Graphics look very good. I really like the use of colors in MK11. Baraka looks neat. Custom skins and variation look like alot of fun. I hope the custom variations dont unbalance the game tho.

But the game looks kinda STIFF. Unsafe dashes have me worried a bit. It looks like meter is required to do good combos? I really hope it plays fast and gives me the freedom to press buttons to bait etc. If i have hella recovery on all the buttons i press, it eats alot of footsie potential (and it increase the stiffnes of the gameplay)

Stiff gameplay and meter requirement to combo are my main concerns. And maybe Fatal Blow gets old really fast. For the rest it looks very impressive, definitely a step in the good direction in terms of GFX

Props for NRS as the GFX look already next gen. If only the gameplay is good, this might surpass MK9 for me.

My only issue so far is that the roster might be a little disappointing to me because I have a feeling at this point based on who we already know is in that this game is going to be almost entirely Trilogy characters except for Cassie, Kronika, and Geras. I don't know why I didn't see that coming because when you consider the fact that the plot is about going back in time to the MK9 era it actually makes sense. So I will have to make peace with the lack of 3D era and MKX characters in this installment. At least we have people like Baraka, Kabal, Skarlet, and Rain so if it's basically all Trilogy characters at least it's including characters like them who don't get included as much as other Trilogy characters.

But everything else about this game seems absolutely amazing. Story mode, fatalities, graphics, customization, and the engine/mechanics. Unlike many I LOVE that they have gotten rid of the run button, and that combos seem to be reined back in. It makes the gameplay more strategy based than about just intense pressure and juggling people with combos. I also heard people talking about how some characters are faster than others, which becomes more obvious with the lack of a run button. The lack of running and speed differences between characters reminds me of MKII, and I love that.

Baraka is playable again so all is right with the world in my eyes.

In all seriousness I was blown away by it. The graphics look incredible, the characters look great, the combat looked kinda slow but I hope it's just because they didn't want to speed through the demo of characters. I'm interested in the new meter system and how that will fair out. Customization is looking good too. I hope they really dig into old designs and concepts from past games (deception primary sub, mkvdc baraka, etc.)

Can't wait for this game now more than ever.

Im cool with no run button. I actually prefer the dash cancles like in MK9. But i should atleast get a dash to get in without looking at my opponent for 20 seconds. Dashes should be almost safe. If they have alot of recovery it makes the footsies feel slow and stiff. MK2 is one of my favs, but definitly not in terms of gameplay. Fighting games of this age must have proper dashes.

Great gameplay showcase from Ketchup and Mustard here. Should calm anyone’s fears that the game is slow. Plus we get some Brutalities from Scorpion and Sub Zero! https://youtu.be/JmxCPxP-Ip4

There's a lot of great stuff in there, especially compared to MKX:

• The graphics, oh my...gorgeous!
• Out of the blue returnee who has not gotten her time to shine in Skarlet. I don't really care for her ninja MK9 appearance, but this one seems really cool. The use of blood in her moves and that fatality. Just a bit of a silly main look, could've been a bit more dark and fierce, but anything better than a ninja.
• Finally we have a monster in the game and he's my all-time #1 character in Baraka so not just that he's in, but that he's part of the story, was not in any way expected and looks the best he's ever done makes this a grand return.
• They are taking risks with the looks of pretty much everyone: Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Sonya, Skarlet and even Baraka. I am relieved they nailed Scorpion with the undead look vs. Sub-Zero who really looks like the leader and just a look they've never tried. Bold.
• The revenant look is so far looking promising, unlike the cracked / veins on fire look.
• Characters don't look shiny anymore.
• Liu Kang, Scorpion, Sub-Zero finally all look asian!
• Shang Tsung island ruins at least has nailed the music, asian inspired!
• They went with a great mix of gritty backgrounds / arenas and colourful characters that pop
• 17 stages and they look gorgeous. Also that fight club is growing on me and something they haven't done before.
• Loving the new moves: Fatal Blow and the other one
• Return to the weapons as part of the arena
• No more running, more calculated and close combat required
• The slow motion gory endings of certain moves
• Fatalities look sick
• Finally a new boss and sub-boss, very bold move. Also because of how they look, very unlike Mortal Kombat and while I think I won't enjoy going up against a simplistic robot DC comics type character, at least they took a risk here.
• The story and the story introduction was awesome, brutal and showed just enough. So many ways they can go with it.
• Customisation! Every person bitching about Sub-Zero and Skarlet in particular, go nuts.

Some negatives about the event, the game in general and potential roster:

• For a reveal this close and a special event it was set up in kind of an odd way, I figured they'd have the room go dark with light flashes, thunder sounds, characters appearing on stage and showing hints of characters on screen and such. It was a trailer and then just showing and talk.
• For the 7 characters that were playable, they revealed way too many characters through their videos and interviews. We pretty much can guess with 90% certainty about 15-20 characters right now. I wish they would've just kept it to those 7 + Jade / Kitana, Liu Kang and Kung Lao and show 10 characters on screen though not provide gameplay footage on all of them. Also 25 characters is not a lot.
• The faces look very big in terms of width and a bit strange. With the new scanning system in particular Baraka looks a bit too human to my taste, but that's also the eyes not being white for once. Still, not feeling is as a whole.
• While I got mine with Baraka, I do agree with what I've seen from many fans that again the roster feels very safe IF we can go by all the characters mentioned, teased and what not. It's again high on Special Forces, very few if at all 3D characters, great classics like Quan Chi, Reptile, Mileena and Ermac simply being replaced by Noob Saibot, Skarlet, Kabal and Shang Tsung (for example). So they are keeping the ones who can really use a break like Johnny, Sonya, Kano and just giving characters who weren't in X a chance.
• It is likely that not many MKX newcomers return and while I won't lose any sleep over it, it does bring back memories of one of the major NRS flaws in having characters being one-and-done. I do hope that if D'Vorah or even Kotal Kahn doesn't return, that neither will all kombat kids.
• All fatalities ending in slow-mo, not feeling that.
• The voice over guy sucks, sorry..too robotic and tries too hard. MK2 had the best voice, just sounded deep and mysterious.
• The screen is now filled with bars and seems crowded, hope you can switch that off or make it look different.
• Kronika looks much less cool than I expected and Geras is too similar.

I actually agree with you, I was thinking the same thing while watching yesterday. Like... it's a little out of control imo, I'm fine with it, it's just a bit off that during the fight you can do moves that are often more brutal than fatalities, and "fatal blows" are not... fatal. I'd prefer they be called "critical blows" or something, I don't know.

I think you are referring to this video? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPyYQPgJ4sI

Baraka is biting folks now.

Scorpion using his spear & chains more, love it.

Raiden is finally using his staff & looks solid with his new lightning techniques

Enjoying Sub's doing more with his freezing abilities than just immobilizing them

Blade's being more military than ever & I'm glad they finally gave her an armbar.

Skarlet looks & sounds better. She was horrible in MK2011 & even though her Idle is vastly similar to Kitana's in MKX, it looks way less robotic.

Don't have much of an opinion towards Geras yet. Looks too much like Cyborg

Somebody said Scorpion (and Raiden) is the best he's ever been which I find harder to believe when in Super's video he was saying they completely "fucked him over" in this game by taking away his MK Spear move and giving him the trash Injustice version compared to Sub-Zero who despite losing his Ice Clone to Geras can at least still FREEZE without meter unlike Scorpion. Why is there so little push from fans to give him back the true MK spear move that's his friggin' trademark and should never have been nerfed?? Do people hate him THAT much that they want him to be castrated like that? He looks like he plays like swampy shit unless you've got meter full.

Geras's move looks like an ice clone but appears to function like Ethereal Mileena's teleport. He sets it down where he's going to be in the future, then his body catches up to it.

Not sure what you mean by "so little push from fans" over the spear, since a LOT of people are complaining about it. Not sure how to feel about it myself. The way meter regenerates now, it's not like you have to work hard for it, but still feels wrong.

Mate, watch the vid I posted above. Scorpion is anything but swampy. Meter builds so fast in this game I doubt combining from his spear is gonna be too much of an issue.

I couldn't be happier with everything they showed. Having Skarlet at the reveal blew my mind for 20 minutes, along with them bringing back Baraka. I'm loving how much blood there is in the game too, the floor gets soaked compared to MKX.

And speaking of MKX I'm SO HAPPY they got rid of the sweat beads all over the characters body. They went with the Injustice 2 route and made the models of the characters so clean looking. Watching Sub-Zero vs Scorpion was the most MK shit I have ever witnessed since NRS revamped the series with MK9.

I can't put my finger on it but something is just wrong with the faces. And it started in Injustice2. The mimic is top-notch but the faces look so weird. I can't express it with words but they are weird. :/

Meter needs to build fast. All of the combos he was doing in that fight required full two bars of meter and the variant specific Chain Spin move just to get going. He barely could get anything legit going without the two bars though and that's why Sub-Zero won as he had more options. Ketchup and Mustard are pros and yeah they only had a day to experiment with 7 characters but that is still a little discouraging to me. I see just how GOOD the other characters looked and my boy Scorpion struggles with his two most signature moves accomplishing very little without meter to burn. Hopefully the offense meter builds crazy fast in end build, lol. Hit and run with weak short hits isn't really my style so it's just concerning is all. The spear into elbow looks like it has even less stun than it used to anyway so I'm just not seeing the reason for it to cost meter if SZ Freeze doesn't. Make the one that hits harder and causes a hard knockdown the meter burn.

I was over the top excited. Even teared up a little. The UK stream wasn't produced particularly well but that is pretty much the only true negative I have for the whole event. Also, slightly disappointed if sub-zero truly doesn't have an ice clone. Not a big deal I don't usually play him. That was my favourite gimmick of his though.

Roster surprises? Check
Interesting gameplay? Check
New mechanics which help the competitive scene? Check
Mind-blowing finishers? Check
A bunch of other great stuff I didn't expect? Check

Now that I think about it.... do we know anything about loot boxes or micro-transactions or battle passes?
I forgot that I was worried about that and hoped they answered it. It doesn't seem like the moves or variations are behind paywalls and if costumes are I am okay with that.

Please @ me if you know something I don't about that stuff!

Or... maybe it's literally been 1 day since we learned this information, most of us have yet to play the game, and the majority of the fanbase doesn't know anything about Scorpion's spear has changed yet. Just a thought.

Don't get me wrong, I'm aware of the nerfed spear, and I agree completely, it's a bad change. But dude, you're up in arms that the fanbase isn't outraged and it's been literally ONE DAY...

I imagine once beta starts and more people get their hands on the game, there's liable to be more backlash about it.

NRS seems to have an obsession with former heroes turning to the evil side. Raiden in MK, Superman in Injustice. Lazy writing.

I heard the build they showed was an old build from the summer of last year. I do not think the Scorpion spear is final. They can change it easily so I would not be too worried. Although he did not have the free hit after the spear, Scorpion was very combo heavy and he has good range since he uses the katanas and chains a lot more now in normal moves. He also has moves uses the hellfire powers like a projectile he throws, breaything fire and carrying the opponent as a demon.

Sub-Zero has little combo ability outside the ice ball. The slide is a combo ender. He does not have the clone. Geras can freeze you you but when he hits you, you don't move making it extremely diffcult to combo into.

So far I'm just going to say this.

This game has got to have one of the worst designs I have ever seen for Sub-Zero. Yes, this is worse than when he shaved his head. This isn't even ten steps back from the the dignified and ominous look he had in MKX. This is 15 steps back!

He looks horrendous. Completely robbed of any sort of intimidation or sense of wisdom. And you know what, Scorpion aint fairing much better.

And this is all a symptom of what I was talking about a year ago in the MKX section. Realism. It's harpooning the visual creativity of this series. Because the more realistic the visuals become the more they have to tone down the outfits because flamboyant outfits will and do just make these people look like they're in costumes.

Well it felt good to get that off my chest.

Oh and PS: Sonya looks awful. Again. Still abandoning her color pallet NRS for the sake of of uniformity and realism. Boring.

I really dont understand complains about designs when we can customize almost every detail now. You can basically change the skins to your liking.

First impressions are important.

Like I said this comes down to the overall aesthetic of the game. How much better can the customization options be when the defaults already look so mundane to out of place and silly.

Sure but i think we will have many more options to recreate classic skins etc. In that regard it will be fine. imo it looks already better than MKx