One of my favourite things about writing about MORTAL KOMBAT 1 is that my laptop has decided that the words MORTAL KOMBAT must be capitalised at all times. This is indeed how you must think it/shout it/sing it if you’re given half a chance. Even my laptop knows the power of the words. And now, so will you.
As you cleave your opponent in two, having already impaled their head on your sword, it’s easy to think that this is much the same Mortal Kombat. Bones crunch, sinews flop about and blood spurts from places that blood really shouldn’t spurt from. It is cacophonous and gleeful in its violence, but somehow, this isn’t gratuitous or actually all that gory. It is about victory, and that you are not on the receiving end of it.
Mortal Kombat 1 is a reset for this long-storied series – hell, we’ve had at least a few on NetherRealm’s journey to this point – but this is one that strips back many of the things we think we know about Mortal Kombat and makes them new again. Yes, you’re still performing acts of violence that a Dark Ages torturer would blush at, but narratively this is a new beginning.
We went hands on with the opening of the story mode at Gamescom 2023, reintroducing ourselves to those well-known combatants. They’re not the same as you might remember them, though. Raiden is a middling martial artist with nary a tickle of electricity, toiling in the fields with his companion and rival Kung Lao. Similarly, the Shang Tsung we meet begins as the wizened old man we know, but this is revealed as a ruse, a mask to win over the unwitting victims of the lacklustre potions and tonics he peddles.
It all goes wrong for the former series antagonist when a deeply unhappy patron arrives to tell him that his potions didn’t save his daughter’s life. Shang Tsung takes a beating, and returns to lick his wounds at his dilapidated caravan. Moments later, a mysterious woman appears and offers him the opportunity to become a truly great magician. He seems rather taken with the idea.
Back to Raiden and Kung Lao’s farming life sim. This pastoral idyll seems unlikely to last, and Kung Lao isn’t all that happy about it anyway. After a bromantic display of friendly rivalry at their favourite post-work restaurant they find themselves drawn into a melee with Smoke and the ninjas of the Lin Kuei. At their head is Sub Zero, appearing alongside the continually imposing silhouette of Scorpion. It’s but a moment before our yellow ninja is shouting “Get over here” and some things in this revitalised setup feel as they should.
It’s exciting and intriguing to see how NetherRealm has reshaped and refashioned these beloved fighters, but while this is a new and refreshing take, so much of it remains familiar. The single player story, an aspect of fighting games that NetherRealm has arguably perfected, looks once again to put other fighting game developers to shame, both in terms of visual quality, scripting and voice acting. It’s an invigorating starting point.
We also got to try out the brand-new mode, Invasions. NetherRealm describe it as fun and engaging single player content for players, that lives away from the main storyline and the undoubtedly popular multiplayer modes. Fundamentally, this is a moving Mortal Kombat boardgame in which you take your chosen fighter around the board completing missions, battles and the occasional mini-game. As you make your way through each area – here we got to experience the slightly unreal, and wholly egotistical, mansion of Johnny Cage – you will find locked paths that you need to find keys for, or complete a specific battle against what are often unique variants of each fighter. They might have specific powers or abilities that you have to learn to combat, or be nigh-on impossible to hit unless you time your strikes perfectly. It’s certainly engaging, and feels perfectly in tune with Mortal Kombat as it is now, while leaning on a few ideas we’ve seen from the series before.
Invasions is a fully-fledged RPG-like mode, and you level up, earning stat boasts, talismans and relics that make you stronger along the way. You might actually need to tweak your player load outs to help you out in the steadily more difficult challenges. There are also a variety of visual unlocks here so you can personalise your fighter in exactly the way you want, showing off your skill and your style at the same time.
Invasions will feature seasons that last six weeks, with each period offering new challenges, new unlocks and new secrets. They’re designed to keep you coming back time and time again, and I can definitely see myself spending plenty of time here. It promises to be short and snappy, an easy to pick up mode where you can make progress in a short amount of time, and which it feels like will serve as a much more chilled out diversion to the central story and the competitive scene. Well, as chilled out as a game can be where you’re constantly decapitating people.
Mortal Kombat 1 is a series reset for a series that was still at the height of its powers. This looks to make everything new once more, giving NetherRealm a free hand to rewrite its most famous fighter with emphatic, modern strokes. This is a fighter that understands its fans, and the series legacy, while utterly retaining the heart of – shout it with me – MORTAL KOMBAT.
