Mortal Kombat 1 single-player preview – hitting reset for the better
Everything fans know has changed in Mortal Kombat 1, and we found out how in a hands-on gameplay preview at Gamescom 2023.
There are fighting games, and then there are fighting games. The Mortal Kombat series is absolutely one of the latter – at least for me – as made abundantly clear during the gloriously gruesome new trailer shown off at Geoff Keighley’s Opening Night Live. Players already have an idea of how some of the new and returning fighters from the Mortal Kombat universe look and handle (thanks to the recent closed and open betas) but here at Gamescom, I was treated to an hour-long play session focused on the single-player side of things.
The single-player in Mortal Kombat 1 is split into two parts: Invasions and Story Mode. Obviously the Mortal Kombat series was quick to make a meal out of the latter long before the likes of Street Fighter and Tekken did, with Mortal Kombat 9 through to Mortal Kombat 11 all delivering great cinematic narrative campaigns. The latest instalment continues this trend with aplomb..
The first chapter is centered on Kung Lao this time around; no longer a fellow Shaolin monk and brotherly comrade to Liu Kang (who is now a fire god) in this rebooted universe. He is all those things to a young and upcoming Raiden, though, with the two presented as peers in this new iteration, who casually spending their days completing chores in the effort to aid the local community.
Such peace is quickly disturbed when the Lin Kuei clan burst through the door, and Raiden and Kung Lao are forced into a scrap. This is the first time the latter has been made playable to the public, yet for narrative reasons the hat-fanatic monk is unable to launch most of his usual ranged attacks. This forced me to think differently about how to approach and counter Smoke, Sub-Zero and yes, Scorpion, who are the main three Lin Kuei members I got to fight. Scorpion now being made Sub-Zero’s brother makes the character less angry, and the two’s interactions a lot more complex.
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Unfortunately, Raiden wasn’t playable in this mode – or any of the two modes I got to try for that matter. And because it’s only chapter one, as is the case with Kung Lao, he’s bereft of his usual power set, making his use limited even as a Kameo fighter. That said, as a diehard fa of the series, from a narrative perspective it was fun to pick out all the little remixes that stretch across character dynamics, character ages, and the shift in who looks up to who. NetherRealm is clearly having fun with the concept, too, as made evident when Kung Lao lobs his straw hat towards Smoke in a cutscene, only to find that a circular blade fares better. I wonder where this is going…
The last thing to mention about what I saw from Mortal Kombat 1’s Story Mode is that Shang Tsung, usually one of the main and most powerful antagonists in the franchise, is depicted here conducting a different type of sorcery: cons. Peddling snake oil elixirs and posing as an old man, another old villain soon appears out of the shadows to try and help him get back on his feet. Shang Tsung realizing his full potential is very much teased to be a large focus for what’s to come later, and I’m here for it.
Far from finished
The second part of Mortal Kombat 1’s single-player offerings relates to what’s called Invasions, which is a mix of board game and tabletop RPG. Taking place within Jonny Cage’s mansion, it works by having you pick a character and moving around different nodes, following the green path to progress while unlocking red and yellow areas by engaging in fights and upgrading your character.
There are character modifying Talismans and Relics to collect, costumes to unlock, and other fun rewards to find by moving around what is essentially a very complex and pretty-looking chess board. If I had to liken it to another fighting game’s single-player mode, it’d probably be the Subspace Emissary for Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the Nintendo Wii, only here each character has their own attached loadout and elemental perks that you can switch to at any point between fights.
Invasions is named as such because NetherRealm plans on updating the mode with new seasonal content every six weeks. No paid-for expansions or DLC is being talked about right now, but from what I could glean, the environment and fighting game challenges will change depending on which clan is invading during the season. The mode isn’t anywhere near as cinematic as Mortal Kombat 1’s main story mode, true, but it’s a nice little extra that may keep dedicated players coming back; if only to see familiar characters like Baraka presented as a key thief, and Shao Khan relegated to the role of cook.
In a year when Street Fighter 6 absolutely blew the doors off with a single-player campaign very much inspired by Yakuza, it’s heartening to see that NetherRealm doesn’t intend to rest on its laurels in this area, which it’s arguably become most known for as of late.
The remixed contexts for characters as a result of fire god Liu Kang rebooting the universe at the end of Mortal Kombat 11 has had a clear impact on a world I thought I knew (for the better), and Invasions looks set to be a quirky side distraction I could have fun with. As if it was in doubt, Mortal Kombat 1’s single-player offering is far from a fatality.
Mortal Kombat 1 will release on September 19, 2023, for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo Switch.
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