“Mortal Kombat X” had a pretty solid release when it initially came out, and the game managed to get a lot right with its very first version. Of course, it still took some updates and DLC packs to polish everything to perfection, but NetherRealm were obviously determined to make their fans happy, and in the end they pushed the game quite far. Recently, the studio decided to combine everything they’ve released for the title in one big package called “Mortal Kombat XL”, and it’s been enjoying some pretty good reviews by fans and critics so far.
“Mortal Kombat XL” is not a simple repackaging of the original content as it also brings a few new details to the table, such as the revival of “classic” stage fatalities and other finishing moves, and it also adds several new fighters to the roster, thanks to “Kombat Pack 2”. Some fans have been arguing about the exact number of characters introduced through the new content, as one of them is actually three characters combined in one, plus a little extra.
But those are semantics as what matters is how exactly the characters are used in-game, plus arguments like this one don’t really add much to the game itself. For the most part, fans have just been happy with the way the content was organized and packaged, and the full price of “Mortal Kombat XL” was seen as more than adequate for many. In fact, some fans were seemingly surprised that the publisher decided to price it in this way, expecting to have to pay more for the full package.
Many critics are describing “Mortal Kombat XL” as a “more complete” experience than the original release of “Mortal Kombat X”, citing the various improvements that have been brought to the table since the original release. This is not just about content additions either, as NetherRealm have been quite active in updating the game and staying on top of bugs.
The studio actually got a lot of praise from their fans for this attitude towards their patching, although they also got some flak from the PC community after it was announced that the PC version of the game will not be updated further. While this obviously undermined the trust of many, some have argued that the franchise was always traditionally a console one and the studio probably doesn’t lose much by acting this way towards their PC fans.
Players who have been feeling bored with the game and have been looking for some extra challenge should also be happy to learn that the pack comes with a few extra achievements to keep them busy. What’s more, those achievements have reportedly been specifically designed to take advantage of the newly introduced elements in with recent updates, so even those who’ve gone through the game’s content thoroughly should feel compelled to come back and give it another go. For many players, hunting those achievements is part of the fun.
With regards to those achievements, some have pointed out that their design is actually quite more adequate than that of previous achievements for the game, as they feel a lot less “grindy” and don’t require so many repetitive actions from players. This is good to hear as some developers seem to have taken the idea of achievements in their games to a rather extreme level lately, requiring players to go to great lengths just to get access to content that should have been part of the main game in the first place.