Shinnok

So you know from my earlier post that I already broke the sanctity of my Steam account in order to play some MKX with a guy I know at work. That got me thinking. Because I haven’t played Jacqui in a while, but in a way I don’t want to. Kotal Kahn is clearly my main, so when I get tired of playing him, who should I play next?

Normally I’d turn to Reptile, but something about him in this game just doesn’t interest me anymore. D’vorah? Even though I like the character, I just don’t feel like she’s powerful enough to be a true contender. Who then?

The only other character I really want to play is Shinnok. Problem is, Shinnok is grayed out on my PS4 version of the game. I’m not sure exactly how it works, but I guess I got him unlocked with the combat pack on my PC. But to get him the old fashioned way, you have to beat the single player?

I’m not entirely sure if that’s true, but I am sure that I heard it somewhere. Which really sucks, because I hate to play the single player. I hate the fact that this game will make me play through with characters I don’t even like or want to play, just to get to the ones that I do.

So what did I do? I fired up Steam and the PC version of course. The first time I played, I was reminded of the fact that the graphics on the PC version were kinda sub par. But then, the second time I ran the game, I remember to go through the Nvidia software and optimize the game settings. I have to admit, at this point, it’s very hard to tell the two apart.

And I played Shinnok. I like to pick a character for the day, and stick with him. It helps me to really nail down the timings and their combos. I used Shinnok’s Necromancer, the version where he has a giant skeletal hand to perform several attacks.

Here, when you’re playing online multiplayer, is where the differences between the PC and the PS4 really take hold. Because one thing I know about the PS4 version is that when you are matched, nearly all of the time, the match goes automatically into the game. It’s very rare to be matched against an opponent with a bad ping, or such a difference in rank that it gives you the option to decline.

But not so on the PC. As a matter of fact, almost every game I played on the PC gave me the option to decline. Meaning everyone either had a terrible ping, was way too easy for me, or was way out of my league.

I also feel to a degree that the newbs are all on the PC, and that I tend to get matched up against easy players there. By contrast, I feel like all of the good players on the PS4, and I tend to get my ass kicked for several games in a row there.

That being said, I’ve played more on the PS4 so my ranking there is more accurate, and higher than it is on the PC.

And here is another problem, due to the game design. I haven’t unlocked anything in the Krypt. Or, actually I have, but good luck keeping track of what items you unlocked where. I think it’s so freaking unfair that I might have to unlock *another* Krypt, just to be able to do the brutalities.

So there you have it. I’m very surprised at the lack of combos Shinnok has. He has no combos that hit low! How is that? He doesn’t really get any kind of mix up whatsoever. Your entire game has got to revolve around his fireball/pushback special.