Mortal Kombat XL

For a number of years Mortal Kombat was in a lull, throwing random features in such as X-Ray mode instead of fine-tuning the combat systems left players in the dark with broken gameplay that failed to engage. So when the release of Mortal Kombat X rolled around last year it was a sigh of relief to find the game building on the return to it’s roots success of 2011 instead of flooded with puzzling features, though as the picky bunch we were, the content appeared to be missing elements.

The content was still out there however, and over the last twelve months it has been trickled painfully to us in form DLC packs until finally we are granted the whole shebang and more in Mortal Kombat XL.

Combining the various update packs, including playable characters such as Tanya, Tremor and Tri-Borg, the launch date bonus of Goro and a massive pile of costume extras like Kraken Reptile and Soccer Johnny Cage, there are still four characters that will be the biggest draw here.

Introduced to us were the Xenomorph Alien and his BFF Predator, Jason Voorhees of Friday the 13th and the Ed Gein inspired lad himself, Leatherface of Texas Chainsaw Massacre fame, and all are playable in Mortal Kombat XL. Each character has a fully unique move set and animated cut scenes, so you can take up your controller and perform Leatherface’s Chainsaw impalement on Jason or use Predator to plasma cannon your way through your Xenomorph foe.

There are still some gripes that have flowed into the XL release such as a simplified story mode and a still absent arcade mode, though we gain a refined gaming system as all development tweaks are included at first play and the previous online issues of matches dropping due to connectivity is rectified also.

Mortal Kombat XL is a turnkey game that is sadistically fun and finally seamlessly links all the finisher additions and strange features that previously stood out, yes you could argue that it’s a greedy move to release a full title when some players already own the original release, but not to be left in the dark, the XL add on is in your digital store now.