Mortal Kombat X Trailer Reveals Liu Kang

NetherRealm Studios and Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment released a new trailer for Mortal Kombat X, focusing a bit more on the story and adding some explanation about how some of the fallen warriors from Mortal Kombat 9 will return for Mortal Kombat X.

Maxim Russia managed to get their hands on the latest trailer, and you you can check it out below.

The game's new trailer reveals that some dark magic has been used to revive many of the heroes from the previous Mortal Kombat outings. The resurrected characters that have been revealed are all starting to make sense.

One of the bigger surprises is finding out that Liu Kang, the once heroic protagonist for the Mortal Kombat series, appears to have joined the dark side. It was rumored before that Liu Kang might be the final boss for Mortal Kombat X, having returned as an undead villain. This makes some sense when you remember his zombiefied appearance in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, after having his neck snapped by Shinnok and Quan Chi in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance.

The two Outworld magicians are back at it again in Mortal Kombat X, up to their old antics and trolling Raiden. The story gets a little more complex than that, given that Mileena also appears to be attempting to control Outworld by ousting the supposed heir to the throne, Kotal Kahn.

However, the narrative does have some actual depth to it, and I think NetherRealm is definitely getting better at telling a cohesive story after the 2011 release of Mortal Kombat. The Konquest modes in the titles before Mortal Kombat: Armageddon were good at explaining some of the mythology leading up to the main storyline. And those titles were obviously used as a base for NetherRealm's shaping of the story in the 2011 release, but they were still kind of rough around the edges.

Now, it looks as if NetherRealm is honing its craft and exercising a more streamlined approach to storytelling in a fighting game, which is kind of rare. In many other fighting games, the story is usually unraveled by playing through the arcade mode for each character and piecing together bits of the arc by unlocking the endings for each character. Even then you'll probably need to go online and look up some of the canon as well, to get a clear understanding of what went down. NetherRealm is taking a fairly unique route this time, telling the story through the perspective of multiple characters and revealing what happens to each. I like it.

Liu Kang joins a rather robust cast of characters in Mortal Kombat X. You can look for the game's initial release on the Xbox One, PS4 and PC starting April 14th.