Following close on the heels of the game’s announcement, Mortal Kombat X shows off some of its characters and gameplay on the floor at E3.
Mortal Kombat X made headlines with its surprise announcement less than a month ago. With a trailer that showcased Sub Zero and Scorpion, two of the series’ most iconic characters, in a fight to the death (as Mortal Kombat tends to be,) the game has already become a darling of the gaming news sites. For those lucky enough to attend E3, NetherRealm Studios had even more interested players.
Like with all of our E3 2014 coverage, Kerwin Tsang was on the floor, giving us updates as he experienced everything the show had to offer.
There were six characters on display: Scorpion, Sub Zero, and four all new characters: Cassie Cage, the daughter of Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade, D’Voral, an insect-like woman, Kotal Kahn, and Ferra/Torr, which consists of Ferra, a small deranged girl with knives in each hand sitting on top of Torr, a gigantic-Zangief-sized brute.
Mortal Kombat X has already displayed a penchant for the same brutality and gore as the series’ past entries, and the new content on display during the game’s E3 booth showing has only helped to flesh that brutality out. With dynamic, interactive environments, fighting in the game has an additional level of strategy beyond past titles as elements of the stage come into play during combat.
There is also environmental leveraging, in which you can jump on tree branches to escape, or rip out branches and use them as a weapon.
While such environmental usage has been used in the series in the past, examples in the new game seem to aim for a higher level of interactivity than older levels.
Displayed in the game’s demo was also the inclusion of the three-style system originally introduced to the series in Deadly Alliance. With each character having multiple fighting styles, players have a lot more versatility with their play style than the single-style system most often utilized in fighting games. With an emphasis on combos and combat flow, Mortal Kombat X is definitely aiming to combine the best elements of the older titles in the series to produce the best game possible.
The new characters look to add some interesting changes to the classic Mortal Kombat formula as well, bringing new ideas for character operation and even fighting styles the series has never seen before.
They then showed two new characters, D’voral and Ferra/Torr, F/T used the vicious variation, which focuses on Torr using Ferra a lot, either as a club-like weapon, or a sort of attack dog. D’voral has a variation that makes all of her attacks deal poison damage.
The level they fought in was on a bridge in the middle of the ocean, with a shipwreck in the background. Occasionally, a dead body would by thrown in the air by the waves, and players with good timing can grab the body while its in the air and throw it at the enemy.
The fight concludes with F/T winning. The fatality has Torr holding D’voral still while Ferra grabs her knives and cleaves her entire body apart vertically, which shows a gruesome cross-section of her entire body.
Kerwin even provided us with audio of his time with the game and its creators, available here.
As more information continues to be revealed about Mortal Kombat X, our excitement grows for what the game has the opportunity to become.