Highlights

  • Mortal Kombat 1 offers a rebooted timeline with significant changes to character origins and each realm's appearance.
  • Earthrealm in Mortal Kombat 1 remains fairly unchanged, but Raiden is now a farmer and Fire God Liu Kang is the realm's protector.
  • Outworld in Mortal Kombat 1 is more peaceful, with Empress Sindel as the leader, but a new disease threatens its population.

Having been out for almost a week now, and even longer if fans bought the Premium Edition for early access, it's likely that many players have sunk a good few hours into Mortal Kombat 1 and all of its various modes. But with so much content to dive into, it's also pretty likely that many fans have only scratched the surface of what Mortal Kombat 1 offers. And while Mortal Kombat 1's story mode can technically be beaten in just 5-6 hours, it might take a few playthroughs for fans to pick out every difference in this rebooted timeline.

Taking place after the events of Mortal Kombat 11 Aftermath, Mortal Kombat 1's story mode sees Fire God Liu Kang restart the universe, changing a plethora of details along the way, both big and small. But while the changes to every character's origin are by far the most interesting facets of this new Mortal Kombat universe, they aren't the only big changes to the timeline, with each Realm also looking quite a bit different this time around.

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Mortal Kombat 1's Earthrealm

Mortal Kombat 1 Tournament Raiden and Kenshi

The Mortal Kombat universe is split into multiple different dimensions, known as Realms, with each one appearing in its own separate plane of existence. While most of the Realms know about one another and can largely travel freely between them using portals, the same can't be said for Earthrealm, whose inhabitants are almost all completely oblivious to the existence of other dimensions.

In Mortal Kombat 1, Earthrealm remains fairly unchanged from its previous timeline iterations, essentially acting as a standard representation of Earth's modern-day society. The big change regarding Earthrealm this time around is that Raiden is no longer the god protecting the Realm, but a simple farmer. Instead, Fire God Liu Kang is Earthrealm's protector, and for eons, he has ensured that the other Realms do not try to invade by participating in a fighting tournament that shows his Realm's strength.

Mortal Kombat 1's Outworld

image showing a mortal kombat 1 character doing a taunt.

In the original Mortal Kombat continuity, Outworld is the biggest Realm of the bunch, being an amalgamation of a few Realms that have all been invaded and merged. In Mortal Kombat 1, Outworld is still the largest Realm, and it still features sub-Realms like Edenia and Tarkata, but these have always been a part of Outworld in this timeline, as opposed to being won through conquest. Mortal Kombat 1's Outworld is a much more peaceful place than it has been in previous timelines, with Empress Sindel being a much more benevolent leader than Shao Kahn, who has been demoted to general here. However, there are still issues bubbling beneath Outworld's surface, with the new Tarkat disease threatening to turn the population into monstrous shadows of their former selves.

Mortal Kombat 1's Orderrealm

part of orderrealm seen in a cutscene.

Though it isn't seen much in Mortal Kombat 1's main story, it seems as though Orderrealm remains largely unchanged from previous timeline iterations. Also known as Seido, Orderrealm is the ideal utopian society, where structure and justice rule over all else. But Mortal Kombat 1's Orderrealm might be in imminent danger. During Mortal Kombat 1's story mode, an Orderrealm citizen by the name of Dairou aids Quan Chi and the rest of the Deadly Alliance in a bid to wreak havoc on Orderrealm. Becoming the Kombatant Havik, Dairou's wish comes true as he floods Seido, ushering in a new age of chaos.

Mortal Kombat 1's Netherrealm

The Netherrealm (also called Hell) in Mortal Kombat (2011).

Essentially this world's hell, the Netherrealm isn't seen directly in Mortal Kombat 1, but its existence is confirmed multiple times, with several antagonists originating there. Quan Chi and the rest of his Brotherhood of Shadows comes from the Netherrealm, along with fighters like Sareena. Ashrah was also originally from the Netherrealm, beginning her life as a demon, but eventually choosing to turn to the side of good.

Mortal Kombat 1 is available now for PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox Series X/S.

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