Mortal Kombat 11's most interesting new character can add or remove time from the round clock
Oh, and he can also punch your brain out your head.
This week, developer NetherRealm revealed Mortal Kombat 11 with a decent chunk of gameplay and a raft of new details.
A bunch of characters were revealed (Scorpion, Raiden, Sub-Zero, Skarlet and Sonya Blade etc), but for me the most interesting new character in the game is Geras.
Geras, who's a servant of new evil boss Kronika, has the power to manipulate time. Part Sandman, part Prince of Persia, Geras creates devastating objects out of sand and uses them to smash up his opponents. His gameplay reveal, below, reminds me of Tremor from previous Mortal Kombat games.
But what makes Geras potentially unique is a raft of abilities that let him mess with time during a match. Chief among them is his Lost Time & Spare Time ability, which lets him add or remove time from the round clock. The Twitter video below, from @ultradavid, shows Geras remove 30 seconds from the clock.
It's easy to imagine situations where this might be useful. Say you get off to a flyer and whittle down much of your opponent's health. They've got time for a comeback, right? Remove time from the round clock and all of a sudden you can turtle up and watch them die to the timer. It sounds annoying to be on the receiving end of such a troll move, but hey-ho! Conversely, if you need more time for a comeback, Geras can provide it.
Elsewhere, Geras has an ability called Reawakened that lets him rewind time to resurrect himself if he dies in a round. Again, a frustrating thing to have to face, but super useful to have at your disposal. And he can also cancel out of attacks and rewind time for himself, which is useful when you need to break out of a juggle.
At first glance Geras looks like little more than a powerful, high-damage grappler, but I think his time manipulation gives him depth. The video below, shows pre-release play from Mortal Kombat experts, and it provides a good look at Geras' moveset. Keep an eye out for the moment he freezes time for his opponent, which lets him land multiple hits before time snaps back into action.
If you're not into the nitty gritty fighting game stuff, there's another reason to pick Geras: he can literally punch your brain out your head. Yum!