Mortal Kombat X – D’Vorah Demo Impressions

Mortal Kombat X is roughly a year away, but we got our hands on the game and have insight into how the characters play at this early stage. One of the many new characters introduced in MKX is D’Vorah, who appears to have complete control over the insect kingdom. Many of her attacks involve insects of some sort, and she has the ability to fly and use four stinger-like arms that appear from her back.

Every character in MKX has three unique fighting styles. Before you begin a battle, you must select one of the fighting styles. D’Vorah’s fighting styles are Brood Mother, Swarm Queen and Venomous. We’ve seen more of the Brood Mother fighting style than the other two, but we know enough to provide insight into how each fighting style plays at this current stage in development. As always, things could easily change by the time the game releases in 2015.

The Brood Mother fighting style gives D’Vorah the ability to use frequent and potentially deadly frame traps. She carries a bug with her (known as a Krawler), which can be placed on the ground directly below her or thrown in front of her. Once it lands on the ground, it crawls forward at a slow pace. While the Krawler is out, D’Vorah can move about freely, which allows her to create various frame traps. For example, if the Krawler is close to the opponent, D’Vorah can use an unsafe attack using the threat of the bug to avoid punishment. If the opponent tries to punish D’Vorah, the Krawler hits them to keep her safe.

We don’t know a lot about Swarm Queen or Venomous, but Venomous gives many of her attacks the effect of poison. It’s unclear how powerful the poison is at the moment, but her main focus in the Venomous fighting style is to drain her opponent’s health with the use of poison. Her initial attack damage is generally lower compared to the damage of her other fighting styles, but the additional poison effect more than makes up for that.

Swarm Queen sees a swarm of bugs flying around D’Vorah. The bugs can be used offensively to attack an opponent, but we don’t yet know if there’s a defensive use as well. The assumption is that the bugs can act as a shield, but we don’t have confirmation of that at the moment. However, D’Vorah also gains access to a projectile attack that allows her to follow with a combo if the enhanced (EX) version is used. This fighting style seems to favor ranged combat more than her other two fighting styles.

We’ll have plenty more on Mortal Kombat  X in the months ahead.