PLEASE NOTE: This article contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Mortal Kombat 1.Mortal Kombat 1 is now out and available for all fans, and by all accounts, it's another excellent entry in the long-running fighting game franchise. Featuring one of the most diverse rosters ever seen in the franchise, a good handful of single-player modes, an addictive unlockables system, and potentially some of the most satisfying mechanics of any fighting game, Mortal Kombat 1 is more than worth the price of admission - and that's without even mentioning its great story mode.
While fighting game competitors like Street Fighter and Tekken often put their roster, multiplayer modes, and unique mechanics at the forefront of their marketing, Mortal Kombat has always differentiated itself by choosing to spend a great deal of resources on its story mode. Mortal Kombat 1 is no different, and this time, the effort NetherRealm's clearly put into its story mode is completely worth it, delivering possibly the best narrative in franchise history. Though, that's only going to make the next Mortal Kombat entry's job much harder.
Mortal Kombat 1's Story Mode Can't Be Easily Topped
Mortal Kombat 1's story mode features the best production value of any game in the entire series. A huge leap from even Mortal Kombat 11, Mortal Kombat 1's story mode has almost four hours of cinematics, and each one features some truly impressive lighting, framing, and cinematography, elevating the game's story far beyond what some fans even thought was capable. While Mortal Kombat 1 is still home to some incredibly cheesy and awkward dialogue, it's also home to some great voice performances, and its perfect balance of lighthearted humor and high-stakes drama keeps the entire campaign compelling and fun to experience.
But while Mortal Kombat 1's story mode is fun throughout, it really starts to shine in its final act. Up until this point, Mortal Kombat 1 has been fairly grounded, albeit with plenty of trademark franchise wacky moments. But Mortal Kombat 1's final act leans all the way into action-movie blockbuster territory, essentially becoming an MCU movie where the entire multiverse is suddenly on the brink of collapse.
The final mission of Mortal Kombat 1's story mode sees players select any character from the game's roster, and team up with Fire God Liu Kang as he and a plethora of alternate-universe allies attempt to stop a previous timeline version of Shang Tsung from destroying the multiverse, and of course, he's also joined by an army of multiversal villains. Mortal Kombat 1's final act goes from 0 to 100 in a matter of seconds, and though it's all absolutely absurd, it's all kept lighthearted with a tongue-in-cheek tone being present throughout.
A final battle for the multiverse where hundreds of alternate versions of iconic characters duke it out definitely wasn't where many fans thought Mortal Kombat 1 was going to end, but it happens, and it's now set an extremely high bar for the next Mortal Kombat. At the end of Mortal Kombat 1, a post-credits scene teases that a Titan version of Havik could be the next threat for the series, and while that's a fun tease, NetherRealm would really need to pull out all the stops to help the next game escape Mortal Kombat 1's shadow. An interesting way to do this is by really embracing the concept of Chaosrealm. It seems likely that Havik's main goal would be to usher in a new age of chaos across the multiverse, and the next Mortal Kombat's story mode could show that through both its narrative and gameplay, mixing up some classic franchise tropes in a much more significant way than Mortal Kombat 1's new timeline has.
Mortal Kombat 1 is available for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.
