The Killer Instinct reboot has become one of the more popular fighting games by regularly adding content since it came out in 2013. The game employ's a free-to-play model with updates coming in the form of seasons that are available for purchase.
Killer Instinct Season 3 brings with it cross-platform play between Xbox One and Windows 10 and a Shadow Lords game mode which will be released sometime this month. The Shadow Lords game mode is said to be a little bit like a ladder with a bit of roguelike and story thrown into the picture. The ultimate goal of this game mode is to beat Gargos, the main antagonist that makes a return from Killer Instinct 2 before he takes over the world.
Like previous seasons, there will be eight new playable characters of which four are available at launch. Kim Wu and Tusk make a return from the previous games while Halo's Arbiter and Battletoads' Tusk have also made it to the roster. Mira will also be playable sometime this month while Gargos will be released in May. Two more characters will be added to the roster, one in may and the other in June. Although not officially confirmed yet, one of those characters might be General RAAM from the Gears of War franchise.
The four new characters fit into the cast pretty well and their playstyle feels very different compared to the characters in the roster. This is something I feel like Killer Instinct does particularly well as none of the twenty-two released characters play anything like each other. While the same basics apply, you will find that mastering each character is a unique experience.
Graphics have received an overall upgrade in Season 3. While all previous stages have been revamped, new ones look beautiful. I especially like the Halo-inspired Arena of Judgement that took me back to my Halo playthroughs with a Halo battle going on in the background.
Something I absolutely love about Killer Instinct is its tutorials, the in-game Dojo has 32 lessons that can make anybody better at Killer Instinct or fighting games in general. Important things like frame data are also explained in a way that allows the uninitiated to really up their game. If this is your first fighting game, you should definitely take these tutorials as they will make you better at any fighting game you decide to play after this.
Killer Instinct has great online multiplayer and doesn't suffer from any major connection issues. I was able to quickly find a match both on Xbox one and Windows 10. I think both of these factors contributed to the six million unique users that played the game last month.
In terms of issues, I found that Killer Instinct would not allow ranked play on PC's that were not able to maintain 60fps. They check for this via an in-game benchmark tool of sorts that determines if your PC is good enough. If you happen to have a 144hz monitor, there's bad news for you. The game is also not playable on monitors with a refresh rate of anything higher than 60Hz. The devs are however aware of this issue and are working on a fix for it.
Graphics have received an overall upgrade in Season 3. While all previous stages have been revamped, new ones look beautiful. I especially like the Halo-inspired Arena of Judgement that took me back to my Halo playthroughs with a Halo battle going on in the background.
Since the game is essentially free even if you don't buy any content and play with the one free character that is rotated monthly, you can get a lot out of this game before deciding to invest any money at all. I think this is a great approach and makes you feel like you only need to spend on what you want. Overall, if you like fighting games or you want to give the genre a try, Killer Instinct is a great way to do it.
