Going into Mortal Kombat 1’s release, the future looked promising for the latest entry in NetherRealm Studios’ popular series. The previous game ended with a timeline reset that wiped away convoluted plot points and set the table for something new. Beyond this, early hands-on impressions indicated that many of the core gameplay issues from Mortal Kombat 11 would be addressed, such as its smaller-than-usual character movesets, while additions like Kameo assists hinted at promising changeups to the formula. For those less interested in these mechanical intricacies, it felt safe to assume that the series’ usual suite of genre-leading features, such as its plethora of single-player offerings and smooth online experience, would also return. Unfortunately, more than a month and a half after its release, it’s clear that the latest installment in the series failed to make good on its fresh slate.
Spoilers for both Mortal Kombat 1 and 11 below.
Mortal Kombat 1 opens after Liu Kang, having ascended to godhood following the previous game’s events, has used Kronika’s Hourglass to create a new reality. He envisions this continuity as a place where his companions can get a fresh start, and many of them are doing just that. Raiden and Kung Lao are peaceful farmers, and while the former is unsure of his future, the latter hopes to one day leave their village in search of adventure. Johnny Cage is a somewhat washed-up actor who crosses paths with Kenshi, a man trying to retrieve his family sword from Cage so he can lead his clan and persuade them to break ties with the yakuza. Before long, all four heed Liu Kang’s call to become Earthrealm’s protectors. Similar to the last timeline, Earthrealm and the alternate dimension Outworld regularly partake in the Mortal Kombat tournament. Although Liu Kang’s alterations made this new version of Outworld far less aggressive than its predecessor, a growing pro-war faction threatens to seize power if Earthrealm shows weakness and loses the latest competition, making it imperative for our heroes to pull out a victory.
While undeniably cheesy (the entire series is inspired by over-the-top martial arts flicks like the work of Shaw Brothers studio, after all), the first half of this story is a delightful action romp thanks to how it re-envisions these characters and their struggles. As Kung Lao and Raiden train to become the sole competitor who will represent Earthrealm in the tournament, tension arises as Raiden’s quick progress wipes away the gulf in combat ability between them. Kung Lao has trouble adjusting to this new status quo, while Raiden has confidence issues that he must address to reach his full potential. Meanwhile, Johnny Cage has to learn how to be, well, less like Johnny Cage, and his friendship with Kenshi helps him ditch at least some of this narcissism. Even as circumstances escalated, my attachment to these characters meant each fight carried additional tension, as these games are notoriously unafraid of killing off members of their cast (so they can bring them back as evil, undead versions of themselves).
Eventually, we also learn more about the tense political situation in Outworld, as Queen Sindel and her daughters Kitana and Mileena attempt to stave off an anti-Earthrealm faction helmed by General Shao. These segments introduce additional depth to many of these one-sidedly antagonistic figures, such as Mileena, who struggles with an affliction that will eventually turn her into a monster. Following the tournament, Earthrealm’s heroes run into circumstances that threaten to put them at odds with the likable characters from Outworld, a conflict that we hope to avoid because it’s easy to sympathize with those from both these dimensions. However, although the first two-thirds of the narrative got me to care about this timeline by making me invested in these characters’ new problems, it all crumbled in the final stretch after revealing the true villain and reflexively reaching into an overly familiar bag of tricks.
We eventually learn that despite Liu Kang’s best efforts, there is a mysterious figure freeing villains such as Shang Tsung and Quan Chi from their carefully manufactured irrelevance. This unknown foe inexplicably exists outside this world’s established rules and is sowing discord toward obfuscated ends. I was excited to learn this figure’s true identity because it seemed like their motivation could be related to the morally ambiguous nature of Liu Kang’s actions. Almost immediately after attaining his powers, he callously allowed his friends to meet brutal deaths so he could maintain his power. While creating his world, he wiped away the old one, playing god as he shaped the universe to suit his whims. I imagined this unrevealed villain could be an entirely new figure reacting to the Fire God’s hubris in destroying entire timelines or how he shackled many to predetermined fates. Even if this antagonist wasn’t a fresh face like I hoped for, I assumed that at least a few of these hanging threads would be addressed. Unfortunately, the actual reveal regarding the true baddie is entirely deflating: it’s just Shang Tsung from the previous game.
In Mortal Kombat 11’s story DLC Aftermath, after Liu Kang seemingly “won” at the end of the main story, Shang Tsung got up to his usual tricks and attempted to seize godhood for himself. Ultimately, the player got to choose which of the two ended up in charge, but the premise of the latest game seemed to indicate that Liu Kang was the “canonical” victor. The big reveal in Mortal Kombat 1 is that both conclusions occurred, causing a tear that birthed alternative timelines. The villain who had been tampering with this new world is none other than this specific Shang Tsung, whose ultimate goal is to conquer all other timelines. While the Shang Tsung we’re familiar with from Mortal Kombat 1’s story has an understandable motivation in wanting to escape the fate designed for him by Liu Kang, the version of him from the last game is a boring and cartoonish rendition of the character whose motivations feel paper thin.
From this point until the end of the game, the interpersonal conflicts and interesting nuances that were painstakingly presented over the last few hours become entirely irrelevant, as they’re replaced by a numbing whirlwind of multiverse nonsense and referential asides. Shang Tsung summons maniacal variants of the cast from his world to battle their counterparts as the baddies take turns shooting laser blasts at Liu Kang’s Hourglass for an interminably long period of time. After the heroes repel this first wave, we eventually learn that there are even more alternate realities, leading to an impressively boring denouement where an army of parallel universe doppelgangers storm Shang Tsung’s world so they can destroy his Hourglass.
Look, I don’t go into these games expecting high art or anything. Even during the better stretches of this story, the writing and performances didn’t perfectly hit all the beats they were going for. But still, this earlier sequence succeeded because its narrative reimagined these characters in interesting ways that felt tethered to more grounded conflicts. I cared about the fragile power balance between Earthrealm and Outworld because those on both sides of the conflict felt fleshed out. It portrayed the lived details of Outworld amidst the martial arts shenanigans, like how people with the Tarkot disease were treated, and gave us effective emotional beats, such as how the former king Jerrod’s assassination impacted Sindel, Mileena, and Kitana. Kenshi saved Johnny’s life, and later, Johnny returned the favor by helping his friend at his lowest point, showing he had become less of a prick in the process. The start of this tale took advantage of the timeline reset to give these popcorn antics extra punch and reminded me of how much fun I had after Mortal Kombat 9 started things fresh.
But, by its last desperate stretch, these aspects are tossed aside so we can instead fight the exact same villain from the previous game, a character who has no connection to anyone here besides Liu Kang. Worse, this multiverse angle is geared towards entirely hollow fan service that carries about as much impact as a little kid smashing their favorite action figures together. For the final battle, you pick a fighter from a character select screen who then faces a gauntlet of procedurally generated characters, a stretch that carries no weight because everything feels haphazardly assembled from random parts like it’s been written by an AI. Instead of focusing on the emotional stakes and personal conflicts established earlier, these are brushed aside for a battle that takes the worst elements from reference fests like Ready Player One. It all comes across like an unnecessary epilogue to Mortal Kombat 11 instead of a proper conclusion to the story built up over multiple hours. While I understand many fans are fatigued by the numerous timeline resets in recent years, Mortal Kombat 1 established a sturdy foundation, only to scrap it all and return to its old rotting infrastructure.
Although story modes in fighting games usually aren’t the main draw for me, and I’m mostly here to play against others online, my interests have historically been flipped for Mortal Kombat, in large part because of how successful previous versions were at building out single-player offerings. However, in this case, on top of this new tale turning out to be a dud, its other major mode, called Invasions, is also quite lackluster. Here, you maneuver a board-game-styled map as you engage with RPG mechanics and face a gauntlet of enemies, but between repetitive battles and the agonizingly slow traversal in its overworld, this mode was also a letdown.
All that said, there is a very important bit of positive news buried in the gloom: when it comes to its core gameplay, the part where you fight against other people, I’ve enjoyed the latest entry more than any of the studio’s other recent titles. Combatants have robust movesets compared to the previous game, making battles feel far more dynamic. Although I was a little disappointed that it failed to introduce any newcomer playable characters, they at least brought back fighters that hadn’t been in the series in quite some time, which added novelty. Additionally, the inclusion of Kameos, which let you call in assists for the first time in series history, sets up powerful setups and extended combos that are a blast to perform. Other additions, such as the ability to blow up jump-happy adversaries with aerial combos, add more satisfying layers.
Unfortunately, similar to how its story initially had me excited, these welcome changes to the core formula are trapped within a game that otherwise feels plucked from a bygone console generation. While Mortal Kombat 11 had best-in-class netcode that made its online play feel silky smooth, the latest entry is much more inconsistent when playing over the internet. This is made worse because you can’t filter out opponents by connection speed, and ranked matches require playing best out of three sets, meaning you can be forced to play multiple matches against laggy opponents. Across the board, the game is missing bells and whistles that other entries in the genre have begun to adopt en masse. There’s no crossplay, leaving each platform in a silo. The training mode feels barebones and doesn’t let you save playbacks, meaning if you want to practice against a specific tactic, you need to re-record it every session. You can’t cue up for matches while practicing either, which leads to additional time spent in menus instead of playing.
There are also a few jaw-dropping bugs, especially on the PC port. At launch, the most egregious of these was that if you were in the player two spot, you would deal less damage, lose access to certain combos, and have a larger hurtbox, which obviously gave the first player a substantial advantage and invalidated competitive play. Another issue is that each time the game crashes on PC, it leaves behind an additional 1GB file secretly tucked away in your AppData folder, which can quickly add up. I’ve also frequently had things freeze between online matches, which would inevitably reset the “will this next person have a good connection” lottery. Although some of these issues, like the player one advantage bug, have been patched, these problems indicate that the game was released well before it was ready. Add in other issues like charging $10 for a single Halloween-themed fatality or the disastrous state of the Switch port, and it’s difficult to feel good about how things panned out.
As someone who welcomed Mortal Kombat 1 as an opportunity to break from the series’ past and deliver something fresh, this latest entry largely squanders this opportunity. After a promising start, its storytelling careens off a cliff, hitting every cloying fan service-oriented trope on the way down as it dredges up the franchise’s burdensome history. I had a similar trajectory with its central gameplay, and after having far more fun than I was expecting, I chafed against its many regressions elsewhere, like its poor online experience and unimpressive training mode, which feel ripped from a previous era. This latest Mortal Kombat was supposed to be a clean slate, but I’m already pining for NetherRealm Studios to hit the reset button once again.
Elijah Gonzalez is an assistant TV Editor for Paste Magazine. In addition to watching the latest on the small screen, he also loves videogames, film, and creating large lists of media he’ll probably never actually get to. You can follow him on Twitter @eli_gonzalez11.