You Can Now Buy "Easy Fatalities"

Mortal Combat X came out this week, and golly, so far the reviews have been glowing… kinda. While the critical response thus far has been nothing short of glowing on the professional side of things, users are… less impressed. The Metacritic Score (not a great gauge of quality, but not a bad one either) is currently at a whooping 4.4, and over Steam, the game has a “mixed” opinion, with only 67% of the users giving it a positive score.

The reason for that seems to range from software issues (bugginess, crashes, ect) to pricey DLC released on day one, which is all fair, but I think when examining why this game might not be as well-received as past entries in the franchise, I think we need look no further than one of the new items released in the in-game store, purchasable with both in-game currency and real-world cash: “easy fatalities”.

That’s right, for as little as 99 cents, you can execute a flawless fatality by holding down the shoulder buttons and tapping a face button. No more semi-circle forward back up-punch down kick—it’s as easy as spending money to let the game do it for you. 99 cents earns you five ‘Easy Fatality’ tokens, while $4.99 nets you thirty.

Also, you get three free samples when you first buy the game, so you can try before you buy.

Now, look, here’s the thing: I can ‘get’ why this exists. Fatalities used to be cool as big Easter eggs, the kind of thing you used in the old arcade days to both impress and show off your mastery of the game. But now, in the age of the Internet, where every fatality in the game is up on YouTube to watch, they’re not nearly as special anymore… so why NOT make it easy for people to perform them?

At the same time… well, it’s just a really stupid thing to use microtransactions for. It’s spitting in the face of what a fatality is supposed to be, because even if you knew what they all are, seeing one actually performed on you online was just sort of… well, it was awe-inspiring. But this option breaks that trust. Now, a fatality only means someone had the money to buy it, not the skills to perform it.

And we’re less off as a species because of it.