A new video has been released for Mortal Kombat X, which details factions, the newest feature that’s been added to the series. You can watch the “trailer” above.
“Mortal Kombat X has a lot of different competitive modes, a ton of content for the player to be able to play,” says Shaun Himmerick, an executive producer on the game. There are Story, 1 vs. 1 Ranked, King of the Hill, Survivor, and Test Your Luck Modes. In addition to that, there are “living towers” for the players to fight their way up, which are dynamic—the roster on some of them will change hourly, apparently.
But the most important feature of the new Mortal Kombat is its factions. “We’re going to have a much more aggressive and elaborate online experience,” the creative director for the game, Ed Boon, says.
To that end, when players start Mortal Kombat X, the first thing they’ll do is select a faction with which to align themselves. There are five different factions from which to choose: Black Dragon, the Brotherhood of Shadow, the Lin Kuei, Special Forces, and White Lotus. The factions are involved in a persistent meta-game within Mortal Kombat X.
Every week, a new war will be started, and as players fight they’ll earn points for their faction. At the end of the week, a winner is determined based on how many points have been accumulated. Players will be able to rank up within their faction and earn custom rewards specific to the faction that they joined. One of the rewards featured in the video is a “Faction Kill”, a specific finishing move that players will presumably earn through ascending the ranks of a faction. Although all fights count toward a player’s faction total, even fights won in Story Mode, defeating players from other factions earns the most points, which encourages competitive play.
The idea behind the faction meta-game is that every player, regardless of skill or playstyle, can contribute to a larger endeavor.
The promotional video ends with a reminder that pre-ordering the Special Edition of Mortal Kombat X through Game will garner players a pre-order bonus in the form of a playable Goro.
The Kollector’s Edition of the game, on the other hand, contains a figurine of Scorpion designed by Coarse, and includes a digitized, playable version of the sculpture.
Mortal Kombat X will be available for Windows PCs, Playstation 4, Xbox One, Playstation 3, and Xbox 360 on April 14.
(As an aside, it is killing me that the developers are pronouncing it “Mortal Combat Ex”.)
