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Everything you need to know about Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath
Mortal Kombat 11 has released its game-changing Aftermath update. There’s a lot to it, so we asked Rooflemonger, one of the most dedicated fighting game content creators, to help walk us through it.
The test of your might continues. The Aftermath update for Mortal Kombat 11 is here, and NetherRealm Studios have put together a very exciting batch of DLC. The aftermath expansion was officially announced on May 6th, 2020, and only took 20 days before it was finally released and playable. It’s a pretty substantial update to the best selling game of 2019, bringing new characters, story content, and balance updates.
With so much going on, we reached out to Canadian fighting game tech guru, Rooflemonger, to help us parse through it. Here’s everything you need to know about Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath.
The story continues
Without getting too spoilery, MK11’s excellent story mode ended with the universe on the cusp of a new beginning. Raiden and Liu Kang were able to somehow detach themselves from the chains of fate and begin putting things right, despite time twisting antagonist Kronika’s best efforts.
Aftermath picks up right after that with a villain-centric story as the famous MK sorcerer, Shang Tsung, steps out of the shadows. The story has some similar beats to Back To The Future 2 as this league of bad guys skips through time to make sure previous events happen in a particular way. The story is told with typical NetherRealm flair, and many who have completed it say that it’s a must-play.
“It's fantastic. I think it's the second best one NRS has done and, therefore, the second best story mode in fighting games overall because nobody is on their level. Like Tekken 7 or Soulcalibur 6 are alright and all, but there's a distinct difference in quality between an NRS story mode and everybody else. I like that there's a villain focus because most stories generally follow the heroes,” said Rooflemonger, whose number 1 fighting game story of all time was Mortal Kombat 9.
Fighting games don’t often focus on having good narratives. They’re usually about giving players access to cool looking characters with interesting moves to facilitate competition. Sometimes they’ll have a couple of details on ‘why’ these cool characters have come together to fight, but oftentimes it comes off as a little hokey. NRS has expanded the story without making us wait for another game, and put a light on some not often explored narrative elements.
“There’s a love story. Shao Kahn and Sindel love each other, and love being evil together,” said Rooflemonger. “Shao Kahn is a big deal and you never really get to see anything from his perspective.”
This isn’t to say that MK11: Aftermath will set the gold standard for writing in games by any means. NieR: Automata, this is not. It’s still just a vehicle to give characters a reason to fight, but NRS goes the extra mile to give everyone who buys the game something to do beyond labbing situational, unreliable corner combos.
New challengers approach
New characters are one of the most exciting parts of a fighting game update. Adding a long time series favourite, or introducing a wild guest character can do wonders for getting new people interested. If you purchase the Aftermath update, you’ll get access to legacy characters like Sheeva and Fujin, as well as the interesting guest choice of Robocop. Each of them make pretty interesting additions to the game, and we got Rooflemonger to break each of them down for anyone interested in playing as them:
Sheeva
Fujin
Robocop
“All three new characters are very worthy additions to the game. They all bring different gameplans and there's something there for everybody. Not every character is for everyone, but I think any person can find something they like in one of these three,” said Rooflemonger.
New mechanics introduced
Aftermath isn’t only about giving love to the DLC characters, existing characters have seen changes from the sweeping update too. Along with the usual adjustments to frame data and move properties, also comes changes to variations.
With three main variations per character, some were just plain better than others. This led to dead variations for some characters. With Aftermath giving MK11 a new coat of paint, (including the long asked for reintroduction of “friendship” finishers for all members of the cast!) of it's the perfect time to revisit characters and character variations you may not have given a fair shake.
It’s breathing life into characters nobody cared about.
This new lease on life comes from a combination of balance updates and the evolved meta of the game. As competitive play evolves, players have begun to value different things. With so much new stuff in the game, lapsed players have more reason than ever before to come back.
“You’ll slowly roll the mechanical changes into your game plan because they’re cool. But for me, personally, I'm looking at characters I didn't put too much time into before. I'm now actually very interested in Shang Tsung when I didn't really care before, both because of his changes and because of me advancing as a player. I’ve realized some of the stuff turns out to be really good when I didn't really care about it before.”
There’s a whole host of changes worth exploring but the star of the show has to be the new Armor Break mechanic. Since launch, MK11 has had a defensive mechanic where you can break out of a combo. As you play the game and gain matchup experience, you learn the optimal points to break out of attacks, since doing that allows you to get a full punish on your opponent for trying to go for max damage.
This leads to players often doing sub-optimal combos out of fear of their opponent breaking away and punishing them for doing the ‘right’ thing. Armor Breaks add a new layer to player interaction because, if an aggressor knows when the defender likes to break away, they can call it out with an armor break move to make them fear careless defense.
Armor Breaks will also break anything, including fatal blows, so every interaction has a new level for fighters to consider. Each character’s Armor Break is unique to them, so it’s important to have matchup knowledge and know when they can do it. Some characters even have variation specific armor breaks, adding to the thought that goes into choosing a main. Armor Breaks will have a huge effect on the meta and are easily the biggest change that differentiates Aftermath from previous versions of MK11.
Beyond the usual housekeeping and mechanical updates, MK11 continues to press forward in its evolution. The game isn’t done improving, and has even had hotfixes since the patch dropped to address certain issues like Fujin having access to an infinite combo.
If you’ve been on the fence about MK11, or if you played a little then stopped, right now is the best time to hop in. With new content in the game (and still on the way if data miners are to be believed) and a main spot as part of EVO Online 2020, MK11 is as healthy as it's ever been.
“It's a fun game. Some people write it off because it's Mortal Kombat without understanding,” said Rooflemonger. “You might have to learn some of the weird, interesting stuff. I know that's tough but I think it's truly a solid game that anyone who's just looking for a strong fundamental fighting game experience can enjoy.”
