When Mortal Kombat 1 launched final yr, I loved it greater than most resulting from its refreshing fight mechanics and glorious storytelling, however nonetheless ended up disillusioned because of its menagerie of post-launch points. Aggressive microtransactions, recreation modes that obtained in their very own means most of the time, and lacking options like Krossplay added as much as make MK1 a surprisingly combined bag as soon as it was in gamers’ fingers.
One yr later, it’s a unique and far more constructive story. Whereas the costly store choices nonetheless make me wish to cry, NetherRealm has fastened quite a lot of the problems and added in a ton of thrilling characters as DLC which have moved the brand new timeline nearer to its true potential. That made the inevitable growth, Khaos Reigns, an thrilling prospect.
My favorite a part of Mortal Kombat 1 was its story mode, and a hill that I’ll proceed to die on is that it’s certainly one of NetherRealm’s finest. I hoped that Khaos Reigns, which provides an epilogue like MK11’s Aftermath, would give me extra of that goodness, however that isn’t the case.
A Khaotic Narrative
Khaos Reigns takes place immediately after Mortal Kombat 1’s essential story and initially begins robust by specializing in the battle between Sub-Zero’s Lin-Kuei and Scorpion’s newly-formed Shirai Ryu. Newcomers Cyrax and Sektor, who’ve been massively redesigned and put on exosuits as an alternative of being precise cyborgs, assist Bi-Han assault Kuai Liang’s wedding ceremony, kicking off one other battle between the brothers.
The rivalry between Sub-Zero and Scorpion has all the time been one of many stronger factors of Mortal Kombat, so I used to be optimistic that Khaos Reigns would focus in and inform a grounded story with the reimagined variations of the primary forged. That hope light after simply half-hour when Khaos Havik rocked up and turned it into one more multiverse-obsessed, MCU-style affair.
By far the least attention-grabbing a part of Mortal Kombat 1’s marketing campaign was its ultimate hour, which halted all concentrate on Liu Kang’s fascinating new timeline to smash a bunch of variants collectively like Ed Boon taking part in along with his motion figures. It made for an thrilling finale a minimum of, nevertheless it ought to by no means have been the main target, one thing that Khaos Reigns utterly misses.
Too A lot Multiverse
Noob Saibot in Mortal Kombat 1
Most of your time within the new growth is spent in Khaos Havik’s realm with alternate variations of characters which might be unattainable to actually care about. When the story focuses on the fighters we all know and love coping with Bi-Han’s transformation into Noob Saibot, it’s entertaining, however too usually it lowers the stakes by specializing in multiverse variations that inevitably received’t matter.
Khaos Havik himself is an entertaining villain and has some memorable moments, however he was by no means price basing a complete epilogue on, and the truth that he isn’t from the brand new essential timeline makes it exhausting to remain invested in his future. Noob is the one a part of the growth that feels developed, and that’s actually solely as a result of he’s an present character who is simply considerably modified by his origin and new inexperienced glow – in the event you like previous Noob, you’ll like new Noob, as a result of they’re mainly the identical.
Regardless of the entire controversy surrounding Cyrax and Sektor being genderswapped, they aren’t sufficient of a spotlight within the growth anyway. Cyrax has hints of being an attention-grabbing character as she defects to the Shirai Ryu, and Sektor’s romance with Bi-Han is a neat twist, however neither really feel significantly fleshed out in comparison with the remainder of the forged.
Among the most attention-grabbing components of the marketing campaign come from seeing Mileena as Empress of Outworld and clearly scuffling with the strain, which is extra proof {that a} grounded story would have been higher.
After which, earlier than it, Khaos Reigns is over. At barely three hours lengthy, Mortal Kombat 1’s first huge growth — one which prices $50 — is extremely temporary and doesn’t supply a lot past discovering a option to introduce Noob Saibot. As a lot as I really like the man and am glad to see him again, it’s slim pickings for such a excessive asking value.
At Least The Fighters Are Nice
Khaos Reigns’ saving grace is its three new playable characters, who’re all implausible additions to the roster and a number of the finest within the recreation. The star of the present is but once more Noob who performs equally to earlier than, however has sufficient variations to really feel like a brand new take, like how his projectile can now be detonated. He additionally nonetheless has his basic rage-inducing teleport seize, which pleases me immensely.
However, Cyrax feels fairly totally different from older Mortal Kombat video games. She has a lot of the identical methods together with the web and buzzsaw, however now that it’s coming from an exosuit, the strikes’ properties are utterly totally different. She’s fast-paced and has a ton of methods up her sleeves, making her a marked enchancment over the previous Cyrax. I’ll get hate for that one, nevertheless it’s true.
Sektor is the one fighter that didn’t attain essential standing for me, and that was just because she has a better concentrate on heavy-hitting projectiles than the others. Whereas I used to be initially combined on these three heading up an growth, the ultimate result’s proof that NetherRealm is aware of find out how to make its characters work and alter them in attention-grabbing methods.
Khaos Reigns additionally provides Animalities as a part of a free replace for all gamers, which is a pleasant contact. They’ve all the time been my least favorite kind of “alities”, however they’ve been gone some time so it’s good to see them once more.
Mortal Kombat 1 hasn’t missed as soon as with its post-launch DLC characters (and actually, with its roster as a complete) so I’m positive that the remainder of the growth’s soon-to-be-released fighters shall be nice, however because it stands I can solely speak about these three. Whereas they’re a few of MK1’s strongest characters (by way of how they play a minimum of), they’ll’t make me overlook what’s in any other case a weak growth enormously overshadowed by NetherRealm’s final providing.
Rating: 2.5/5. A PS5 code was supplied by the writer.
