For all of the issues it did properly, Mortal Kombat 1 had a fairly rocky begin, exhausting title-numbering adjustments apart. With crossplay absent at launch, microtransactions bogging down each second of gameplay, and a scarcity of ultimate polish, it wasn’t in the very best spot on day one. Some items of the package deal shined out of the gate, although, and for me the factor that helped the sport sing regardless of these launch woes was the story mode. In utterly resetting it’s universe and dropping us into a brand new, remixed world crafted by the actions of Elder God Liu Kang, the messy fiction of the Mortal Kombat franchise was given a fresh-start that led to lots of genuinely fascinating and gripping story moments. I used to be hopeful that the big new story mode featured within the Khaos Reigns growth would construct off of all that promise and potential, however as a substitute I used to be left feeling upset.
The trendy sequence had constructed up a really Marvel Cinematic Universe fashion method to it’s story stuffed with multi-dimensional character variants and crossover shenanigans that, in the end, served to succeed in the purpose of giving us the utterly reset universe we see in Mortal Kombat 1. The Khaos Reigns story picks up instantly after the occasions of this sport’s ending, which had teased with rote multiverse fanservice that’s briefly thrilling, however in the end served to distract from the brand new universe and important timeline characters that the sport had spent so lengthy getting us connected to. That khaos is fortunately reigned again within the opening moments of this DLC story, as we as a substitute deal with attention-grabbing lore constructed up in the primary sport like Bi-Han’s transformation into Noob Saibot and the feud between the Shirai Ryu and the Lin-Kuei.
It’s an extremely sturdy begin… however then the plot takes a whole sharp flip early on when Khaos Havik seems, signalling yet one more MCU-ification of the Mortal Kombat story mode. As an alternative of a major deal with the established characters and our new narrative threads, issues instantly flip into an Avengers Endgame fanservice-fest as we’re whisked away to Khaos Havik’s realm alongside a number of latest fanservice-y character variants.
My problem isn’t that these moments are boring – they’re actually enjoyable, and as somebody who’s grown up with Mortal Kombat I do love seeing callbacks and timeline shenanigans like these play out – however I might love for Mortal Kombat to develop up a bit. It felt like we had been lastly making progress in telling a brand new and significant story with the bottom marketing campaign, however by the point the credit rolled on the hardly three-hour lengthy Khaos Reigns story mode, all I felt like we did was go on a enjoyable but fruitless filler episode journey.
The opposite hefty a part of the Khaos Reigns growth is the promise of six new playable characters, however solely three of them can be found on the time of writing – Noob Saibot, Cyrax, and Sektor. I’ve by no means been a large fan of the pink and yellow androids, so Cyrax and Sektor being a part of this growth didn’t excite me an excessive amount of. That being mentioned, the best way they’ve been reimagined each when it comes to story and gameplay for Khaos Reigns is basically attention-grabbing.
The robotic ninja duo at the moment are girl warriors who put on augmented armour to do battle, as a substitute of being full cyborgs. Their play-styles are additionally way more distinct than prior to now, with Cyrax having a extra fast-paced rush-down reimagining of her authentic moveset whereas Sektor has change into a really ranged, projectile heavy kombatant.
Noob Saibot is the character I’m most nostalgic for of the three, however his visible design in Khaos Reigns has received to be probably the most bland and unimaginative interpretation of the smoke-slinging ninja that I’ve ever seen. Fortunately, his wild moveset is simply as enjoyable as was in previous video games, and I’m certain some costume cosmetics down the road will give me a style-swap for him that will get me far more excited to play as him.
As for the upcoming characters within the move – Ghostface, Conan, and the T-1000 – I can’t say I’m all too enthusiastic about them. NetherRealm Studios has relied closely on visitor characters for nearly all of their trendy preventing sport releases, however as these video games develop and the record of untapped crossover characters thins, it’s means much less thrilling to see movie and comedian characters dropped into the world of Mortal Kombat when there are such a lot of authentic characters I’d fairly see within the roster as a substitute.
The primary character move for this sport felt nearly too on-the-pulse with it’s popular culture crossover picks – does anybody even discuss Peacemaker anymore? By comparability, the crossover choice for Khaos Reigns is virtually as distant from the heartbeat of popular culture as attainable, with picks like Conan and the T-1000 feeling like determined pleas to the gamers who’re sufficiently old to have been round for the reason that onset of this franchise and even know who both of these characters are. Ghostface is a stable exception to this rule. The Scream franchise has had a fairly main resurgence in the previous couple of years and strikes a chord with a fairly broad number of folks, and I really feel just like the character’s design suits the world of Mortal Kombat fairly properly.
All in all, Khaos Reigns is an overpriced and underwhelming growth for a preventing sport that basically wanted an enormous win. Mortal Kombat 1 has been in a rocky place since launch, and I don’t see this growth or the content material it provides turning issues round for this sport for very many individuals.