Okay, I had a couple of gripes with this game. For one, I found the roster to not be very good. A few new characters here like Takeda, Jacqui Briggs, and Kung Jin (my personal favorite) are good additions. Others like Ferra and Torr, were not. I think the fact that most of the characters were being killed off or zombified in the previous game really hampered the roster for this game. I also think the combos for some fan-favorites like Kitana were ruined. I don't know, something about the roster was kinda underwhelming to me. That may have been a personal nitpick but the new Klassic towers replacing MK9's challenge towers was not. That one was a genuine issue. The Klassic towers feel very repetitive and grindy in comparison, and I honestly do not like it. I like the tower endings and the fact that the final fight is Shinnok from the story but even that novelty starts to wear thin. There just isn't a lot of replayability, which causes community features like Faction Wars, which would be otherwise cool, to fall flat. I also just don't like the aesthetic of this game to be honest. It's way too dull compared to the vibrant, colorful textures of its predecessor. Everything looks graphically fine but I just feel like they made a few bad calls here.
All that being said, I think this is the strongest story in this reboot timeline. It's way better written than MK9 and actually fixes and acknowledges some story beats from the last game in ways that actually pay off. The flashback missions here are great. Apart from Jacqui, Takeda, and Kung Jin being the stars of the show, Mileena and Sub Zero are highlights. I also thought all of the Outworld stuff here was great too. Shinnok doesn't have the same presence that Shao Kahn did in the last game, but was still a solid villain. Perhaps some of his screentime was shaved off in order to share screen time with the game's other villain, Mileena, but I think that was ultimately a great decision. This is not only the first game in which I actually like Mileena's character, but she actually might be one of my favorite antagonists. The only flaws I'd say the story has is that 1. they never properly explain something Rain does at the halfway point of the game, 2. the Mileena subplot ended kinda underwhelmingly, and 3. Shinnok doesn't get enough screentime to be as good as Shao Kahn. They also kinda leave Jax and a bunch of other characters' roles in the story hanging by leaving them after the Sea of Blood stuff and never go back to them, which was kinda weird (although it wasn't very important to the overarching narrative). That's basically it. These are kinda minor flaws and the rest of the story absolutely slaps. The character backstories and motivations are all great, and the flashbacks help fill in the 20 year time gap. Kicking Quan Chi's ass has never felt more satisfying. The combat still feels great in the next generation, and the XL version includes all of the DLC characters like Alien and Predator. Good shit.
Overall, this game is great with an awesome story mode and great combat as always but is bogged down by the Klassic towers being really underwhelming. Like sure, there's online, but there's only so much online you can play until it gets tiresome. It was kind of a bummer, giving this game less replay value than the last one. And again, really not a fan of the overall roster and some characters' combos. Some strange decisions were made here. But yeah, still a solid MK game worth checking out. I had fun. It's just a bit overrated by the community.
All that being said, I think this is the strongest story in this reboot timeline. It's way better written than MK9 and actually fixes and acknowledges some story beats from the last game in ways that actually pay off. The flashback missions here are great. Apart from Jacqui, Takeda, and Kung Jin being the stars of the show, Mileena and Sub Zero are highlights. I also thought all of the Outworld stuff here was great too. Shinnok doesn't have the same presence that Shao Kahn did in the last game, but was still a solid villain. Perhaps some of his screentime was shaved off in order to share screen time with the game's other villain, Mileena, but I think that was ultimately a great decision. This is not only the first game in which I actually like Mileena's character, but she actually might be one of my favorite antagonists. The only flaws I'd say the story has is that 1. they never properly explain something Rain does at the halfway point of the game, 2. the Mileena subplot ended kinda underwhelmingly, and 3. Shinnok doesn't get enough screentime to be as good as Shao Kahn. They also kinda leave Jax and a bunch of other characters' roles in the story hanging by leaving them after the Sea of Blood stuff and never go back to them, which was kinda weird (although it wasn't very important to the overarching narrative). That's basically it. These are kinda minor flaws and the rest of the story absolutely slaps. The character backstories and motivations are all great, and the flashbacks help fill in the 20 year time gap. Kicking Quan Chi's ass has never felt more satisfying. The combat still feels great in the next generation, and the XL version includes all of the DLC characters like Alien and Predator. Good shit.
Overall, this game is great with an awesome story mode and great combat as always but is bogged down by the Klassic towers being really underwhelming. Like sure, there's online, but there's only so much online you can play until it gets tiresome. It was kind of a bummer, giving this game less replay value than the last one. And again, really not a fan of the overall roster and some characters' combos. Some strange decisions were made here. But yeah, still a solid MK game worth checking out. I had fun. It's just a bit overrated by the community.