Mortal Kombat 1 from NetherRealm Studios and Warner Bros Games is a soft reboot of the franchise. Does it deliver the same Mortal Kombat goodness we’ve come to expect from the franchise or does it fail to deliver?
To answer the above question, I need to give a short history lesson and then get into the finer details of Mortal Kombat 1.
Mortal Kombat!
If you played and completed Mortal Kombat 11 and its Aftermath DLC, you will know that certain events transpired which directly lead to the Mortal Kombat 1. Spoiler alert for the next sentence. At the end of Mortal Kombat 11 and its Aftermath DLC, Liu Kang ends up becoming the God of Fire and forges a brand new history for the universe. This is where Mortal Kombat 1 kicks off.
The game thrusts you into the story immediately with Raiden and Kung Lao being introduced to you. This is done via the iconic cinematic storytelling that Mortal Kombat has become known for over the past decade. The game is split up into multiple chapters and plays out like a movie interspersed with fight scenes. The fight scenes, however, involve you taking on the role of a character and facing off against an opponent. Yes, it’s formulaic but it worked previously and it works even now.
The story of Mortal Kombat 1 soft reboots the series with Liu Kang building up a group of fighters to take on Outworld in a martial arts tournament. Fan favourites such as Johnny Cage, Sub-Zero, Scorpion and more all make appearances here but some rather prominent fighters that were in Mortal Kombat 11 have been left out. This might sour some fans.
Mortal Kombat 1’s story is very enjoyable to get through. The cinematics are ridiculously well done and the voice acting is top notch stuff from start to finish. Even though the story isn’t extremely long at roughly 7 hours, it’s 7 very enjoyable hours that are a visual feast for the eyes.
Finish him!
Moving onto the gameplay itself, Mortal Kombat 1 plays out extremely similar to its predecessor. Players will be able to pull off “Kombos” and flashy attacks just like before with the major difference being that Mortal Kombat 1 is far far less brutal than Mortal Kombat 11 was.
It feels as if NetherRealm Studios really toned down the overall violence level of the game and went for a more subdued and restrained fighting game this time around. This is going to be polarizing with the fan community but newcomers will definitely have a blast playing this game. Stringing together combos and responding to enemy attacks is extremely enjoyable. The game does feature an extensive tutorial system to teach you how to perform all of the more nuanced attacks and abilities too. This will help you get to grips with using each character effectively in combat.
As with its predecessor, this is definitely a Mortal Kombat game with each character’s iconic attacks having been retained. Sub-Zero can still throw out ice and make ice clones while Liu Kang will still be able to flying kick. The difference between Mortal Kombat 11 and Mortal Kombat 1 though lies with the game’s graphics and its presentation in fights. MK11 had a more detailed, darker look to its characters while Mortal Kombat 1 is toned down but also visually presented differently. There’s different lighting and better animations used in the game this time around which makes the characters look and feel a lot more alive.
These changes however will again be quite polarizing with some fans definitely preferring the older Mortal Kombat 11 style over the new Mortal Kombat 1 style. Personally, I find both to be fine and do enjoy the fact that the extreme over the top violence was toned down somewhat. Don’t get me wrong though, MK1 is still extremely brutal and should absolutely not be played by those under the age restriction without proper parental guidance.
Blood and guts are spilt everywhere here, especially during fatalities but it seemed less visceral and shocking than in MK11 and more, comical. Well, that or I’ve just been desensitized to it by now. Hard to tell really…
Circling back to the game’s content, Mortal Kombat 1 opts to streamline a lot of things with the game. There’s now a story mode, a tower mode and an invasion mode. Invasion works differently to the Mortal Kombat 11’s Krypt mode and is honestly rather watered down. Cosmetic items and unlocks have also been gutted with much less on offer here. The game does have a photo mode for viewing character models but again, with fewer cosmetic items on offer, this feels heavily watered down and less appealing than before. Focusing on the actual fighting was definitely the focus of the game.
Graphically, as mentioned above, Mortal Kombat 1 looks fantastic but the difference in visual style from its predecessor is extremely noticeable. Even with every single graphics setting maxed out, it’s perplexing as to why much of the finer detail from the previous game was brushed aside. The design choices made here are interesting, to say the least.
The roster of characters sitting at just above 20 feels like too little right now but more are on the way via DLC. Yes, it’s predatory in my opinion but this seems to have become the norm with fighting games these days. If you want a specific character, you’ll have to just wait it out until they are eventually added to the game via DLC. Or worse, they just never get added and you have to suffer in silence.
Obviously, not everyone can be pleased but Mortal Kombat 1 does at least bring back every major important character with a few exceptions to the rule. No playable Sonya is shocking to say the least but hopefully, she will become playable in the future and not just as a Kameo character. (Kameo characters can be summoned in fights to do supplementary attacks)
The online versus mode is fine but, in some regions, such as my own, the ping is actually unbelievably terrible (300+) which makes fighting a chore more than anything else. Also bafflingly, even now in 2023, Mortal Kombat 1 does not have crossplay between systems whereas its competitors do. On PC, the game runs with a lot of choppy-ness and the frame rate drops even on a high-end system with a variety of different graphics options presets. There’s a lot of optimization work that needs to be done here to get it to run at a consistent smooth 60FPS.
The soundtrack of Mortal Kombat 1 serves its purpose and the sound effects are on point throughout the game. The voice acting, however, is the real star of the show here with every single character in the main story being voiced to perfection. Everyone seems believable and combined with the stellar background visuals and environments, it’s great.
Surprisingly, the game has a lot of accessibility features such as a screen reader, speech-to-text, keyboard-to-speech and colour blindness options.
Final Verdict
Overall Mortal Kombat 1 is a soft reboot of the franchise that focuses more on the actual gameplay and combat than it does on the flashy and over-the-top visceral violence of its predecessor. Mortal Kombat 1 is still a violent fighting video game but it’s incredibly enjoyable to play. The story mode is extremely enjoyable and the Towers are fun to play.
It is disappointing that the playable character roster is so small right now but paid DLC characters will alleviate this over time should players be inclined to purchase them. If you’ve played Mortal Kombat 11 and enjoyed it, you’ll enjoy Mortal Kombat 1. If you’re a newcomer to the franchise, now’s the perfect time to jump in since it’s effectively been rebooted. If you’re a seasoned veteran and a fan, you might end up feeling a bit more disappointed in Mortal Kombat 1 but will still have fun playing the game.
This one is a mixed bag but I can still recommend giving the game a go because the fights are actually very fun and will be even more fun if you’re playing against friends.
Mortal Kombat 1 Video Review
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