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Mortal Kombat X
Gamescom is our first opportunity to play around with returning favorites Kano and Raiden, but with the character variations system in Mortal Kombat X it's almost like trying more.
As you may recall from Mortal Kombat's debut at E3, each character has three variations you can choose from before the fight. Certain core moves remain the same no matter what you select, but many of them change drastically.
Raiden's Displacer variation is built around teleportation. He can teleport in the middle of a combo, in the air, and even disappear completely for a brief moment. Master of Storms is all about creating electric traps on the map to keep your opponent constantly wondering where the next one will appear. Thunder God expands the length and variety of combos. Raiden's X-ray launches opponents into the sky above the cloud level. He flies up to their body, grabs their spine, and lights them up with arcs of blue electricity before throwing them back down. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see his fatality.
Kano's Cutthroat variation provides him with two blades focuses on combos involving them. Cybernetic allows him to shoot lasers out of his robotic eye that can be used as long range projectiles, combo components, and mid-air zaps. Commando is more of a grappler style allowing skilled (and partially psychic) players to perform both high and low parries against many opponent attacks. His X-ray involves slicing their chest open while standing behind them and then cracking their neck downward when they turn around. Kano's fatality involves cutting the opponent open and letting their guts spill out. Then you see the person's face up close as it starts to glow and then a laser blasts clean through and Kano smiles through the hole.
We also caught a new jungle map that's loaded with insect swarms and slithery creatures in the background. As with all stages in the game, it's highly interactive. Characters can swing on vines, and spring off of stone idols to get away from danger or use them to smash opponents into.
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Mortal Kombat X
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