Mortal Kombat 1’s time-twisting marketing campaign ended on a excessive notice, because the introduction of assorted timelines signaled a wealth of alternatives for future installments. Khaos Reigns is the primary DLC growth on the story, by which a Titan model of the anarchic villain Havik tries to throw Liu Kang’s model of the world into his personal model of chaos. The one chaotic power at play right here, although, is the storytelling, as this growth is suffering from rushed story beats and a boring, monotonous construction.
Khaos Reigns options 5 chapters–one-third the quantity in the principle campaign–with three of these specializing in the three new roster additions: Cyrax, Sektor, and Noob Saibot. The 2 chapters between Sektor and Noob comply with two important roster characters, Rain and Tanya–albeit in new Emperor and Empress variants, respectively.
Each one in every of these chapters performs out the identical means: A cutscene ultimately bleeds right into a pre-fight dialogue, then the struggle occurs, adopted by post-fight dialogue, and repeat. There is no such thing as a variation to this construction, which implies that a narrative themed round chaos and anarchy as a substitute feels confined and frustratingly inflexible. That theme looks as if a pure match for some experimentation, whether or not that is fast minigames or gauntlet-style matches towards a number of opponents, however alas none of that’s discovered here–a level made to really feel much more uninspired by the truth that this format can also be how the story of the bottom recreation performed out.
The cutscenes are damage by weak dialogue, whether or not it is strains that sound like they had been pulled from a thesaurus–who makes use of the phrase “expeditiously” over “rapidly”?–or cringe-inducing makes an attempt at banter between Johnny Cage and just about any girl that crosses his path. In fact, Cage is meant to be a pompous, wannabe girls’ man whatever the timeline, however a few of these strains sound so compelled, it is exhausting to not roll one’s eyes together with the character to whom he is talking.
One other maddening a part of Khaos Reigns is how rapidly story beats with huge potential are wrapped with little to no battle. For instance, a serious deception teased by Bi Han and Sektor is addressed and concluded in the exact same chapter, with none actual room for the story to breathe. The truth is, this argument may very well be made for the story as a complete, because the Khaos Reigns story ends so abruptly, it might trigger whiplash. After chapter upon chapter of being instructed Titan Havik is a menace, his eventual defeat leaves loads to be desired.
These narrative points are an actual disgrace, too, because the growth additionally provides components to the core recreation expertise that give loads of new issues to find. Every of the three aforementioned new roster members presents a enjoyable and distinctive model that thrives on experimentation–Sektor’s ordnance and quick-drop assaults make her a formidable foe, whereas setting off a Cyrax bomb excellent for a follow-up combo is extremely cool each time. In the meantime, the shadowy, portal-summoning methods of Noob make him essentially the most attention-grabbing character of the three; just a few of his combos are jaw-dropping when pulled off accurately.
There’s additionally a brand new approach to end off opponents in Animalities, the place a personality transforms right into a wild beast and dispatches their opponent with primal aptitude. Even among the many over-the-top kills seen in regular Fatalities and Brutalities, a few of these new Animalities are extremely grotesque, because of the impressively detailed representations of those animals.
Mileena’s mantis transformation is essentially the most harrowing, as watching her chew into her poor opponent’s head with a realism that rivals real-world nature evokes equal quantities of smiles and illness. Others hearken again to Fatalities from earlier video games, like Noob’s double-crocodile Animality, which calls again to one in every of his Fatalities in Mortal Kombat 9.
On the opposite facet of the coin, Rain turns into a large pufferfish and explodes his foe from inside in foolish style, whereas Peacemaker morphs right into a clone of his pal Eagly and the 2 rain down an American-themed whooping with hilarious outcomes. Ending strikes in trendy Mortal Kombat video games have all the time been an train in over-the-top evisceration, and have solely grown extra visceral as know-how has superior. The Animalities on show right here is likely to be one of the best instance but of how far the creativeness can go.
Neither the brand new roster additions nor the amusing Animalities, nonetheless, are sufficient to beat the weak spot of Khaos Reigns’ story growth. The place the unique story of MK1 concluded with a way of open-endedness, Khaos Reigns as a substitute units a surprisingly low bar for future narrative elaboration. Titan Havik is not the one villainous MK character on the market, clearly, and maybe one other growth ought to one happen will discover one other villain’s imaginative and prescient for the MK universe, however any future story DLC will endure from the identical destiny as this one if the accompanying story is equally rushed.
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It needs to be famous that there are three extra characters nonetheless to come back, every of them visitors from different IP: Ghostface from Scream, the T-1000 from Terminator, and Conan The Barbarian. All three might add much more selection and enjoyable to the roster after Cyrax, Sektor, and Noob Saibot’s robust showings, however they will not be capable to remedy what ails the story at this level.
Sadly, the joy of that authentic Mortal Kombat 1 ending is gone, and as an alternative rests a trepidation and unease over the place the story would possibly go subsequent. Fittingly, it appears this once-promising story has been thrown into, effectively, chaos.