0
0
Many of you many not remember, but the original Mortal Kombat 1 (the first game in the series, not this one) created such a stir in the gaming world back in the 1990s. It was such a big hoo-hah that Singapore actually banned the game outright.
Of course, they didn’t actually enforce the ban because you could still find the game easily at any game shop, whether it’s the superior Mega Drive version, or the neutered Super Nintendo one.
It boggles the mind that gaming has advanced so far that nobody bats an eye at the super realistic copious violence of the series any more. You’d think that now, more than ever, uppity Karens would pick on the series.
Nope, it seems we’re all set to enjoy yet another Mortal Kombat game.
What is Mortal Kombat 1?
Mortal Kombat 1 is a single and multiplayer 2D fighting game developed by Netherrealm Studios and published by Warner Games. It is available right now on every modern gaming platform.
Our copy of the game was generously provided at the super folks over at Epicsoft Asia! Thanks so much guys!
As the usual, we ran the game on our gaming rig.
The specs are as listed below:
– MSI B550M Mortar WIFI
– AMD Ryzen 9 5900X with NZXT Kraken X73 RGB Liquid Cooler
– MSI GeForce RTX 3080Ti Suprim X 12GB
– Teamgroup T-Force Dark Z DDR4 RAM (16GB x 4 @ 3600MHz)
– Samsung 980 PRO 2TB SSD
– Corsair RM850x PSU
– Lian Li LANCOOL III RGB case
Despite the 1 in the title, Mortal Kombat 1 isn’t a reboot. Wait…it is a reboot, but it also isn’t a reboot. You see, at the end of the last Mortal Kombat game (read my reviews for Mortal Kombat 11 and its expansion Aftermath), Liu Kang managed to beat Shang Tsung, and assume the mantle of the Keeper of Time.
He wiped out his whole timeline and restarted it, but this time with his version of what history should be. Everything’s supposed to be hunky dory, with enemies now good friends (which is why Shao Kahn is no more and is now General Shao) instead.
That’s where the reboot part is.
It’s also a continuation of the past game because while Liu Kang may have rebooted history, things are not exactly as it seems. Now that’s where the it’s not a reboot part comes in, because while the plot is a reboot of the history of Mortal Kombat, it actually continues on from the last game.
To say any more would be spoiling things.
The game’s story mode dishes all this out in the 6 – 10 hours it provides. It’s mostly cutscenes, with fights interjected in between, along with button mashing sequences (called Test Your Might!) thrown in at certain points of the game.
To be honest, I enjoyed the plot…for the most part. The beginning was slow, but it quickly picked up the pace and there was enough intrigue to keep me entertained. It’s only when the game reaches the final act that things break down.
Compared to the buildup and cohesion in the first two acts, the final part seems like somebody just haphazardly put together an ending. Scenes would segue from one to another without rhyme or reason. One moment, the gang’s at the Wu Shi temple, the next, they’re suddenly racing up an Aztec pyramid-like structure (totally like the one from Mortal Kombat Armageddon) to fight Shang Tsung.
How did everybody know where Shang Tsung was? Beats me! Whatever happened to the Dragon Army that Shang Tsung mobilized or the Kombatants that fought there? Beats me! The game never says anything at all.
Somebody truly dropped the ball…spectacularly I might add.
Don’t even get me started on the ending. It’s hands-down, one of the weakest in the series.
It’s supposed to set up a teaser for a sequel (or maybe an expansion) but the villain it teases is pathetic. Nowhere near as badass as Shao Kahn or Shinnok. How do you look forward to a sequel or expansion when you don’t even care about the villain?
Thankfully, that’s a question for another time because once you beat the Story mode, there’s still a ton to do for single content.
You can tackle the Towers (which gives you an ending for the character you beat it with), or do Invasions. Invasions are season challenges (each with its own unique world map you can traverse) and doing battle in the mode gets you Seasonal Koins, which you can use to purchase season costumes and gear from the Store.
Mortal Kombat One’s Invasions are fun, and some of the fights do test your skills. There are special conditions to the fights and even special enemies that you’ll encounter, including powered up boss characters, which take very little damage unless you hit them when they’re recovering.
The fights are cool, but the loading time in-between can really put a kibosh on things. As fights in Invasions are mostly 1 round, you’ll see the loading screen more than you fight.
It basically goes like this; move to a new waypoint, trigger a fight, endure the loading screen, fight for a few seconds, endure another loading screen, move to another waypoint…repeat. The fights in Mortal Kombat 1 are good but the repetition of load fight load load fight load will bore you to tears.
Speaking of fights, Mortal Kombat 1 takes a more back to basics approach. Multiple Kombat styles are gone and is replaced by a new Kameo system, wherein you can call a helper to aid you in battle. Characters are all old school Mortal Kombat characters, like Sonya Blade, Jax, Sektor and Cyrax. Kameo characters have their own movelist too, and even their own Fatalities.
Personally I don’t really feel for the Kameos. The ones in the game are rather lame.
No Sheeva (though there is Goro) or Kintaro or Noob Saibot or even Meat. Why are Scorpion and Subzero (both regular playable characters) available as Kameos? Why not use their slots for somebody from the old games? Bo Rai Cho or Triborg perhaps?
They’re useful for continuing kombos but I feel they’re just a gimmick more than anything else. Long kombos aren’t really that great in the game, because of the diminishing damage so you’re not really penalized for not being able to do 20 or 30 hit attacks at will.
Other than the gimmicky Kameos, kombat is really solid. While the cast isn’t fully unlocked (anticipated characters like Peacemaker and Homelander are still incoming), the ones that are playable are good enough. I personally love the revamped Reptile and Baraka, though my personal favourite has to be Omni-Man.
He’s just…fun to decimate with! Even Injustice Superman wasn’t as fun as Omni-Man is now. It’s unfortunate that we’ll probably never see him in another Mortal Kombat game after this. I’d love if he was made a permanent fixture but that’s not going to happen considering he doesn’t even belong to Warner Games or Netherrealm Studios.
Playing as Omni-Man in Invasions is massive fun though, because he can wreck pretty much everybody (even the souped up kombatants) in the cast.
While I personally enjoy Invasions, I do admit that even I couldn’t play the mode for more than an hour at a go without getting bored by the repetition. You’ll have to power through the mode though, especially if you want to earn enough Seasonal Koins to buy the special limited time items from the Store.
There are also other currencies, including one where you use real money. Gold koins also make a comeback but this time in a lamer fashion.
Sadly, the awesome Krypt from previous games is now gone and you can no longer roam graveyards or whatnot to unlock stuff. It’s all done lamely via the Shrine, which takes 1000 gold koins to use and gives you a random unlockable in return. It’s a big disappointment personally because I love the previous games’ krypts and finding out their secrets.
On our gaming rig, the game ran like butter in matches. There’s no slowdown, no crashes and no visual glitches. It’s a good PC port basically.
Mortal Kombat 1 posts a solid 60FPS in the benchmarks, with everything maxed out, without utilizing DLSS. Weirdly, there’s all sorts of stuttering during the cutscenes in the game’s Story mode, which is really weird.
With everything maxed, Mortal Kombat 1 is a stunning game. The stages are beautiful and vibrant, and the fighters themselves are insanely detailed. Like previous games, Netherrealms facial animation tech is top notch. It’s still unmatched by most games and I’m still incredibly impressed by them when the game shows the faces up close.
Loading is pretty fast too, with loads happening in under 5 seconds for fights. Fighter rendering on the Character Select is fast and fluid as well, though there seems to be a bit of a lag when displaying Kameo fighters. Again, I have no idea why this is so because our rig surpasses even the game’s Recommended specs by miles.
All things considered, the PC version of Mortal Kombat 1 is a pretty decent port and works damn well on our hardware.
The Bottom Line.
Mortal Kombat 1 is a decent continuation of the series. The plot is serviceable (though it ultimately falters at the end), the cast is fun to play as (especially Omni-Man), the fatalities awesome and there’s a decent amount of replayability for single player gamers.
I personally don’t like the gimmicky Kameo system though. It’s rather basic and feels like an afterthought and I’d rather Netherrealm Studios turn Mortal Kombat into a full on tag battle game (like Capcom’s Versus series) than put up with this Kameo crap.
At the end of the day though, Kameo fighters or not, Mortal Kombat 1 is still a fun fighting game to play and worth your money. Definitely splurge on the Kombat Pass (for the extra fighters) because Omni-Man is more than worth the price.
TLDR:
If you loved the other games in the series, you’ll love Mortal Kombat 1.
The Good:
- Lots of single player content.
- Great visuals.
- Incredible facial animations.
- Deliciously gory fatalities.
- Omni-Man.
The Bad:
- Needs more Kameo fighters.
- Stuttering in Story Mode cutscenes.
- Invasion mode can be super repetitive.
- Story mode ending sucks.
Salehuddin Husin, EIC
Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.
You must be logged in to post a comment.