PS4 Mortal Kombat 11
Last updated date: July 25, 2019
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Overall Take
In our analysis of 189 expert reviews, the PS4 PS4 Mortal Kombat 11 placed 4th when we looked at the top 10 products in the category. For the full ranking, see below.
Editor's Note July 26, 2019:
Checkout The Best Fighting Game for a detailed review of all the top fighting games.
Expert Summarized Score
43 expert reviews
User Summarized Score
233 user reviews
Our Favorite Video Reviews
What experts liked
The story's six hours are big, bombastic, and ridiculous in all of the right ways.
Some key changes streamline the mechanics of MK11, resulting in a fighting system that feels more active and aggressive than its predecessors. The special meter system has been simplified, allowing for amplified maneuvers to be used at almost any time--gone is the idea of needing to hold back and save up two or three bars of a meter to perform a particular kind of technique.
I'm thoroughly enjoying playing ranked mode, shaving the rough edges off my rushdown Shao Khan and unearthing all the secrets of the Krypt along the way.
Mortal Kombat 11 is a joy to play, so it’s a bummer that outside of multiplayer, story, and “klassic” towers, much of the longer-lasting single-player content is focused on gimmicks that detract from the rock-solid core.
Mortal Kombat 11 is one of PlayStation 4’s prettiest titles, be that in-game or in cutscenes. On PlayStation 4 Pro, frame rate is solid, too – even with detailed backgrounds often filled with moving parts and characters.Mortal Kombat 11 is stuffed with content (kontent?), too. There are 25 characters included at launch, including newcomers Geras, Cetrion, and Kollector.
Mortal Kombat 11 may be the greatest looking fighting game at least in terms of graphics, while still having eye popping (literally and figuratively) aesthetics. The characters both in and out of fighting are brimming with so much personality that it’s hard to believe this game and Mortal Kombat X are from the same console generation.
Mortal Kombat 11 continues this legacy featuring an engaging story mode, tonnes of characters and some unusual new features that make a satisfactory impact. After eleven games you’d expect diminishing returns, but Scorpion and company are still immensely entertaining.
Mortal Kombat 11 looks and sounds fantastic. The best character models in the studio's history slap-fight on a range of wonderfully detailed stages (always NRS' biggest strength) including a gorgeous willow garden and a cleverly conceived boss stage. Neat voice acting brings the characters to life, though intro dialogue is pretty dreary compared to previous titles, with only mega-asshat Johnny Cage and his kid Cassie showing any real charisma. In terms of online play, I've so far found MK 11 to be as solid as any other major fighter, with only the occasional piss-poor connection interrupting strings of stable fights. I'm pleased to report that rage-quitting has also returned as a feature.
Mortal Kombat 11 feels faster, tighter, and more challenging than those previous entries, even if only by a small margin. Players, both newcomers and fans, will have a lot to love from this 27 year old franchise.
The game features photorealistic visuals with a focus on 60 frames per second gameplay.
Not only can players create custom characters in Mortal Kombat 11, they can make those custom characters fight using artificial intelligence. It’s essentially the same A.I. character system as was introduced in Injustice 2, only with slight tweaks. I love it.
We reviewed the PS4 edition of Mortal Kombat 11 in both 1080p and 4K resolutions, and the game ran at a solid 60fps through all the fights. Cutscenes in Story Mode run at 30fps, and the switch is certainly noticeable. The game looks highly detailed and gorgeous, and a lot of work has been put in on making each of these characters layered not only gear-wise, but also from the inside, considering the damage models used.
On the upside, the graphics are an absolute treat in this game. Not only do the fights look great, but the facial animations are completely on-point. This is the best Mortal Kombat has ever looked, which may be to your detriment if seeing a close-up of Baraka eating a brain makes you queasy.
The core fighting is fast-paced and as brutal as ever, with compelling new gameplay additions to push the series forward. For example, x-ray attacks from Mortal Kombat X have been replaced by Fatal Blows, which players can activate when their health bar is low. Mortal Kombat 11 players only get one Fatal Blow per match, and so deciding when to use it adds an extra wrinkle of strategy to the fights that wasn’t there before.
The game feel is now much closer to the original entries from the 90’s, focusing heavily on the neutral game, zoning with projectiles, and punishing opponents severely for whiffed inputs or unsafe combos. Combo strings are also much easier to execute, but this acts as a double-edged sword. As a result of this change, learning to play multiple characters is now much easier.
Stunning graphics and presentation.
And while you’re at it, you will realise how visually amazing this game is, assuming you do enjoy the gore. The blood is thick and red, skulls crack and bones break in the most satisfying manner, and X-Ray moves hit the spot. It’s everything Mortal Kombat is known for with even better graphics than before.
One part that Mortal Kombat 11 absolutely nails is the Story mode. It's interesting that the same week that Marvel Studios ends its lengthy storytelling experiment with Avengers: Endgame, Neatherrealm tries to do something similar with Mortal Kombat. Mortal Kombat 11 has a lengthy story mode, heavy on the cinematics.
Mortal Kombat 11 is not only one of the best looking fighters on the market, but also one of the best looking games period. The levels are filled with incredible background detail, with each one feeling alive and distinct. The characters look even better, and they’re a substantial improvement over the stiff models NetherRealm Studios has had in the past. The extra technical horsepower means that everything looks more gruesome than ever. Brains being munched on, innards being exposed, and skulls being caved in have never looked so good.
It’s a delightful new feature, one that adds more substance to Mortal Kombat 11 and its more cerebral gameplay as players now also have a regenerating meter that allows them to burn through special moves and environmental interactions.
Mortal Kombat 11 also has copious amounts of customization options for every one of its characters. This includes outfit pieces and cosmetic weapon components, along with introductions and victory screens.
First off, Mortal Kombat 11 is a major change from Mortal Kombat X in terms of the fighting itself. The running mechanic is gone and the game has been slowed down significantly. This means that the fighting is more up close and personal and relies more on the neutral game and footsies rather than being combo'd to death and having time to go to the bathroom and come back like in Mortal Kombat X if you guessed wrong on a 50-50.
Wonderfully kooky time-travel story.
Smooth mechanics that offer a slightly slower and more strategic pace.
Mortal Kombat 11 's roster is a good mix of fighters. You have your close-range and long-range characters and they all feel unique.
The thing is, this is the best story mode I have seen in a fighting game yet. The graphics are amazing. The story is compelling.
This time-travelling narrative is sharply written, offering a number of clever era-specific jokes, such as an older and wiser version of Johnny Cage having a serious chat about decency with his younger self.
The good thing about Mortal Kombat 11 is that it offers a very detailed tutorial that explains every concept of its gameplay. The easiest special moves that you can execute in the game are the Fatal Blows that just need you to press both the trigger buttons when your health is in critical stage, but most of the rest are quite easy to master. The tutorial explains the basics of fatal blows, even diving into move canceling and combo system, which is crucial to master any fighting game.
Audio work is also top-notch in Mortal Kombat 11. There are multiple announcers to choose from, tons of audio tracks (including several to unlock in the Time Towers and Krypt), and of course a fully-voiced cast. As bodies get tossed around the various levels, or ripped apart, every jab, slice, and tear sounds enjoyably repulsive.
Mortal Kombat 11 knocks the ball out of the park. Stages are extremely well designed, and the art style accompanying them is equally strong, while fighting animations are on point as well.
Mortal Kombat 11’s fatalities are gloriously gruesome and laughably improbable, even more so than in previous games. Netherrealm has somehow managed to raise the bloody bar, though there’s still a narrative disconnect between the way the characters are depicted in the story mode and the way they act when crudely dismembering their opponents.
My experience with playing online has been excellent thus far, as I’ve had little to no lag or dropped frames while playing against other players. It’s a smooth experience all-around, which is incredibly important for any modern fighting game.
With over twenty characters to learn, including three brand new ones, there’s plenty of game here to keep you going for months. But Mortal Kombat 11 doesn’t stop there, and it is what the game does next that is a cause for concern. You won’t be surprised to hear that the Krypt is back, the treasure room area where players can use the Kombat Koins that they win in battle to unlock chests.
Visually, MK11 is the best-looking game in the franchise to date. The animations have seen a huge step forward, which do wonders for making the fights more fun to play and watch. Attacks have solid weight to them, and most of the animations look excellent.
The B-movie gorefest is elevated here though, with the addition of Fatal Blows – essentially a mid-battle take on the series' familiar Fatalities, delivering massive damage to opponents but only executable when your own health is down to 30 percent. They're stylish moves, and often far more gruesome than battle-ending Fatalities themselves, but the game jumps to jarringly different mini-cutscenes for them, breaking the flow of fights. Still, it’s a useful addition for turning the tide on a brawl that isn't going in your favour.
The story of Mortal Kombat 11 does an excellent job of consolidating and explaining a lot of the convoluted lore from the more recent games, and literally merging all that together with the classic Genesis/Arcade games that even the most casual of MK fans have probably played.
The visuals and presentation, meanwhile, are top notch — easily the best in the series once again. Character models appear crisp and detailed and the stage environs look great. One of the biggest improvements from previous games involves characters' faces.
The very nature of the MK11 story will lock players in and it ties all of the characters in one place perfectly. Old school classic characters and fan favorites are all here with the additions of new ones with innovative styles and combat mechanics. Together, the entire MK11 character pool makes up for an ultimate Mortal Kombat experience, not seen since MK Trilogy.
The real draws here are that modern iterations of characters like Johhny Cage and Raiden get to interact with their past selves throughout the story, and you also get to revisit some elements and characters of the series that have been missing for a while. Better yet, the variant versions of characters actually play differently, so it’s more than just a simple skin change.
Mortal Kombat 11 excels where it matters most: fighting! The staple simplicity of its mechanics, from combos to special moves, thrive in full force.
Graphics are really looking great.
The story mode will take you about 6-8 hours to complete and has a pretty head-scratching, yet interesting, ending to it. What’s interesting is that there are some unplayable characters in story mode that you get to fight against and they just happened to have their own, fully fleshed out movesets… hinting at possible DLC characters.
What experts didn't like
There are some cool puzzle-solving elements and neat Easter eggs to find in the Krypt, but it’s basically an explorable dungeon of lootboxes and occasional jump scares, and that’s a disappointment.
Here, you take one of the characters and select their abilities and gear augments, creating a unique twist of your own to, theoretically at least, ensure a huge amount of variety in competitive play. The problem is ranked mode limits you to picking from two pre-set tournament builds per character.
Unfortunately, there are significant omissions, too; with no Smoke, Ermac, Kenshi, or Reptile on the roster, we’ll hope for some robust DLC. It’s a shame for die-hard fans of those characters, and there’s a lack of diversity in characters, too – without Goro, there’s no hulking brute of a character such as Bane in Injustice.
The progression system is one of the few issues with the game, and possible the largest one at that. As the game doesn’t offer large values of currency most of the time, mainly the hearts (The other two values are coins and souls which are not as hard to come by). However, while the chests in the Krypt to unlock hearts aren’t random, the coin and soul chests do seem far more random, which is a shame if you just want to unlock content for characters that you like more.
The Krypt resources can take a while to grind
Story-wise, motivations get messy and everything sort of loses its way from about the halfway point, culminating in a climax that will lead many of the MK faithful to roll their eyes a little with familiarity.
The new characters are boring and flat.
Low frame rate cutscenes.
The problem comes in how players access those skins and pieces of equipment, and how that equipment is upgraded. Gear and outfits can be won through tower battles, but most of it is acquired via the Krypt. Mortal Kombat 11’s Krypt is not great.
The multiple currency options, though, seem like a questionable decision. You are rewarded quite generously in matches but having three different currencies for the Krypt seems a bit much.
Speaking of unlockables, the Krypt returns. Now, this is an aspect of Mortal Kombat that’s been getting more needlessly complicated ever since its creation back in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. It used to be a simple, enjoyable way to unlock costumes, concept art, and so on. But the mode has become more elaborate since those days to the point that the Krypt feels like it's becoming its own game. The contents of each treasure chest are also randomized, so cross your fingers that you get that really cool Erron Black costume you saw on YouTube.
Mortal Kombat 11 may catch some deserved flak for its microtransactions and Ronda Rousey’s bland voice acting
There are a few issues around Mortal Kombat 11’s progression systems. For starters, Towers of Time feels far more difficult out of the gate than Injustice 2’s Multiverse or Mortal Kombat X’s Living Towers, meaning you’ll likely be burning Konsumables quick and will have to grind other modes or wander the randomized Krypt to get more.
You unlock only one character by playing the story--Frost. She’s fun to play with, and adds more fatalities, but that’s that. Remember that age old gaming tradition where bosses are unlocked when they are fought and defeated? Nope, MK11 didn’t think so. Annoying, again.
Modifiers don't really feel challenging, instead they come across as cheap speedbumps in your path.
However, there is a frustrating amount of randomness to not only getting these elements but also in which ones can be used on which pieces. It’s an annoying system that seems designed to make you grind and grind and grind for little reward.The relentless grind was one of my major criticisms of Mortal Kombat X, and that problem rears its head once again. The first area where you’ll really notice this is in the Towers of Time mode.
With multiple variation slots and the ability to customize any fighter's standard look, NetherRealm is offering dozens of unlockable outfit pieces through the Krypt and through the constantly-rotating Towers of Time. The problem is that getting to everything the game has to offer is a brutal grind. After over 20 hours of playtime, it feels like I'm just scratching the surface of what the Krypt has to offer.
The story mode does have some problems though, mostly with the fact that certain characters, just like Mortal Kombat X's story mode, will just disappear never to be seen again. Kitana defeats Skarlet in her story chapter, half way through and that's the last we ever see of Skarlet despite working for Kronika. There is also the issue of some moments just not having any room to breathe.
Getting new gear is a grind.
Unlock system can be expensive and is too dependent on a constant internet connection.
However, my one gripe is how grindy Mortal Kombat 11 feels. From collecting Koins to unlock chests in the Krypt to finding gear, augments and Konsumables it feels like a chore, especially when you are trying to get everything in the Krypt.
What I don’t love is hammering my head against frustrating and exploitative challenges for the sake of opening loot boxes. Unfortunately, there comes a point where that’s all you can do. That’s when Mortal Kombat 11 collapses in on itself.
The entire loot system has a disgusting feel to it, which is a shame because the combat and variety of challenges are damn good.
The issue here is that a lot of the unlockable content, particularly in the Krypt that makes a return here in a rather ambitious form, feels locked behind an economy that feels broken now. As a result, it will force you to grind to unlock this in-game content and there are further barriers placed to artificially extend the length of this grind, which is just not good game design.
One issue we did notice is that occasionally, a direction label was incorrect. This was only noticed on the Kollector, a new character for the series.
Gear system and Towers of Time are grindy.
It feels as if a clumsy microtransaction system is threaded throughout the game, although you can only actually spend money on certain limited items. Still, I can’t shake the horrible, sneaking suspicion that publisher Warner Bros is just waiting to press the big red button that turns the bulk of the game’s mini transactions into actual money-fuelled microtransactions.
There’s just a lot of frustration involved with unlocking things, which is a real shame. I hope Netherrealm Studios really fixes these issues going forward, as I really want to enjoy unlocking things more.
Augments and consumables add unnecessary complexity and affect the purity of the fighting.
My only complaint is that some of the facial animation is still weird for a handful of characters.
However, the contents of any chest are randomised – including some items you need to open up new areas of the Krypt. It's entirely possible to hit a brick wall and be unable to explore further if you've run out of kurrency to open more chests, leaving you to have to go through a bunch of brawls to earn more of what you need to proceed. Even then, it's still a gamble as to whether a chest will give up what you want or need. It's a frustrating and arbitrary block in what is otherwise a great mode, and the amount of grinding lets down an otherwise excellent addition to the series.
To NetherRealm Studios credit, it looks like it has admitted that the grind for MK11 is an issue and it has announced that it will fix it. The studio says it will also give players free currency, hearts and crystals as a goodwill gesture. I also think it’s important to note that MK11 never implemented a pay-to-win mechanic with its microtransactions, given that they don’t affect the competitive core game online.
On the downside, some of the voice acting is well below the level of the rest. It’s not even got the grace to be comically bad or just plain ham and cheese, it’s dull, dry, and awkward. Not to name names here, but let’s just say it’s easy to tell who is an established voice actor and who is there for crossover appeal.
Unfortunately, much of Mortal Kombat 11 is tethered to players’ online accounts, resulting in those without internet being confined to the most basic features. Earning currency, upgrading gear, visiting the Krypt; all of this and more is available only when connected to the internet.
The grind at Towers of Time can be long and tedious.
Lack of unique cosmetics outside of recolors.
From The Manufacturer
Continue the epic saga through a new cinematic story that is more than 25 years in the making. Players will take on the role of a variety of past and present characters in a time-bending new narrative that pits Raiden against Kronika, the Keeper of Time who created existence at the dawn of history. Offers nearly infinite customization options, giving players more control and providing a deeper and more personalised experience than ever before. Players can customize their fighters with a variety of Skins, Gear, Special Abilities, Intro and Victory Cinemas, Taunts and Brutalities that can be earned via gameplay. Choose from a roster of fighters with unique abilities and Fatalities, with new characters, such as Geras, a powerful and loyal servant of Kronika who can manipulate time, along with fan-favorite characters, including, Baraka, Raiden, Skarlet, Scorpion, Sonya Blade and Sub-Zero and more. Mortal Kombat is back and better than ever in the next evolution of the iconic franchise. The all new Custom Character Variations give you unprecedented control to customize the fighters and make them your own. The new graphics engine showcasing every skull-shattering, eye-popping moment, brings you so close to the fight you can feel it. And featuring a roster of new and returning Klassic Fighters, Mortal Kombat’s best in class cinematic story mode continues the epic saga over 25 years in the making.
