For those who missed it, following the bloody finale of Mortal Kombat 1's story, which saw Liu Kang and the gang dispatch the Deadly Alliance of Shang Tsung and Quan Chi, a version of PS2-era jobber Havik discovered that not only do other timelines exist, but that they could all use a little more chaos. This brings us to the new storyline, which sees him invade Liu Kang’s timeline, and kidnap Geras to infuse his MacGuffins with the power to take over all timelines.
For those who hoped the timeline crap would come to an end after Mortal Kombat 11, we’re afraid it’s at its peak here, as we’re treated to different variants of all the cast, including a Council of Kangs-esque amount of Havik. However, the other – and far less tiresome – side to the story involves our trio of DLC fighters: Cyrax, Sektor, and Noob Saibot. We deal with the aftermath of Sub Zero’s betrayal of Earthrealm and how it has affected the robo-enhanced duo, with Cyrax in particular being the heart of this storyline (until she disappears for a big chunk of it, as is tradition for good characters).
One problem we had with the original game’s story was Johnny Cage, who treads the line of being a good character and a pop culture spouting machine, and this time around he is unbearable. Every line out of his mouth is basically a reference, including one that is almost literally "this is just like Game of Thrones Season 3 Episode 9". A majority of the humour in the expansion falls completely flat, but Johnny is the worst.
Which is weird, because this expansion also includes Animalities for every character, which are generally quite funny. While you don’t need to pay for the DLC to get the Animalities, they are new with this update. There’s some obvious ones like Scorpion turning into a Scorpion (not a Penguin this time, sadly), and some more out there ones like Quan Chi’s. Meanwhile, Johnny Cage and Peacemaker get the best ones by far.
While the Khaos Reigns expansion does come with a full Kombat Pass 2 (including the guest fighters later down the line), the story is only around two hours long, making this expansion's price – which is almost on par with an entire game – a little questionable. And it doesn’t do anything to change the glaring flaws already present in Mortal Kombat 1 such as the terrible Invasions mode or the overpriced cosmetics.
Comments 17
I've been an MK fan a long time but MK1 was a big step back IMO. I know they're trying to do an alternate universe, but most of the changes are worse IMO. Cyrax and Sektor look completely uninteresting.
Get back to the dark feel of MKX.
I enjoyed playing through the story but invasions seemed lacking. The dlc characters are not for me and I would much prefer they make more original characters or use some of the old ones but playing as The Terminator has about as much appeal to me as playing as Bruce Lee in the UFC games or some non-wrestling celebrity in a WWE game.
There's so many other fighting games, I don't see the point in going back to this although the gameplay was good at the time.
I'm just going to wait for a price drop because even if this dlc was a 9/10 It still doesn't justify almost being the price of a new full game.
I’m loving the new dlc but I also really enjoy mk1. The gameplay itself is by far in its best place it’s been since launch and the same for can be said for the modes like invasions. The twisted timeline stuff can be hit or miss but it does lend well to the random fights in invasions. I guess $50 is pricey but many other online games have $40 battle passes and basically only provide cosmetics. I guess if you don’t like mk1 to begin with then you’re gonna be disappointed when the dlc doesn’t “fix” the game.
lol yeah no *****. I watched the story on YT. Anyone paying 50 bucks for that is insane lmao. Story is short, weak, super predictable and worst of all just literally the same story as the main game with a bunch of added characters. Even with 6 additional characters the price is greedy AF and the half baked story they delivered is not even worth half of that.
Once DLCs start costing as much as an entire game, I am not playing ball anymore.
I learnt after MK X to wait for the complete editions.
I would have got it, if one of the new characters were either jade, skarlet, sareena. Gender swapped robots is just lazy.
MK takes itself way too seriously.
What they have done to this much beloved IP in terms of the absolutely insane and brutally obnoxious monetisation of even the slightest thing is a long, long way beyond unacceptable. And that was the case before they decided they could sell THIS for £50…
@MrPeanutbutterz I agree. It peaked with “Cooking with Scorpion”.
@Jedihillis true that, we need an mk with the gameplay of X, the roster of 9, and the tone of MK2/MKX/Deadly Alliance/MK4
mk needs its identity back
@KillerBoy Why do people always call them robots ? Did you even watch the trailers ? Thats like saying Iron Man is a robot. They are human, they just wear power suits. Please educate yourself before spouting nonsense.
I mean Towers of Time has been added, Invasions is actually pretty fine now as most of it is optional now and Cage is pretty funny.
As for the skins they're pretty cheap by modern standards and you get more for less compared to what SF6 charges for its skins. Anyway the game has giving out plenty of free skins this past year and still is so 🤷♂️
@Totheteeth Its actually £40. Its £50 for the entire game and all the DLC.
@nomither6 MK1 Roster > MK9 Roster. MK9 roster is good but it relies too heavily on MK1-MK3 and you can't even fully play as Shao or Goro. MK1 roster celebrates the entire series not just the 90's games.
Meanwhile SNK and Capcom are now exchanging characters left and right with now Street Fighter characters entering Fatal Fury. MK1 (and highkey Tekken 8 also) has had some rough DLC this year.
@Deoxyr1bose Rough? What's been rough about the MK1 DLC characters? Wanna know what's rough? £100+ to give every character a new costume in SF6 or £100 for all of the TMT stuff. MK1 isn't perfect but monetization wise SF6 is easily the worst of the big 3.
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