Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns review

Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns review

As a longtime fan of Mortal Kombat since the arcade days, I must confess my disappointment with Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns expansion. The original game was a masterpiece, delivering a compelling story and jaw-dropping combat. However, this expansion feels like a step back in many ways.


The original Mortal Kombat 1 was almost flawless in combat, offering smooth movements, numerous combo options, and stunning graphics that made playing it a pleasure. Its engaging storyline, though heavy on the multiple timelines concept, was enjoyable. Unfortunately, the Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns expansion falls short in its narrative development, frequently overwhelming players with the idea of various timelines, requiring a stretch of imagination to accept and endure its silliness. It had the potential to do so much more, but ultimately delivered very little.

After Liu Kang and his allies thwart Shang Tsung’s plan in the main game, a new villain named Havik emerges with ambitions to rule over all timelines, instilling chaos. He abducts Geras as part of his scheme, prompting the newly introduced characters to track him down and prevent Havik from accomplishing his goal. Some notable scenes in Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns include the wedding scene at the outset and the introduction of Noob Saibot in the contemporary era, but overall, it’s more of the same familiar storyline.

Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns review

There’s a focus on Cyrax and Sector, two new fighters who are both great to play as, but their backstories are never fleshed out. Sub-Zero’s transformation into Noob Saibot will be cool for fans to see, and while he’s an incredible fighter with a dense moveset, he’s never used to his full potential. It doesn’t help that the story does nothing new, and stopping such a low-level villain like Havik who feels like a two-dimensional character with no appeal just doesn’t quite hit that hard. The Infinity Stone-esque plotline damages the originality of the base game and turns it into a generic good versus evil fight with little pull to find out what happens. No spoilers, but I was left deflated by how NetherRealm decided to end things.

It’s quite demanding to expect players to spend money on an expansion with such a brief storyline, roughly three hours long. Although the three new characters each have distinct fighting styles, the cost doesn’t seem justified in this case. Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns is visually impressive, and its character animations and environments continue to impress as before. However, the narrative does little to deepen our understanding of the new characters. Compared to notable enemies like Shang Tsung and Kronika, Havik appears weaker and seems more like a generic adversary designed merely to introduce players to the new fighters.

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2024-09-30 11:15