Mortal Kombat 1 Review Still Beautiful

This has been achieved by Mortal Kombat from Netherrealm Studios under the hands of Ed Boon, which has now entered a dozen main series on the latest modern platforms. However, for this latest series, they took an extreme decision to bring it back to number 1. After it was thought that it would continue with the dozens of numbers previously printed, Netherrealm Studios' decision to release the latest series as Mortal Kombat 1 was an extreme and smart move at the same time. Extreme because this indicates a soft reboot concept for the Mortal Kombat story that we know. Meanwhile, on the other hand, it's smart, because this clearly follows the story ending of Mortal Kombat 11 which ended with an opportunity to reinvent what we know from the Mortal Kombat universe. Everything is then combined with a new mechanic called Kameo which is expected to offer something refreshing.

Plot

In this new universe created by Liu Kang, Earthrealm and Outworld still have to fight periodically through a tournament called Mortal Kombat like in the previous timeline. What makes it different? Instead of being controlled by a super aggressive military faction that wants to destroy Earthrealm as usual, Outworld is now controlled by a power that has more respect for the results and workings of Mortal Kombat. As usual, it is Liu Kang's responsibility now to choose representatives from Earthrealm which is now left to the shoulders of Kung Lao, Raiden, Johnny Cage, and Kenshi. But it turns out, oh it turns out, despite his once absolute abilities, the new, peaceful universe that Liu Kang created was not as "safe" and "perfect" as he imagined. Despite his efforts to close magical access to parties such as Shang Tsung and Quan Chi as a solution, a mysterious entity suddenly appeared and granted this access. It is clear that the aim of this mysterious entity is to make Outworld once again controlled by parties who are more brutal like the previous timelines.

Full of Fatalities, Still Beautiful

Mortal Kombat 1 ends up coming with a visual presentation that deserves a thumbs up, as well as confirming an on-target justification for why it only targets the release platform (again we're not talking about the Switch version) for the latest generation only. There are so many details that come out, both from variations in the costume designs for each character, how you can see the differences in the materials that make them up, the stage design with so many dynamic background objects that help boost your fighting adrenaline, to the various attack animations that can be executed. It does feel like a version of Mortal Kombat at a higher level than the previous series. The highest appreciation of course deserves to be directed at Netherrealm Studios' decision to maintain what has been Mortal Kombat's identity so far - fights full of blood, mutilation and straightforward brutality without holding back. Just like the previous series, from the Fatal Blow attack with an X-Ray effect which will show how destructive these fatal attacks are to your bones and organs to the Fatality which is even ready to make the enemy's body turn into thick red mush, Mortal Kombat 1 still offers these contents at the maximum limit. No compromise, no restraint, like a Mortal Kombat series should be.

But of course, being one of its main focuses and gimmicks, appreciation also deserves to be directed at how creative Fatal Blow's animations are and in particular, the Fatalities that can be accessed by each character. Some came as a surprise when it came to how creative he was, which of course ended up making our smiles widen and our hearts satisfied. Seeing how Fire God Liu Kang can now use excessive amounts of black holes to simply "clean" the flesh and bones of his enemies or how Geras can still use the concept of "time" and loops as part of his finishing attack concept makes Mortal Kombat 1 feel special. Even Johnny Cage's Fatality, for example, still looks creative, cool and hilarious at the same time. With the redesign action carried out by Liu Kang, apart from some elements that remain and are familiar, almost most of the characters you know are now also faced with redesign actions to support the story. We are happy to report that we are among the gamers who have a super positive perception of the new appearance of many of these characters, from just those from the Lin Kuei clan, Mileena and Kitana, Sindel, to Shao Khan himself. Each appearance of this character is quite faithful to the previous timeline while offering a new approach that makes it more interesting and refreshing at the same time.

New Star

What makes the Mortal Kombat 1 story interesting, apart from the fact that it is a new timeline under Liu Kang's creativity, is its dominant focus on telling the story of Outworld rather than Earthrealm itself. That unlike many previous series where the conflict is always focused on showing its effects on Earthrealm and the characters who defend it, Mortal Kombat 1 focuses on the "new" Outworld in the leadership of Sindel who is now much wiser than her portrait in the Mortal Kombat games another. Its position as a reboot for the Mortal Kombat story also gives the campaign side the opportunity to tell origin stories for several iconic characters that may not have been told in previous series. You are now given the opportunity to understand why Mileena, for example, has similar physical characteristics to Baraka. You now understand Quan Chi's position in the birth of Ermac and who Ermac is. It also provides space for characters from the Lin Kuei clan to have their internal conflicts, which results in a change in the position of one of the iconic characters. Netherrealm Studios took advantage of this opportunity and ended up solidly strengthening and enriching the existing story.

So like the previous series, you will use one specific character in one chapter until he changes chapters with another new character. Therefore, depending on your preferences, you may end up being "stuck" with a character who has a very different playing style from yours until the next chapter. Fortunately, the cut-scenes that you enjoy don't always just contain people talking, but also action scenes with choreography that deserves a thumbs up. This makes the sensation of being “stuck” much more tolerable. Moreover, Campaign mode also has several "Test your Might" mini-game sessions where you have to press buttons quickly and precisely at the same time. What's cool again? Instead of just a game over, Mortal Kombat 1 provides special scenes and sequences to show how brutal the consequences your character will reap when they fail to do so.

Failed Invasions

In simple terms, you can define Invasions as a variation of Tower mode which is now treated like a board game-style journey, which will ask you to explore a limited area moving from one node to another. As you can predict, each node will come with its own challenges. It can end up being a fight, just opening a treasure, executing the Test Your Might mini-game, ending up being a tall tower where you have to kill them all, or just an area that needs a key to open. As can be predicted, the battles that you will go through at each existing node will not be as straightforward as normal battles. You will meet so many gimmicks that make it more complex. There are several levels where there will be random projectile attacks that appear periodically to randomly attack two parties, which of course risks messing up the timing of your attacks. There is also a type of enemy where he has a kind of anti-attack armor when activating certain combination attacks, where you also have the opportunity to cancel it in a small timing window if you need it. This extra gimmick will provide an extra challenge during this Invasions mode.

Still not enough? Netherrealm Studios also injected strong RPG elements into it. Apart from the various accessories that you can get and strengthen through the material-based forging system and the amount of money that can be obtained as fighting and exploration rewards, you are now also faced with extra elements that you have to pay attention to - elements. That's right, instead of simply calculating damage based on incoming attacks and their significance, Invasions brings an elemental system into the calculation. This means, some characters will feel stronger and more effective against other specific characters, even without equipment. As an example? Raiden, with his electric element, for example, would certainly be more capable of eliminating Rain, who incidentally counts as a conductor. The good news? You always have the opportunity to change who the main fighter you use in this mode is before you dive into activating the node you just landed on. There are a few issues surrounding Invasions, mainly about how quickly things move. It's a bit annoying when you find that instead of going quickly and concisely through each node by node, Invasions is actually full of little things that slow down your progress.

Your experience will revolve around something like this: seeing an animation of your little character moving from node to node, pressing a button to activate the node, seeing who your enemy is, being greeted with an opening animation which fortunately can be skipped first, fighting 1 round, being confronted with timing Fatality, win, meet the winning animation screen that lasts for a certain time, finishes, moves again to the next node. Small processes like this seem to hold back the progress of Invasions which should be more concise, especially with the number of 1 rounds that it pushes. Another problem also comes from repetitive sensations which cannot be simply ignored. There is indeed an attempt to make the experience more varied with extra mini-games at some nodes with exploration containing chests which are always satisfying. This repetitive sensation arises from the fact that for a map or area that you want to complete, the roster variants that you will compete against are limited and only revolve around at least 3-4 characters. This means despite all the gimmicks that may be injected, you will encounter and fight only these characters until you move to the next map. The bad news again? These characters will also inhabit the Tower node which contains several live battles in it.

Conclusion

Mortal Kombat 1 feels like a new iteration that takes the franchise to a new level in terms of presentation (again ignoring the Nintendo Switch version), while maintaining its distinctive identity, which is then wrapped up with a new Kameo-based mechanic that of course offers something different and refreshing from a competitive side. The cinematic approach offered in campaign mode is once again an extra addition to the experience that always deserves to be appreciated, especially with the reboot of the universe that is offered while still pushing the story from the Mortal Kombat 11 era to continue moving forward. But unfortunately, once again Mortal Kombat 1 is not a perfect fighting game. Despite the variety of new concepts they want to include, there are several elements that cannot be said to be successful. The choice of Megan Fox to provide the appearance and voice for Nitara ended up being a blunder because of the low quality and high laziness that was apparent. The presence of a new mode - Invasions, which was supposed to be interesting, ended up being uninteresting and repetitive because of several small decisions which fortunately can still be fixed with various updates in the future.