Mortal Kombat X Review
 CHEATfactor Game Review by:  Joe Sinicki Reviewed on: PC 
 

Welcome to our CHEATfactor Game Review of Mortal Kombat X. We review the game and then factor in how the available cheats affect the overall game experience. For better or worse, our reviews will help you decide whether or not to use cheats when playing the game.

A new Mortal Kombat is always a big deal for me. Growing up in the 90s it was almost all my friends and I ever played, and we obsessed over every character, move, secret and rumor. Playing Mortal Kombat X, the newest entry in the long running fighter franchise brought back a lot of those feelings even after all this time. It's a fighter that's as fun as it is challenging and unlike other fighting franchises, it's equally worried about honoring it's past as it is with moving the franchise forward. Even if you haven't played a Mortal Kombat game in quite some time, this is the one you want to jump back in with. Mortal Kombat X may not be perfect, but it's mix of fun and challenge make it unquestionably one of the greatest Mortal Kombat games of all time.

 
...feels a lot like a coming of age story.
Mortal Kombat X Review Screenshot
 

If you take out the blood, gore and dismemberment, Mortal Kombat X feels a lot like a coming of age story. The story focuses on the characters you know like Sub-Zero, Scorpion and Johnny Cage but also takes time to introduce a new generation of characters, most who are the children of the biggest franchise stars. There's Cassie Cage, the daughter of Sonya Blade and Johnny Cage and Takashi Takeda, son of Kenshi. Both generations have to team up to deal with the ripple effects of a civil war brewing over the throne in Outworld. It's an interesting dynamic that shows the developer's dedication to not only honoring where the series has been but also trying to create a new stable of regulars, and they're almost all great fun to play here. Each adds a unique play style and some are just plain cool creations like Ferra and Torr, the tandem pair of a giant grunt and an imp that commands him.

What really impressed me as a series regular was how smart the characters and the story were to the series cannon. Each match starts with the combatants bantering at each other and if you pick two returning characters they'll reference events from past games. Playing a match with Goro VS Liu Kang for instance will make them taunt each other about how Kang beat Goro in the end of the original Mortal Kombat. Scorpion and Sub-Zero address they're long running rivalry and the Cage family all tease each other about private matters. It's all really fun for long term fans but you'll eventually come to the realization that now you're not just performing fatalities on characters in a game, but on mothers, fathers and children. Now I know that middle school aged me wouldn't really care about something like that, but it was definitely occurred to me at thirty.

Don't get me wrong though - it didn't stop me from doing those fatalities. The Mortal Kombat experience is built on these incredibly vicious finishing moves and Mortal Kombat X doesn't disappoint. As expected, each character has a few different finishing moves and brutalities mixed in, and they're still as rewarding to pull off (as long as you're not using the easy fatality system, don't be that guy) as ever. Sure, they're not for the squeamish but they are, as always a great way to end a fight. Two of my favorites were Johnny Cage's "Here's Johnny!" Fatality where he rips a hole in his opponent's chest and sticks his head through ala Jack Nicholson in The Shinning and Kung Lao's Fatality where he uses his hat as a circular saw and introduces his opponent's face to it.

So how is the rest of the fighting? Fast, brutal, methodic and most importantly...fun. The base of the game remains the same, high punch, low punch, high kick and low kick are your main buttons and make up the DNA of the super moves and combos you'll be pulling off. It's so familiar that I was able to pull off a lot of moves just from memory but there's also a surprising amount of depth here, especially in finding which character best suits your play style. I've always been a Sub-Zero guy, and I had a lot of fun playing as him but I was surprised to find that I naturally took to the new cowboy type character Erron Black. This adds a lot of longevity to what's otherwise a simple fighting game. On top of all of that, each character has two to three variants, which changes the way they look and play. Sub-Zero for instance has the Chiromancer variation which allows him to create ice-weapons, the unbreakable variation which turns the character into solid ice and gives a beefy defense boost and the Grandmaster variation which allows him to create ice clones of himself to use as projecticles.

 
Mortal Kombat X has pretty much what you'd expect...
Mortal Kombat X Review Screenshot
 

Besides the story mode, Mortal Kombat X has pretty much what you'd expect from a modern day fighter. Most will flock to the online modes while old school players will want to check out the living towers modes, which mimic the tournament style of previous arcade modes. What's really cool about the living towers mode is that it's constantly being updated with new towers to play. There was one the other day with just characters from the original Mortal Kombat game, and one of just characters that use supernatural abilities. It's had me constantly coming back, even after discovering all of the secrets of the Krypt (where you go to unlock the game's content) and finishing the story mode. There's also the FactionWar, which divides up all of the game's players into the game's factions (Special Forces, Lin Kuei etc...) and awards points based on wins and success of certain characters. It's an interesting idea but not implemented in the most successful way.

If I was disappointed by anything in Mortal Kombat X, it was that the stages, as inventive as they were didn't feature the same multi-level structure as Nether-realms other franchise, Injustice: Gods Among Us. There are environmental hazards (including throwing an old lady at your opponent, no really) but it was a lot of fun to knock opponents through entire walls and then fight on an entirely different stage. Hey, if anything it gives me a reason to come back to the other franchise when it comes back (also, Neather-Realms, please make another Injustice).

If you liked literally any other Mortal Kombat games in the past, you really need to play Mortal Kombat X. It takes literally everything that's worked in past games and fine tunes it to make it undeniably one of the best experiences the franchise has seen to date. It's an entry that proves that the developers are as interested in honoring the series' past as it is with moving it into a new age. It's a fighter that's fun to play but also features a ton of depth for those who are looking for it. Mortal Kombat X is easily one of my favorite games of the year.

 
Overall:  8/10 Presentation: 7 Gameplay: 9 
Lasting Appeal: 8 CHEATfactor: 8 
 
 
CHEATfactor
 
CHEATS USED: Max Health Meter, Max Power Meter, Max Krypt Koins, more
 
Are there any sweeter words in gaming then "Flawless Victory" and "Fatality?" If so, I have yet to hear them and the Mortal Kombat X trainer from Cheat Happens makes hearing those words all the more easy. Just use max health and max power to inflict a huge amount of damage on your unsuspecting opponents. Or hey, if even that is too much work, why not use the easy kill feature? The trainer also features a cheat for Max Krypt Koins, which lets you go on a literal shopping spree in the the Krypt, the game's home for secrets and unlockables.
 
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