Mortal Kombat 1 Khaos Reigns review - Multiverse of mid-ness saved by new faces

While the Mortal Kombat franchise has had its fair share of experimental entries and reinventions, it seems to have settled into a more predictable rhythm. Just as with Mortal Kombat 11's Aftermath expansion, Mortal Kombat 1's additional Khaos Reigns chapter offers a chunk of new story content, a smattering of guest and returning fighters, and essentially offers more of the same satisfying combat (ahem, kombat) that made last year's entry so popular.

While not all of those elements come together as well as they did in Aftermath, the new fighters are the star here, and anyone with even a passing interest in Mortal Kombat 1 will find it feels much more complete (komplete) with their inclusion. Still, with the heavily publicised guest characters not arriving any time soon, Khaos Reigns feels light on content for a steep asking price.

Also, it should go without saying but there are spoilers for Mortal Kombat 1's main story in this review. If you're here to hear my thoughts on the new characters, be sure to jump straight to the 'Slashers and Supes' section further down the page.

Here we go again

Mortal Kombat 1's big draw was in the reissuing of its iconic characters across the lines of "good" and "evil". Much of the cast switched sides, and some saw a lot more of the spotlight because of it, notably characters like Reptile, and even nefarious sorcerer Shang Tsung had some sympathetic moments (not many, admittedly).

Khaos Reigns picks up with the conclusion (I'm out, konklusion is a step too far) of MK1, and immediately leads in with a return to the Scorpion and Sub Zero rivalry of old.

It's a great way to get back to a plotline that, outside of one or two chapters, was sidelined by the multiverse-meddling of the base game, but it sadly doesn't last too long.

While the ending of Mortal Kombat 1 was a treat for fans as alternate universe versions of characters battled to the death, Khaos Reigns attempts to repeat the trick with diminishing returns. It's still fun to see new versions of these characters, but by the end of the campaign things just feel a little less special because so many of them are thrown into the plot that each becomes more forgettable than the last.

It does do a decent job of tying up some of the loose ends, like the arrival of Titan Havik and his cohorts at the end of Mortal Kombat 1, but for the most part, it just feels like a reprise of some of that story's best bits. In fact, Havik's whole aim of having every timeline clash for his own personal amusement feels hollow, as far as villainous schemes go.

It's also relatively short, coming in at 2 hours or so, with some bizarre quips that feel off - even for Mortal Kombat.

Johnny Cage being beset on all sides by murderers at a wedding, before breaking to quip about Game of Thrones' Red Wedding just feels really out of place. Some will like it, and I was one of the folks who enjoyed the silliness in the main game, but here it feels more jarring than ever.

Slashers and Supes

On the plus side, Khaos Reigns brings back Noob Saibot as a playable character, and he remains one of my favourites in the entire series with his unique 'shadow clone' move set and particularly gnarly Fatality. He's just as fun as he's ever been here, and it's good to have him back.

He's strong, too, able to close the gap quickly thanks to his shadow form and line up some slick combos, but once the shadow is active certain moves aren't able to be used until it returns. That means players will need to weigh up how aggressive to be in any given fight. That bleeds into a move that can only be used once per match called Embrace Khaos which makes his shadow attacks much stronger.

He's joined by two other familiar faces in Cyrax and Sektor (Triborg, begone!), both of whom have run the gamut in the series between being ninjas, cyborgs, and cyborg ninjas. This time they land in the former category with an Iron Man-esque exosuit each.

Sektor is a ranged fighter, doing a great job of zoning areas of the arena with rockets and her jumping teleport, while Cyrax is more aggressive in close quarters and has some nifty goo grenades that can slow down an enemy in full flow.

Then there are the guest characters, and they're a real treat this time around. There really seems to be no limit to where the team at NetherRealm can pull from, and while we've already had Homelander, Peacemaker and Omni-Man to bulk out the roster via DLC, here we get Arnie as Conan the Barbarian, Robert Patrick's Arnie-hunting T-1000, and, uh, Ghostface from the Scream franchise which, as far as I can tell, has no links to the Governator.

The trouble is that none of the guest characters are unlocked at the time of writing, so you're buying an expensive DLC with only half of the characters available. While I trust they'll be just as fun to play as any of the prior guest fighters, we won't know for a while.

It's worth noting that there are no new Kameo fighters here, and while that's no real miss given how many there were to begin with, that means Conan and the T-1000 can't be on the same team when they do arrive.

All characters now have Animalities, too, with Baraka becoming a porcupine and Geras becoming a Hippo, for some reason. They're fun, but they're free for all players so it's hard to consider them part of what is a difficult value proposition. Mind you, Omni-Man turning into a mini Kaiju and Peacemaker turning into an eagle with assault rifles is just as much fun as you'd expect.

All in all, it does feel like Mortal Kombat 1's roster is much closer to being complete now, but it's been an expensive path to get here. If you've kept up and also picked up Khaos Reigns, though, you'll be whelmed - but it feels the best is yet to come.

The Verdict

It's hard to talk about Khaos Reigns without having that price tag in mind. For £39/$39 it's simply too lean, relying on the promise of an eclectic mix of characters to come and some long-awaited roster additions to add value to a very short and mostly forgettable story add-on.

While I'm naturally excited to mess around with the new characters when they arrive, it's too great a cost for what's on offer right now - as happy as I am to have Noob Saibot back.

3/5

Reviewed on PS5. Review code provided by the publisher.