Recent reviews by Nimir-Raj

This beach properties DLC is amazing.

It comes with 20 lovely new houses with assets for levels 1, 3, and 5. Apparently Levels 2 and 4 don't exist in CO's universe, but that's okay because beaches don't exist in the game either and there's nothing beach related in the beach properties DLC so I guess it's all on brand if you think about it.

I'm really enjoying the four tree it comes with that should have been in the free update, but at least you could argue palm trees are some what beach related if you've nothing better to do with your time.

The price of this DLC is also amazing, twice the price of the original games content creators packs and half the content. Amazing deal. But at least the standard edition buyers can feel as ripped off as the Ultimate Edition owners now.

All in all I really recommend this DLC pack to anyone who really wants to throw money in the toilet or really just likes punishing themselves.

Absolutely great game. Even 9 years on it's still one of the better builder sims out there, it's one of those games that you just keep coming back to.

While it is not perfect, it does all the important bits very well.

While I understand the devs are done with this, I do really wish they would consider a DLC pack that takes inspiration from some of the mods out there. New food types, animals, and some deeper manufacturing options would go a long way.

Pros:
+ Decent Roster.
+ Good Game Play
+ Good Story
+ Tutorials

Meh:
* Fatal Blows
* Scoprion's Spear
* Towers of Time

Cons:
- The Krypt
- Horrible Unlockables
- AI Control
- Skins
- Constantly Checking Online

Before I kick off the review, I would like to state that I do NOT play online. So if you are looking for an Online review leave now. :P

When it comes to the roster there's always going to be a wildly different view on good/bad aspects. Why isn't X in, why IS x in? There's never really
going to be a unanimous agreement on how good or bad it is. For me personally I think the new roster has a good selection of characters.
I am old school though so I am generally happy so long as the originals are in there.
While I do question the absence of certain characters, particularly the new ones from MKX, the new MK11 characters do make up for them to some degree.

I am both surprised and saddened to see characters like Smoke, Cyrax and Sektor are missing in all forms (human or mech) though and hope they may be
added later as DLC since the latter both appear in Story Mode.


Story mode wise I am loving it (chapter 5 at time of writing). If you're a fan of MK9/X Story I think you will like MK11 too, it is more cutscene orientated so far
and some of the story gives you the option of who to fight with when appropriate. Generally I have no complaints, but I don't want to get too in-depth here
or it will end up being spoiler infused and no one wants that right?


Tutorials, tutorials, tutorials. I forced myself to do these just for the sake of talking about them. Now as a MK veteran I generally don't bother with them.
I understand the basics, but if you want to learn more. Particularly when it comes to counters, perfect blocks, and similr things it is worth sitting through them.
I do like the fact tutorials have a instant "watch" option toggle so you can see it being done with AI then copy it. Useful for timing purposes and what not.

The character specific tutorials are, if I am completely honest, pointless. Every thing in there is basically just "do this move" all of which you could do in practice with the move list open.
There is simply no point at all to the character specific tutorials, other than to hide skins behind it. Thankfully they don't take long if you are wanting to collect skins.

Special Mention:
Throws. Unlike the previous titles, back throws and front throws are completely different moves for the most part. No longer do you get the same animation with a minor tweak at the end.


Fatal Blows are basically X-rays with a new mechanic. The Fatal Blows themselves are exactly what you'd expect, bone braking, gore-filled madness.
I love the fact that they have made them one time use only (whole match, not just one round) as it gives them more of a strategic purpose and unlike previous versions,
you don't "lose it" if you miss it or it is blocked.

What I don't like however, and what puts these in the 'meh' category, is that you can only use them when low on life. While it does add to match excitement when it's close fought
it also removes that "will they, won't they" feeling when the meter is full. Removing the ability to use it almost any time, also takes away some risk feeling of it.

Scorpian's Spear also gets a special mention here because I really dislike what they have done to it. No longer is the basic spear throw a 'stall' move used to set up a combo.
It is now immediately followed by a sword slash to the back which puts the opponant on the ground. It is still possible to use it as a stall move by using the advanced spear, it's become a more strategic move
and removed the spear from general fighting to an end-combo move.

Towers of Time. Basically just living towers from the previous game, but the AI use modifiers to really make the fights one sided. While most of them are easy enough
it does make the boss fights near impossible for the average gamer, and if you're not that skilled you will end up throwing the controller around in frustration.
While some people will enjoy them, at least once they adjust them, the main reason for them existing is simply to put more skins behind them.


Which brings me onto the unlockables. Horrible, horrible implementation. While I can see what they are trying to do, they have just overwhelmed the game with rubbish. Most players w
will probably end up ignoring most of them (like me). I'm only interested in skins and moves. But because the Krypt is now completely Random Drops I am mostly seeing unwanted nonsense instead of
actually game play enhancing items. I have no doubt I will tire of this game before getting all skins.

The Krypt itself is another dismal bore fest. I have never liked the Krypt, I felt it should be removed since its inception and yet this still keep sticking this awful thing in the game.
I wish I could say they "improved" it, but TBH all they have done is made it even worse. Because it is all random drop, you are now forced to go through the whole thing to unlock the stuff you need,
because there are no "x co-ords to open x" any more. Biggest failure. The obvious intention here is to annoy people into buying coins with real money to open things.

I pity those who fall for this obvious money scam.

This brings us neatly on to the constant checking online. Every match, every reward, every krypt opening, EVERYTHING ends with checking online. I do wonder what this will be like in a year from now
or later when newbies come to the game. Will they even be able to play it? The servers won't be there forever.

While it is annoying, I have only had once instance so far of being unable to connect. The game didn't seem too impacted by it though and there was a message about rewards being "fixed" later when a connection can be made.

Skins, oh god the skins. Almost all of them are locked. Some are locked to the krypt (boo-hiss) but some are unlockable from tutorials, klassic towers, story. Along with the horrible krypt nonsense, the towers of time are also a
pain for unlocking. Much like the living towers, they are only available for a specific amount of time, then they change. So trying to catch the towers if you're after specific things is going to be a pain,
and the fact that you have to BUY ACCESS to some towers only makes it worse.

Last but not least. AI Control.

Why the heck does this even exist? Who buys a fighting game to set the player fighter to AI controlled? Seriously are you that bored you want to watch the AI fight?
I wish it was legal to perform real life fatalities on people, because who ever came up with this idea needs one performed on them.

I suppose if you want to grind coins, it isn't a terrible 'feature', but to me it comes off as a mode purely intended to hide more skins behind. And yes, btw, some skins are hidden behind AI control.

I thought long and hard about this review, and whether to click recommend or not. If I factored in all the things I hate I would genuinely have gone with a negative review.
However, I buy these games purely for the fighting, for the violence and brutality and that childhood feeling of playing MK for the very first time (on SNES, don't hate me) and in that regard, the game is as good as it ever was.

I find it quite fitting that "mercy" has returned in this title, because I feel like I am giving it a mercy by ticking recommend.

A relaxing game with lots of beautiful roads to explore.

Whether you're just sitting back with the keyboard, or full on with a wheel and head-tracking or VR, ATS is one of those games you can lose hours without even realising it.