My exposure to Spawn comes from two main sources: The 1997 movie with Michael Jai White, and Soulcalibur 2. But even with just that small amount of knowledge of the character, I know one main thing about him: Spawn is freakin cool. Fortunately, Mortal Kombat 11 has done him justice. This is by far the most lovingly crafted version of Spawn you’ll find outside of the comic books, and gameplay-wise, he’s not so shabby either.
Despite looking like a huge, hulking bruiser, Spawn is actually pretty fast. He can cover a lot of distance really quickly thanks to his dash speed, allowing him to go from playing the long-range projectile game to getting into the mid-range – where he does his best work – in the blink of an eye. As you’d expect from Spawn, a large part of his offense revolves around his chains and his cape, both of which have absurd range, can lead to big damage, and look cool as all hell.
[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”albumSlug=every-ign-mortal-kombat-game-review&captions=true”]
The best thing about Spawn, though, apart from how cool he looks (have I mentioned that he looks awesome?) is how versatile his moveset is because of so many unique abilities. He’s got a meterless restanding combo-ender that can also knock down and deal huge damage if meter is spent on it, insane range on all of his normals, a jab combo that can krushing blow on counter hit, a meterless launcher with tons of range, and a charging move that can absorb a projectile. And that’s just the stuff that’s on his base kit!
[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=Spawn%20can%20also%20do%20things%20that%20literally%20no%20one%20else%20on%20the%20roster%20can%20do”]
Spawn can also do things that literally no one else on the roster can do. His War Club special move has the unique capability of breaking an opponent’s breakaway. So, if they try to drop out of a combo and you use the War Club on them, not only will they not drop out, but they’ll actually be popped up for a combo extender and will be left completely without their defensive meter. It’s a very situational ability, but when you hit with it, it feels incredibly satisfying.
Beyond the War Club, Spawn is also the only character on the roster that can turn invisible (without using a glitch). That’s a familiar gimmick for those who play a lot of Netherrealm fighting games, but with Spawn it’s particularly dangerous because he’s able to threaten with two different krushing blows while he’s invisible. One is activated when he connects his unblockable command grab and enhances it while cloaked, and the other is triggered when he hits with just the third hit of a combo that has him traveling nearly the entire distance of the level. That’s easy to see coming if you can literally see it coming, but much harder if you can’t. It’s legitimately stressful to be on the other end of an invisible Spawn, not knowing whether he’ll try to do the command grab or the krushing blow knee – or something else entirely.
[poilib element=”poll” parameters=”id=89370513-8fa6-4c65-a747-5a7ba10f0f67″]
But while Spawn’s arsenal is extensive, a lot of it is also very situational. If you don’t correctly guess on an opponent’s breakaway, the War Club is a pretty underwhelming combo-ender, and it also takes the spot of Spawn’s main combo-extending special move, which hurts his damage. The invisibility is a great tool, but it only works in the third competitive variation, and requires two bars of meter in order to threaten with the invisibility krushing blow.
His biggest weapon is his long-range mid-to-overhead combo starter, which serves as the aforementioned meterless launcher – but it’s also a bit of a trap. It’s unsafe on block, and once you commit to the overhead you can’t cancel out and make it safe with some sort of special move. This makes Spawn a deceptively tough character to use, since you have to take care not to just throw out punishable overheads.
On his third competitive variation this leads to some interesting mix-up opportunities, since he has his command throw that can be used after the initial hit. That will also allow him to cloak and play the aforementioned krushing blow pressure game. On his second competitive variation, Spawn loses pretty much any sort of mix-up potential and focuses instead on sheer damage. And man, does Spawn do some damage.
[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/11/mortal-kombat-11-spawn-dlc-all-gear-intros-and-outros”]
I wasn’t sold on Spawn at first, mainly because I fell into that trap I was just describing of becoming overly reliant on his overhead combo. But once I learned his effective distance, how to appropriately lock down opponents in the corner with his chains, and to stop using his unsafe moves so much, Spawn ended up becoming a ton of fun. He still has some issues with characters that are able to rush him down and prevent him from creating space, but overall he seems pretty strong.
Outside of his gameplay, Netherrealm’s designers once again prove that they are the masters of the guest character. Spawn’s implementation in Mortal Kombat 11 feels like a systematic checking of boxes for what a perfect video game iteration of Spawn would be:
- The smooth-as-silk voice of Keith David: Check
- Awesome-looking cape effects: Check
- Lots of chain-related violence: Check
- Tons of guns: Check
- Chock-full of references to the comic book: Check
It’s all here, and it’s all wonderful. Few characters naturally fit in with the Mortal Kombat universe like Spawn does.
Source: IGN.com Mortal Kombat 11 – Spawn DLC Review