Update: If you want to see my review of Season 1 or 2 click on next page or select which season review you want at the bottom of the review!
It’s hard to think Killer Instinct was a launch title for the Xbox One. Since launch the game has gone from eight characters to twenty-six and counting and from a game with a barebones amount of modes and fairly cheap menus to a content filled package with a more presentable layout. Killer Instinct has been updated and received new content since its release. Season two improved upon every aspect of the base game and gave the game some of the most unique and interesting characters in recent fighting game. And now Season three is out which expands and adds even more. But does it make this season better or does it bog the entire package down?
Gargos arrives.
Season 3 takes a different approach to its story mode. Rivals mode is cast aside for a new mode called Shadow Lords. Players get to pick a team of three fighters and try to defeat Gargos. Once you selected your team you get dropped on a world map and get presented with portals. The map is split up in continents and defeating an enemy on that continent will suppress corruption. Once three continents reach maximum corruption Gargos will arrive and players will have to face off. Gargos will arrive either way but keeping corruption down will give you time to prepare for the arrival. All of Gargos’ minions are called mimics and are just the main cast with green colors. It allows players to fight the entire cast instead of just a few set of enemies. Selecting a portal will tell the player who and why they’re fighting and show what buffs the opponents have. After defeating the opponent players get to open up chests and claim their rewards. These rewards are consumables that can refill your Shadow Meter, give you unlockable moves for a small amount of time or even revive fallen teammates. Another award players will always get are astral gems which are this mode’s currency. Players can buy packs of items or Guardians and in typical Microsoft fashion real currency can be used to buy random packs. Guardians are assistants that appear alongside you on the field and give your character interesting new properties. Things like parries, push-block or being able to break combos regardless of whether it’s light, mediums or heavies at the cost of a cooldown. Your characters can do only one fight per turn and every portal not closed will add to the corruption. Once a fight is selected players will be given a small textbox that presents them with a scenario. Players then have to select one of the multiple choices that can result in better items, buffing the opponent or even adding another opponent. If a character dies it is lost until the player starts a new run. After corruption in a continent reaches a certain point a powerful Omen character will appear. These Omens have a buff that makes Gargos harder to beat. Once it appears it needs to be defeated in order to deny Gargos that buff. But since these Omens are strong there might be a chance that you lose a character while fighting them. It’s an interesting mode for sure. Some players can get a real kick out of powering up their character and trying to defeat Gargos but for most the loss of a traditional arcade mode with traditional endings will be disappointing. There are some story cutscenes in Shadow Lords that are presented in the same way they were in the Rivals mode but most of the time there is no real closure in these stories and a lot of characters don’t even get any cut-scenes at all. Shadow Lords deserves some credit for trying something different and in depth but at the end of the day it’s not that fun. Players can fight each other with their item equipped characters and guardians and while it’s meant to be an unbalanced just for fun mode it feels way to broken to be fun.
Story mode dialogue is delivered in boring text boxes.
Sh-sh-shadow Counter!!!
Killer Instinct at first glance plays the same as it’s alway has been. And in a sense that’s true. Its main core is still the same Killer Instinct aa when it was released but the new mechanics added from season 2 give the players some more options and improves the flow of the game. Season 3 changes things up even more and add new mechanics that changes the game’s flow considerably. two new mechanics are the Stagger state and Flipout. Some move now stagger which is essentially a longer hit-stun state which gives you more options for starting a combo. Flipouts can be done with certain moves on airborne opponents which will make them land on their feet instead of being knocked down to the ground. Combo-Breakers now also only give back 50 percent of the damage instead of 100 percent. The changes for the most part make the matches flow faster. Matches can go by in what feels like twenty seconds while still feeling gratifying and fair. Along with the new changes to the mechanics, new characters are also added to the roster. For the first time in the history of the franchise guest-characters make their debut. Rash from Battletoads, Arbiter from Halo and Raam from Gears Of War join the roster along with the last missing characters from the previous games and newcomer Mira. Most of the characters fit in nicely and show that Iron Galaxy creativity we got to see from them in season 2. Gargos can summon two minions on the field which he can command and has a quadruple jump which can make matches incredibly hectic and Arbiter can shoot his rifle and throw grenades by pressing the triggers just like how it works in Halo. Every character has something fun going on except for Raam. Raam is one of the dullest, most boring characters in a fighting game this year. He’s uninspired and lacks any interesting mechanics and aside those he’s dull presentation wise too. It just screams like the character was forced in and considering Raam didn’t really have any character in Gear Of War itself it’s not hard to see how he turned out the way he did. Killer Instinct season 3 changes things up and adds a lot of stuff to improve the flow and pacing of the game but if those changes are in line to your liking is completely depended on you.
Combat is tweaked but it still certainly feels like Killer Instinct.
Visual upgrade, technical downgrade.
Killer Instinct does not look like it did when it came out. Season 3 received a graphical overhaul. While it might not be noticeable to players who return after a long absence when you look at the changes made next to each other you can clearly see the shaders and colors are stronger and make the game look way better. This is a completely unnecessary upgrade that’s applauded and greatly appreciated. Along with the graphical overhaul, shadow moves and level four enders get new visual effects all of which look better than they used to. The UI in fights is also altered to make things clearer. When failing a combo breaker a new visual will appear clearly indicating what went wrong. The menu’s itself are pretty much the same but with green fog added to it. The biggest change to the game in the presentation is the music. Mick Gordon who produced the previous seasons’ tracks did not return. I his place are Atlas Plug and Celldweller that do an excellent job taking over. The soundtrack doesn’t reach the heights of Gordon’s work but it comes close and considering the stellar job Gordon did Atlas Plug and Celldweller deserve the highest of praise for their work. While the presentation is a certainly an upgrade the technical aspects of the game are a considerable step down. At multiple times the game soft-crashed in the middle of matches. This usually happened during Shadow Lords and quitting a match will count as a death for all the characters involved in that match. There are also several times that the game freezes for five to ten seconds mid-match and certain images often failed to load in when navigating the menus. Season 3 manages to be an upgrade in every aspect of its presentation but in the technical department, it dropped the ball hard.
The visual upgrade makes the game look even better than it did before.
Closing note:
Killer Instinct season 3 certainly isn’t as strong as season 2. The story mode is too complex for anyone but a few to care. The new characters aren’t as innovative as the season two characters with Raam being devoid of anything interesting in any aspect. The addition of only four stage is also kind of disappointing considering every previous character got their own stage. The few new additions to the gameplay are mostly for the better but some of those changes might not suit everyone. The music is amazing and keeps in line with the quality of the previous seasons and the graphical and UI upgrades are a welcome change. On a technical level the game seems to have a lot of issues with a few crashes, freezes and visual hiccups in the menus which drags down the game a bit in terms of quality. Season 3 is not a bad expansion per se. It just lacks the impact or quality the previous season had.
7.5/10
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