Warner Bros. has seen the big picture to present the new opus of the venerable license of NetherRealm Studios. A room full of stations just for him, so even Katsuhiro Harada and Naoki Yoshida did not resist the urge to come and test the beast under the watchful eye of Ed Boon, guardian of the Mortal Kombat temple, who will only dare to disturb these figures from Tekken and Final Fantasy to greet them between two rounds. First of all, you should know that yours truly has many passions in life, but sports and fighting games are not among them. Not having touched a mortal kombat for at least ten years, the pressure was as great as the relief in front of an obvious observation after this half-hour session: did I have fun?
Foursome
The big novelty of this opus remains the Kombatants Kaméo, these secondary characters who can be called in support at any time during the fight. As part of this demo, Sonya, Kano and Jax of the time fill this role and by pressing R1, our teammate disembarks for a few seconds and returns to the fight. This ally can attack our opponent and stop him in his tracks, or allow us to maintain our series of blows, but also block a blow for us. It also intervenes during the mug animation and is entitled to its own Fatality coming to be added to that of our fighter. much more than one gimmickthis system has a central place in the gameplay even if it has of course its limits.
To avoid abuse, these appearances are subject to a small gauge which, when full, allows you to call our Kombatant Kaméo twice. A restriction to qualify as this gauge fills up very quickly: you never have to wait very long before you can call your Kameo again. Another important (and obvious) limitation is that the support fighter is also prone to interruptions and taking a hit will instantly send him back to the locker room. It is in any case a very clever choice of gameplay on the part of NetherRealm which takes advantage of the entirety of its roster without having to imagine a complex and total overhaul of the whole band as part of this reboot.
I don’t have time, my guts are elsewhere
The other added value of this new game mechanic is that it makes Mortal Kombat 1 very dynamic. Often criticized for its rigid animations, MK offers itself with this new system the luxury of fluidity and we can’t wait to see the pro players get us out of the stratospheric sequences of the same ilk as what we saw on the stage. Dragon Ball FighterZ professional. The whole thing is so nervous and calibrated that it sometimes feels like choreographing a dance of death. And it wouldn’t be a real MK without its Fatalities which disgust as much as they make us laugh by their absurdity. It makes you wonder how NertherRealm still finds ideas to offer these bloody scenographies.
In this demo version, Sub-Zero, Liu Kang, Kitana and Kenshi were available. The last city seemed to us too complex for our poor level with its remotely controllable ghostly double, we preferred to focus on the other three characters. Note also that the selection screen contained 24 boxes. It remains to be seen whether this is really the number of characters planned in the final game. Be that as it may, it is clear that the quartet is rather well balanced in terms of power and possibilities, even if Liu Kang stands out very easily as the best character for beginners. His mid-range attacks and his ability to break the distance with his opponent make him a formidable choice. It should also be noted that Sub-Zero once again has the possibility of making ice copies of himself and can even swing three of them at the same time on certain movements.
If there is no possibility of interacting with the environment, the very detailed decorations remain a small visual pleasure. And while we’re talking about it, the special attacks are now done in duo with our Kombatant Kaméo and the X-ray vision revealing the bones that break with extreme violence is still on the program, as if the Fatalities nightmarish were not enough. Of course, no word has been said about the plot of this new opus, beyond what has already been explained in the two trailers, and the exchanges between different characters at the start of the fight will speak above all to aficionados. of the license, which will find their essential single-player cinematic campaign. Overall, the grip is rather pleasant, even being rusty as possible, and the reflexes return quickly.