Mortal Kombat 1: The Final Preview

You could chalk up Mortal Kombat’s massive success as a fighting game franchise to a number of factors: It’s 30-year legacy, its attention-grabbing and unparalleled violence, its beloved roster of characters, its deep fighting mechanics, the list goes on. But I’d argue that one of the most important elements of Mortal Kombat’s success, especially since Mortal Kombat 9, has been its single player offerings, which is one thing that we haven’t really seen out of the upcoming Mortal Kombat 1. Until now, that is. At a recent event, I got to go hands-on with the first chapter of Mortal Kombat 1’s cinematic story mode, as well as its brand-new Invasion mode, and my early impressions are that NetherRealm doesn’t seem to be loosening its grip on the crown as the king of fighting game single-player modes just yet.

A New Beginning

Mortal Kombat 1’s premise of it being a complete timeline reset, with Liu Kang being the architect of its creation, leads to an unusual start to an MK story: There’s initially no conflict. After a very cool and intriguing encounter between two returning faces that I don’t want to spoil for you here, the first chapter follows Kung Lao, who is now a farmer that works the fields with his friend, Raiden, who is notably not a thunder god and now wears an appropriate hat for his profession.

After a friendly competition in the field, the two head inside a tea house, where they’re greeted by Smoke of the Lin Kuei. Turns out the owner of the Tea House owes the Lin Kuei some money, and Smoke is there to collect. What follows is what you’d expect out of a Mortal Kombat story mode, a series of battles that tell the story of this particular conflict, with Sub-Zero and Scorpion all jumping into the mix to fight against Kung Lao and Raiden as well.

What’s notable here is that Kung Lao doesn’t yet have his bladed hat, and thus does not have full access to his usual move set. Likewise, Raiden has not awakened his lightning powers either, so his kameo only has one move that you’re able to call upon as an assist. Beyond that, though, NetherRealm definitely seems to be continuing with its “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” philosophy with the main story mode. Which is hard to blame them for, even though I do wish that these chapters could get some optional character specific tutorials so I wouldn’t have to go into each of them completely in the dark when it comes to what they can actually do.

Invasions is Towers Meets Krypt Meets Mario Party?

In what is a surprising turn for the series, Mortal Kombat 1 is doing away with the Krypt mode that has been a staple ever since 2002’s Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. In its place is a new single-player mode called Invasions that combines the rewards of The Krypt with the wacky themed battles of MK11’s Towers of Time, and presents it all like a Mortal Kombat-themed board game.

While there are no dice rolls to determine how many spaces you move, every space on the board houses some sort of themed event. The first board is themed around Johnny Cage’s mansion, Casa del Cage, so when you stop on the first space, you’ll need to fight against a Baraka that’s apparently stolen the key to the front door. After that, you’re able to enter the mansion and are guided through its rooms and halls, with more Easter eggs than you can shake a stick at. It’s got everything from the Sega Genesis blood code to the theater marquee from Injustice 2, and plenty more that any longtime NetherRealm fan is sure to catch on to and giggle at.

Many of the fights have gimmicks tied to them, which should be familiar to anyone who’s played through any of Mortal Kombat 11’s Towers of Time. In one, portals open up and have freezing ice balls teleport in and slowly home in on me. In another, purple zones appear and increase gravity, making it impossible to jump in or use juggle combos. Sometimes they’re not fights at all; one encounter was a survival challenge that demanded I avoid a series of energy balls by leaping over and ducking under them.

There are a couple of other factors at play as well that serve to deepen the mechanics. There’s an elemental damage system at play, where if you use a character that has the element of fire, they’ll deal more damage to an enemy aligned with the ice element. Those aforementioned energy balls in the survival challenge will do less damage to you if you’re an energy-type character, and you also can equip special talismans to give your character a unique special move and potentially give them attacks outside of their own element.

What I really liked about the Invasion mode is that there’s a sense of progression that you really never got with the Tower modes of previous games. You’re leveling up your characters and adding stats to better handle increasingly difficult missions, you’re constantly unlocking new items for both within the mode and outside of it after every encounter you clear, and there’s a great sense of completion when you finally get to the end of the board and are able to move on to the next one. Similar to the Krypt, you’ll also occasionally find portals leading you to treasure rooms that each contain some sort of unlockable cosmetic.

These boards are also refreshed seasonally, with a new story being added every season. The story for the first season focuses on the tragedy of Scorpion, and how a version of Hanzo Hasashi has been going through timeline after timeline trying to find one where his wife, Harumi, had avoided being killed, only to find that only one such timeline existed: the timeline of MK1, where Harumi is alive and well, but also happily in the arms of Kuai Liang. And so this season’s boards will all center around Scorpion’s rage and his vow to burn this timeline down.

It’s a pretty cool set-up for a “What If”-style story, and it’s definitely enough motivation for me to see things through to the end once Mortal Kombat comes out on September 19 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.