Mortal Kombat Story Mode

This may be a little more tame of a debate then what might be required of the Elitist Debate topic, if so just move it. I just wanted to debate the story mode. Did you feel that it was well executed? I thought that it should have been longer, and more interactive as in it felt far to much like your on rails, only a certain amount of fights per chapter per character, and not have the ability to walk around and learn about the lore on your own. It was nice that they portrayed how characters evolved into the characters they are at the present. The bad point of that was they really didn't flesh it out enough, so the portrayal of the characters were quite shallow in comparison to other character introductions in other story based games. I know the Mortal Kombat series of game hasn't always had the best methods of story telling and progression. The cinematics were done very well compared to other games in the fighting genre, groundbreaking even, as most if not all other fighting games have delivered very poorly on the story and lore of the fighting game. Mortal Kombat delivered a dark story that reflected the Mortal Kombat universe better then ever before in my opinion, and a great ending for the next installment of the story as they strayed away from the typical all is well ending, or the looming threat ending that they will have a small conflict in the next part of the story and obviously win. This ending was still a looming threat, but Earthrealm and Outworld are weak, which leaves that feeling of urgency in the end. Which is a great way to end it overall. So overall my opinion is Too short, too linear, well executed, top tier over other fighting games in story, and an original ending that stayed true to the core elements of the lore of Mortal Kombat.

TL;DR: Do you think Mortal Kombat 2011 Story mode was the right path to take for The Mortal Kombat Franchise?

I think that a story mode was unnecessary for this game. I've always thought that stories were dumb in fighting games, but I guess Mortal Kombat's is praised by people that are into them or something. Either way, the new MK was supposed to be a throwback, if not a reboot. I just don't see the point. Put a bunch of fighters together and fight. What happens in between couldn't interest me less.

I'm going to move this to Video Games.

I can definatley see your point, however there is another group of gamers who would disagree with that, and have been yearning for a better story in the fighting genre. Not that fighting games can't be successful without them, but a lot of them just tease you with a little story, and a little character detail, which for those like me who love immersive stories in everything, it causes a fighting game to lose a lot of steam very fast. I would say in the past, when Mortal Kombat tried to integrate more story into their games, for example there Konquest mode. They executed it very poorly. Armegeddon's story was easily a D-. What I was impressed with however in the next one, is how they were able to turn it around and make a bad story into something that was far more captivating. The Lore of Mortal Kombat was shown in all new ways.

I haven't played the new Mortal Kombat yet but Dead or Alive and Soul Calibur's story modes have always kept me entertained.

Let's be clear here. Are we talking about the cutscenes? Because that's about all that a story mode is in fighting games. I remember that Soul Calibur 2 had that awesome mode where you moved around on a map through chapters, and could unlock weapons and stuff. That was cool. What I'm saying isn't necessary are the cutscenes between fights. Personally, I don't care at all about those. But, if a fighting game's story has an outer wrapping like SC2's did, I'm down with that.

All of what you said about Soul Calibur 2, (and the others for me).
Also in Dead or Alive I enjoy playing through the tournaments at different character's perspectives to unlock new costumes and eventually a new character (Helena and the Spartan in DoA4).

Spoiler for:

Although I do think the cutscenes can be pretty damn cool sometimes

I liked sc 2's mode like that with the challenge fights and I liked sc3's even more interesting story mode with the battlefields it was a bit of a cross between the challenge mode from 2 and a turn based strategy game. that was pretty damn awesome, and imo the only reason i liked sc3 as much as i did. EDIT: i think they were both called tales of souls mode or some such name.

arguably the movesets and mechanics were tweaked a little weirdly from 2 and an AI xhainghua was op as shit even on the easiest AI difficulty (bitch was easily harder to beat than the final boss of arcade mode which is stupid)


I liked what they TRIED to do with armageddon but it wasn't pulled off well. i would have to play the MK 2011 story to weigh in on it any further.