal effort put into gameplay. It sold because it was called MK. Marvel vs DC would sell on name alone as well.
 

Law Hero

There is a head on a pole behind you
I wish there was an option between mediocre and abysmal.

As for me, I thought it was the most boring of the NRS Mortal Kombat games. Though I wouldn't necessarily label myself a lab monster, I really enjoy spending time training to figure out new combos and setups and weird things, and I felt there wasn't really much of that in this game. To me, the game really felt like it played itself. By that I mean it felt like every part of the fighting (particularly the combos) were designed to be played a certain way and that was it. I never felt like I was discovering something or playing my way, I was just doing what my characters were designed to do.

The game was also clearly rushed, and I'm 100% with Tom when saying that it's VERY incomplete. It's better now than at launch, but it still feels very shallow. The custom moves and their slots were just so poorly handled that it makes me sad thinking about it. I'm also really annoyed by NRS's patching choices with this game. Their patching of characters was very strange with certain characters like Jacqui consistently getting away with murder while others were smacked down much harder. I despise Fatal Blows, and I'm shocked that they never "fixed" them. Although I like the gear, I hate how long it takes to get what I want; I would honestly rather just have costumes instead of grinding for pieces. I also strongly dislike how characters can have useless or near-useless armor breakers. Seems like such a poorly-thought-out and tacked-on mechanic. Also, the music and general design of the game is just too superhero for me, especially the menus. I know that sounds like a nitpick, but just looking at the menus turns me off where in other MK games (pre MKX), looking at the menus would always get me hyped. I also think that their super slow DLC rollout with some characters that people pre-ordered before the game coming out taking around a year to be released will leave a bad taste in a lot of mouths. Last big complaint here is that Towers of Time are AWFUL and I hate them. NRS got it right with MK9's big tower, and have failed ever since by treating it like a mobile game.

As far as good, I think the roster is one of the best in the series. The graphics also look great, and the netcode is very good. I also really like how much competitive MK there is to watch, but I just wish it was more enjoyable to spectate. Storymode looks nice, but it's all nonsense, and I'm glad this MK9 reboot era is (probably) over now. I really think NRS exceeds with all the little bells and whistles of the game. For example, I love all the intros, taunts, outros, voice lines, and all the other little quirks that most games don't/can't incorporate. They just really nail the presentation.

Anyway, I do like it more than X, but I think that NRS just went too far trying to make it balanced to the point that the game just feels so shallow and boring. I believe the main culprit is NRS's desire to make each game different from the last. Coming up with a nearly completely new game every two years that's super fun and super balanced is just too monumental a task. I like it more than MKX, but less than MK9. Hopefully once NRS is done with their Marvel game, they can get a nice long development period to produce a truly fantastic MK12 game using all they learned from this trilogy. Ultimately, I think its legacy will be akin to other unfinished games where people see it as a game with tons of unmet potential that just bit off more than it could chew and caused a lot of unrest in the community.
 
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M2Dave

Zoning Master
Coming up with a nearly completely new game every two years that's super fun and super balanced is just too monumental a task.
Excellent point, and which is no fault of the developers to be fair to the people who actually work on the games. I am sure that the executives set the standards by which the employees have to be abide. Two year old Street Fighter 5 and Tekken 7 lacked quality too.
 

GLoRToR

Positive Poster!
At least now you see why they give up on their games in 2 years flat, with this mentality coming from the players.
It's obvious that they were trying quite well to create a more balanced game and they somewhat managed.
I don't know why they insist on having absolute stupid bullshit in their games as a rule of thumb and refuse to do about it, but this game is pretty well adjusted right now and no character is incapable of winning on the same scale as in previous games.
 

Kiss the Missile

Red Messiah
The game looked bad when even the top players called the game stale and boring, but it became a joke when tens of thousands of people watched the Sheeva stomp shenanigans. I got blown tf up when an ex SRK discord I was in saw the videos lmao. I had to explain what the move was and it made it all the worse

I don't think this game is going to get the MKX treatment of people looking back fondly on it despite the flaws
 

GLoRToR

Positive Poster!
I don't think this game is going to get the MKX treatment of people looking back fondly on it despite the flaws
I think sheeva will get nerfed into submission, this always happens to "OP" characters.
Her stomp is counting down to self destruct, thankfully.

As for rose tinted glasses, if MK9, INJ, MKX and INJ2 are any indication, it will happen eventually.
What I wish is that they'll fox the problems before long.

They did make pokes more negative on block.
They did nerf Liu's F3, and several other offending outliers so far.
I don't particularly believe they'll leave the game as is.
Count on DLC with Cole Young in it, count on Stomp getting stomped, you won't be too disappointed if you don't worry about it.
 

Ashesfall

"Feel the wrath of Shao Kahn"
I still won't believe the game is done.
At least I see one more balance patch coming.
(I just can't see them leaving Sheeva in like this)
If not, I just know that NRS has changed to worse.
(How can MKX get such a nice endlife patch and just one Installment in the franchise further, they stop that product care philosophy. Again, I feel it must have something to do with the situation WB wanted to sell the franchise.)

How Sheeva is not even getting a "hotfix", is honestly for me a riddle.
(In Tekken, balance patches can take up to 2 month and further but if there is some really fucked up situation, they do "hotfixes" within a short time.)

When it comes to the topics title.
For me, MK11 is the best 2D game but I underline what Demon said "Lots of room for improvements."
 

Zviko

Noob
It was the first fighting game I really got into a bit more not just the story and few offline friendlies so I can't really compare it to other fighting games like that. If I think of MK11 as a game in general though is beyond exceptional. It kept me busy for over 1,5k hours on 2 platforms combined and in the last 2 years there's no game that came even close to that.
 

DeftMonk

Noob
Personally, I think this game will be go down as the one that caused the most rifts in the NRS community.

Whether it be shills or haters of the game itself, discrepancies of viability within character communities, or thoughts on the various mechanics, I don’t remember another NRS title being this embroiled with arguments within the community as a whole.
It will also probably go down as the mk game no one wants to play 5 years later. No one is gonna be like "OH DAMN I CAN'T BELIEVE I NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT..." then try to take Shao Kahn to the lab out of nowhere.
 

DeftMonk

Noob
At least now you see why they give up on their games in 2 years flat, with this mentality coming from the players.
It's obvious that they were trying quite well to create a more balanced game and they somewhat managed.
I don't know why they insist on having absolute stupid bullshit in their games as a rule of thumb and refuse to do about it, but this game is pretty well adjusted right now and no character is incapable of winning on the same scale as in previous games.
Ya bro stupid pros complaining... They could have just taken it one step further and left characters with only pokes sweeps and uppercuts. Game would be by far the most balanced mk game then!

All jokes aside I agree 100% with what ashesfall said above. If this is the end of mk11....it's also the end of NRS's place in my heart as "one of the good guys". They answered every question early on as to why dlc was so far dispersed, why no customs on release, why very little news etc with "Pls be patient we are trying a new support plan which will span many years to come". Then they just gg out and say nothing after game is in laughable state? Reminds me of the path blizzard started going down.
 

GLoRToR

Positive Poster!
Ya bro stupid pros complaining... They could have just taken it one step further and left characters with only pokes sweeps and uppercuts. Game would be by far the most balanced mk game then!
I have an even better idea, pick 5 characters right now. They will get all the good tools in the game and we'll nerf everyone else.
So, which 5 should be playable?
 

Ashesfall

"Feel the wrath of Shao Kahn"
Ya bro stupid pros complaining... They could have just taken it one step further and left characters with only pokes sweeps and uppercuts. Game would be by far the most balanced mk game then!
:D
I don't know if this would be the most balanced tho
Shao Kahn would be really top tier.
His b4 sweep has great range and is only -2
his d4 poke is also really good
and his uppercut has a huge hitbox

Shao Kahn top tier? What a change :D
 

Chernyy Volk

Wolf lord, footsie bully, chronic corner abuser.
I personally think this is NRS's worst post-MK9 game by far. Both from a competitive viability standpoint and from a design/customer satisfaction/gameplay standpoint. I honestly believe, GIVEN THE CONTEXT of the time and placed it released in, it might be the worst mainstream fighting game ever released.

I didn't care for MKX in terms of it's direction it leaned in, but I found it odd that NRS literally just knee capped everything that made MKX such a resounding success with the hardcore community out from this game. I think it's support has been terrible, the developer communication has been atrocious to the point where NRS are now the absolute worst at it and I think we got swindled into buying an unfinished game that was never going to be finished so we could bankroll the Marvel game.

My personal preference, and I know so many people feel this way, is I think a lot of us would really like it if NRS never revisited a single one of the ideas unique to this game ever again. Although maybe if NRS had given a shit and fleshed out the game on the conceptual level which they still somehow haven't done even after two years, I'd be speaking of it differently.

It is also now IMO the ABSOLUTE most degenerate offender in diminishing the competitive space. The loser, in any given situation, has way too much power in this game. This results in a game that's just not satisfying to anybody honestly.
 

Wigy

There it is...
For me they homogenised so much of the game instead of doing the difficult thing and keeping things fun and diverse (which is way harder to balance)

They've kept the content they can monetise coming but their patches have been minimum effort and minimal impact on the longevity of the game.

Tl/dr they took the easy route then parked the bus on everything that couldnt make them money. it definitely has the Skeleton of a good game though and excels in many factors (sadly not ones that important for fun factor)

This is the game that broke good faith with NRS for me. Game is criminally boring and shallow
 
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Chernyy Volk

Wolf lord, footsie bully, chronic corner abuser.
The best looking fighting game of all time while also being one of the most boring fighting games of all time. People will NOT be going back to play this game in a few years like everyone has done with MK9, MKX and both Injustice games.
People keep trying to argue with me, mainly a lot of the new faces, but I do not believe this game will be remembered fondly at all. Especially if the next game back pedals on a lot of this games design philosophies.
 

Juggs

Lose without excuses
Lead Moderator
Here’s the issue. You’re not allowed to have actual criticisms of NRS or their game(s). Obviously none of us know better than NRS, we are fools to even doubt their excellence. They always know what’s best for the competitive livelihood, because that makes perfect sense. Everyone has doubts, but to voice them publicly is blasphemy. I should close this thread to protect the sanctity of the NetherRealm and not allow anyone to even entertain these treasonous thoughts or questions.
 

Marinjuana

Up rock incoming, ETA 5 minutes
I think it's a exceptional fighting game.

  • It has a great system of pokes an neutral with thoughtful mechanics like flawless block and breakaway(yes).
  • You have a ton of characters with different play styles available and they are mostly viable, and there's a lot to say about kustoms but they add variety, always a new variation to try.
  • The patched the game in ways that made it better without neutering characters or dramatically changing the meta(like MKX). They get little credit for polishing the game up with good patches they did to affect hit reactions(problem in every NRS game before), adjust flawless block, add jumping frames, got rid of multiple delayed wakeup, adjusting poke hit advantage and that one patch where a bunch of characters got random hit advantage buffs.
  • It has a lot of content and was worth its price on release (many fighters are not.)
  • Excellent netcode. Excellent. A lot of games have trash netcode and people claim it's still playable
  • Excellent matchmaking. Another thing that hurts potentially good fighters
  • Game's fun
 

Marinjuana

Up rock incoming, ETA 5 minutes
Here’s the issue. You’re not allowed to have actual criticisms of NRS or their game(s). Obviously none of us know better than NRS, we are fools to even doubt their excellence. They always know what’s best for the competitive livelihood, because that makes perfect sense. Everyone has doubts, but to voice them publicly is blasphemy. I should close this thread to protect the sanctity of the NetherRealm and not allow anyone to even entertain these treasonous thoughts or questions.

What a brave opinion to share
 

RoboCop

The future of law enforcement.
Administrator
Premium Supporter
If this is the final state of the game and NRS doesn't even have the courage to admit it and let us move on, my last shred of faith in them will be gone. Being finished with the game is one thing, we can argue valid points about it all day and NRS could easily salvage their tarnished reputation. But to tell us the game will be supported and then just completely ghost us feels dishonest and disrespectful to the community.
 
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Sugarwatermixlegit

Bruce Campbell 4 MK!!!
It'll for sure go down as the least popular NRS game, with the least replay value since everything about each character is found in like a week. Plus, I think people will really look back at this game and really look at how absolutely ass the marketing and communication was.

However, visually, its a milestone for fighting games.