Since reviews are already dropping and the game officially releases tomorrow, I thought I share my thoughts on the game, which I have been playing since last Wednesday:
First of all, the extreme goriness is thankfully way less of a problem than I initially thought. It's so over the top and silly, not realistic at all, and you get used to it after a while. The fatal blows I actually even like, they are beautifully choreographed. The infamous fatalities also don't play that big of a role. In the story mode they are missing completely and you can avoid them entirely playing in other modes.
The presentation of this game is something else. It is so beautiful and polished to near perfection. You can clearly sense the effort and love the artists put into the character models, their animations, the stage backgrounds, their animations and lighting. MK11 is one of the most beautiful games of this generation, and that at 60fps and on the old Unreal Engine 3. Artistic as well as technical mastery come beautifully together here. Even if so late into this generation I'm very happy to be finally able to say this of a fighting game.
The game is very rich in content, especially if you are a single player like I am.
The story mode is imo really good, definitely for a fighting game story mode. It's very lengthy, it has a lot of action, drama, some comedic bits. It's a bit like a playable Marvel movie. It's often silly and a lot of stuff doesn't make any sense, but I didn't really mind, because it was entertaining. I found the ending a bit abrupt and unepic though. I prefered what NR did in Injustice 2.
The Krypt is a litte action adventure game in its own. You explore a mysterious island in 3rd person full of treasure chests, but also riddles and traps. It's quite fun and can entertain you for several hours. I still didn't finish it yet. You will also regularly come back here for valuable items that come in handy in other modes.
I love that you can, very similar to Injustice 2, create custom AI fighters that do most of the work for you in some of the single player modes. It is perfect in case it gets a little too tough for a noob like me or if I just want to watch a couple of AI fights and additionally get some easy rewards.
The only negative point, and it is unfortunately a big negative point: The game is very grindy, grindier even than Injustice 2. It'll take you a long time to get the skins and gear parts you want, and not only will the process take a long time, it will also be quite frustrating a lot of times.
If you want a specific skin or gear part you will either need a lot of luck or spend a lot of koins in the Krypt, because treasure chests are now randomized in there.
If you want a skin or gear part that is only obtainable in the Towers of Time, you will have to fight your way through lots of super unfair fights. Like being constantly set on fire, constantly being frozen or contantly poisoned. It isn't skill or endurance that will lead you to victory but owning and using a very specific item that will mitigate the unfairness. You of course often lack that specific item, which you will have to grind more for.
In injustice 2 at least the AI fighters were able to help you out in situations like this. Here even the AI gets mercilessly wrecked without that specific item.
I have a strong feeling this grindiness and unfairness is there to incentivize people to just spend real money on the costumes and gear parts they want. So far that option is locked though. Maybe it's available once the game officially releases tomorrow.
All in all I still enjoyed the game a lot, and I feel like it is definitely worth the full price. I can't remember when I felt similarly in regards to other fighting games... Probably only Injustice 2 and DOA5LR.