74 PCWorld JULY 2020REVIEWS MORTAL KOMBAT 11: AFTERMATH
MARTY, WE HAVE TO
GO BACK!
There was no real need for Aftermath. Mortal
Kombat 11 told a brilliant story, start to finish.
Balancing the fan service of the Mortal
Kombat 9 reboot with the advances from
Mortal Kombat X, it made good on dozens of
plot threads and characters—all while telling
one of the most ambitious and entertaining
stories in the series.
Hell, one of the most ambitious and
entertaining stories I’ve ever seen in a fighting
game. As I wrote last year in our review:
“It’s proof once again that engaging
storytelling stems from characters. Mortal
Kombat’s source material is surface-level
dumb, absolutely. This is a series about people
drafted into a mystical fight club to protectEarth from demonic invasion. It’s undeniably
stupid. But NetherRealm’s spent nearly three
decades—nearly a decade with this trilogy
alone—building these characters and their
relationships, and it pays off here.”
The original ending(s) of Mortal Kombat
11 gave NetherRealm a clean slate. Wipe the
universe. Start over, or don’t. While we will
undoubtedly get more Mortal Kombat in the
future, the ending of Mortal Kombat 11
could’ve just as easily been an ending for the
entire series. It felt clean and satisfying and
tidy in a way that few games ever
accomplish.
When NetherRealm announced
Aftermath—well, first of all I was stunned.
Nobody makes story-centric DLC for fighting
games. Characters, sure. Cosmetics,