Mortal Kombat 1 review – a crunchy treat

The notoriously bloody Mortal Kombat series has been around for over thirty years, and during that time it has undergone many transformations and all sorts of workarounds, and not just in the field of video games. While not all of these efforts have always been successful, in recent years the main numbered series seems to have found a successful pattern that it returns to every few years. This template is a careful honing of the key mechanics of the combat itself, each time accompanied by a great single-player story campaign. Moreover, in this regard, this year’s series has really outdone itself, although in others it stagnates a little.

• Platform: PS5 (review version), XSX|S, PC, Switch
• Publication date: 09.19.2023
• Manufacturer: NetherRealm Studios (USA)
• Genre: thresher
• Czech localization: No
• Multiplayer: Yes
• Download data: 10 GB
• Game time: 7+ hours
• Price: 1700 CZK (pairs)

Absurdly confusing story

I thought long and hard about how to explain to the uninitiated how absurdly narrative-driven this game’s campaign is. I’m afraid this won’t work. I am completely convinced that some models, costumes, locations, etc. will not be suitable for the most elaborate story games, such as the new parts of the God of War series. At the same time, the creators devote a lot of space to the development of the story or its emotional moments, so that the scenes of the film between individual chapters or battles easily last ten minutes. The series’ story campaign is more or less bombastic, much like Call of Duty’s story campaign.

At the same time, the plot is structured in such a way that it represents more or less a “new beginning”, so even complete beginners will enjoy the story. But loyal fans will be absolutely delighted by all sorts of “subtle” references to the past. While the story follows the conclusion of the last game, with Liu Kang becoming a god and ruler of time, we move forward centuries into his newly created universe and timeline. In it, he tried to arrange the fates of some characters so that there would not be those terrible bloody conflicts as in past universes. But a mysterious unknown figure appears and gradually begins to influence events so that bloody history repeats itself.

The fans will be in seventh heaven.

In addition to the completely disarming quest, it should be noted the extraordinary care with which the authors interweave all sorts of lines of past events and the destinies of the characters so that everything connects perfectly with each other – in the middle of the story there is a revelation related to the end of the last game, which very pleasantly surprised me. The campaign finale is an absurd fireworks display of the best the series has offered in the last 30 years. The fans will be in seventh heaven. Among other things, it is very interesting to see the adjusted destinies and personalities of some of the characters in this new universe, which often change for the better and lead to truly touching passages. But there is also a fair amount of slick modern humor.

Beginning of the season

But as excellent as the story campaign is, you’ll finish it in about seven hours. Of course, you can add some of these hours if you’ve previously spent a few hours in the great training arenas or if you’ve played the campaign on a higher difficulty level. After completing the campaign (by the way, you will have to play through the last fifteenth chapter at least twice to appreciate its options), you can, for example, in a single player game, aim for the classic “towers”, where you need to defeat a series of enemies with a selected character in order to unlock an animated the end of their story. But the main accompanying attraction of this part is the new mode called “Invasion”.

The main accompanying attraction is a new mode called Invasion.

Invasion is a bit like a board game in that you move your character around the game map and gradually unlock individual locations and their landmarks. These could be individual battles, specific skill challenges or mini-games, or even entire towers of battles. Here you gradually unlock upgrades and modifiers for your character, such as talismans that give you unique additional abilities. It’s all story-driven and has a grand finale with a seasonal boss. While the first steps may seem relatively simple, the later stages of this mod are really advanced and provide a fun challenge. In addition, this mode will change every two months, offering a new story and a new “invasion” campaign.

The multiplayer game has remained more or less unchanged in format, you can play locally and online, random selection of players and private battles with friends. You can choose from a classic tournament, a one-on-one tournament, or an eight-player King of the Hill tournament. Online play is mostly stable thanks to rollback netcode, unless you run into someone with an outright bad connection. A major new feature across all game modes is the “cameo” system, thanks to which you can, with the press of a button, summon an assistant into battle for a joint grapple or strike that can save your skin or complement the exact type of attack your character is lacking. At the same time, the cooldown of this ability ensures its balance. As usual, the game features an extensive system for unlocking costumes and accessories, which may be very motivating for some players.