Mortal Kombat 1 is now in early access, and we’ve been given review code just a day and a half ahead of this. As such, this review will be one in progress, with a final score to come.
Because of the extremely limited time to play, I’ve spent practically all available time within story mode. It’s a mixed bag.
That sentiment comes from someone who has adored the stories of the latest set of Mortal Kombat stories. They’ve all certainly been over the top, with perhaps Mortal Kombat 11 the most likely to have jumped the shark. Its conclusion promised a completely different landscape, and Mortal Kombat 1 hasn’t disappointed in that regard. This is a reboot as much as it is a sequel, with both positive and negative connotations.
Simply put, the opening of MK1‘s story has a big feeling of “been there, done that,” even if some of the roles have changed. The most obvious is that Liu Kang is the god protecting Earthrealm, taking the position previously held by Raiden. That swapping of expectations is abundant early on; you know the people involved in the story, but not their place within it.
Without getting into too many spoilers — and with the knowledge that Mortal Kombat 1‘s Invasion mode has been marketed already — it all culminates in something that’s a little too cliched and tired at this stage; think Injustice 2 and you’re on the right track.
Story mode is a little different this time around in that players are presented difficulty options right off the bat. Playing on medium difficulty, I managed to beat every single match without the need for a restart, something that’s never happened in a recent Mortal Kombat story mode. If, like me, you’re used to having to bash your head against a wall — or rather, a difficult enemy — a couple times to artifically lower difficulty so you can progress, you seemingly won’t have to do that this time around.
Review in-progress update: Story mode isn’t a great representation of gameplay to follow; Fatalities and the like aren’t included, and some matches don’t even allow you to use a Kameo fighter. The latter is argueably the biggest new feature of the longtime fighter, enabling you to press a button to activate a sidekick. Your helpers can grab, punch or in some cases be timed with your own attacks to build up a better combo. Kameo fighters can also perform Fatalities, which makes for some variation in matches.
Kameo fighters also showcase one of Mortal Kombat 1‘s biggest issues: the grind. The eight-hour story mode is bolstered by online play, and those moreso by the new Invasions mode. It takes the place of the first-person Krypt, and at first glance looks a little Mario Party. Your character — fully changeable between fights — moves from one node to the next on a playboard with the endgame goal of defeating the Invasion season’s final boss.
That means match after match after match of basically the same thing: one-round fights against Mortal Kombat mashups. The monotony is broken up by surprise ambush fights (think Final Fantasy random encounters), multi-round boss fights, Test Your Might segments and survival bouts where you dodge a bunch of fireballs.
While Invasion is a lot of the same, the grind is furthered by the need — if you’re going for Achievements, that is — to level up each individual character and Kameo fighter. You’ll need to get at least five Kameo fighters up to level 15; after close to 20 hours using Goro as my main Kameo fighter, I’m only at level 8. I don’t know if I can be bothered playing more and more Invasion to get him up to level 15, let alone four other characters.
Something I do need to applaud either (or both) Microsoft and NetherRealm for is a new way in which Xbox games are downloaded. Mortal Kombat 1 comes in a whopping 140GB with 4K textures, and this is the first time in memory that I received a prompt at download advising that I could download the game, piecemeal, to get in quicker. Knocking the 4K content off bumps the package down to just under 100GB, which was a godsend considering the lead time I had to start reviewing.
Mortal Kombat 1 is decidedly current-gen, and while it’s initially shocking it requires 140GB of storage space on your console, seeing it in action makes it clear why that’s the case. Franchise fans will love it, and genre fans will too — though I think I like the speed of Street Fighter 6 more, and the ability to perform easy moves without the need to potentially pay for them. After playing through the title in its early access period, though, I’m afraid I’ve already had my fill with Mortal Kombat 1 and will likely be putting it down until some big name DLC characters make their way to the fight.
Outside of early access, Mortal Kombat 1 will be available from 19 September 2023 on Windows PC via Steam and Epic Games Store, alongside Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, PS5 and Switch.
Mortal Kombat 1 was reviewed using a promotional code on Xbox Series X, as provided by the publisher. Click here to learn more about Stevivor’s scoring scale. This review was first published, in progress, on 14 September.
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Mortal Kombat 119 September 2023PC PS4 PS5 Switch Xbox One Xbox Series S & X |
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