There is one Internet meme that many know, but many have remembered from the memory the fighting game that it originated from. The so-called Combo breaker exclamation, or more precisely the C-c-c-combo breaker, was and remains the trademark of Killer Instinct, one of Mortal Kombat's most enduring rivals at the end of the last century. Many years later, KI returned to the stage in grand style.
The game entered its third season this year and with the same came the PC release we tested. To be honest, this is the best time to start playing, because so many problems have been ironed out and the whole experience is much better.
One of the most impressive things about the game is the choice of characters, that is, their variety. Each fighter is mechanically unique, from the list of moves to some specifics that affect the way he plays. So some characters may have another scale for extra attacks or, like Tusk, may not have the ability to cancel stronger attacks.
KI has a lot of systems, from the aforementioned Combo breaker for which you have to "read" your opponent, otherwise you will be open to continue beating if you miss, down to the complete logic behind the ability to link moves into combos. This is explained in the smallest detail in one of the best tutorials we have ever seen in martial arts. Without exaggeration, if you complete the entire training part in CI you will learn everything in the game and understand a lot of principles that are based on modern fighting games. If you open the list of commands of the selected character, you will even see lists of moves that open or end the combo.
You can actually play Killer Instinct for free on both PC and Xbox One. On this occasion, you download the complete game and almost all modes are available to you, including the mentioned tutorial, as well as online modes. The only limitation is the availability of characters - you only have one fighter to play with, and on a weekly basis, the available characters are replaced. If you want to unlock a fighter permanently, you need $ 5. Considering that the game currently has 22 fighters (there will be 25 in total), the price of a complete package of 50 euros is quite reasonable, and you will also receive a large number of cosmetic accessories. The inconvenience comes from the fact that the game is packed with cosmetic microtransactions even after you have purchased the characters, while unlocking them is going awfully slow.
Screenshots honestly don't show Killer Instinct in full glory, because it's a game that should definitely be seen on the go when smooth animations and great gesture effects come to the fore. Each fight is a fireworks display of special moves and sparks (yes, literally sparks fly by certain spells), and yet transparent enough to see what moves to counter-attack or see a hit and take a combo breaker. The background music adds to the atmosphere and mixes of electronics and heavy guitar riffs worked by musicians like Mick Gordon and Celldweller. Music comes into play much more than just giving a backstory during fights (though it performs fantastically), so certain combos and especially finisher moves will change the theme to the rhythm they take on the screen.
Much more important than graphics is netcode, ie there are delays in multiplayer. The good news is that the online component works so well that it might happen to us once or twice that we notice lag after dozens of hours of testing. Initial matchmaking might have been better, but once you qualify for a league you will have opponents of a more or less identical skill and therefore exciting matches.