Mortal Kombat 1: Premium Edition

released on Sep 14, 2023

The Premium Edition includes the Kombat Pack, early access to the game beginning Sept. 14, and 1,250 Dragon Krystals (in-game currency). The Kombat Pack will feature a Johnny Cage character skin with the likeness of famed actor and martial artist, Jean-Claude Van Damme (available at launch), early access to six new playable characters (available post-launch), and five new Kameo Fighters (available post-launch)


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Das Avengers Infinity War im Mortal Kombat Universum.
Es ist schön, dass das Team um Ed Boon auch nach über 30 Jahren beständig ihre Story sowie MK Lore erweitern und überhaupt einen inszenatorisch hochwertigen Storymodus anbieten. Im Genre des Beat em Ups eine schöne Konstante. Klar, rein erzählerisch bekommt man die gewohnte trashige Martial Arts Fantasy Kost geboten. Im mittlerweile zwölften Teil bekommt man jetzt nicht eine tiefgründige Geschichte geboten. Diese ist aber wirklich auf Hochglanz getrimmt, dass es einfach ein Schmaus ist, dieser beizuwohnen. Allein die Gesichtsanimationen sind so gut wie lange in keinem anderen Next Gen Titel. Auch das Ganze drumherum ist mit viel Liebe für das MK Universum gestaltet, wodurch es sich zum Ende hin wie ein eigenes kleines Finale anfühlt mit all den beliebten Figuren. Wie ein groß angelegter Arc aus den Sonntagmorgen Animes oder Fantasyserien. Nur mit viel Blut.
Abseits dessen bekommt man den neuen Invasions Modus geboten, der eine eigene kleine Multiversumsgeschichte erzählt, die mit jeder neuen Season nach 50 Tagen wechselt. Wie auf einem Spielbrett bewegt man sich von Feld zu Feld, bestreitet auf diesen Kämpfe oder führt bestimmte Minispiele aus. Bis man am Ende gegen einen Boss antritt und zur nächsten Welt reist.
Das motiviert zwar für eine gewisse Zeit, nutzt sich aber auch sehr schnell ab. Genauso wie der Turmmodus, der sich am Ende ebenfalls nur das Prädikat "nett" verdient. Mehr Solomodi bietet Mortal Kombat 1 nicht an. Daneben kann man sich in Online Modi wie der Kampfliga online mit anderen messen oder im Trainingsmodus die eigenen Fertigkeiten verfeinern.
Man sieht also, dass Online sowie Solo auf jeden Fall hohe Qualität geboten wird. Lediglich an der Langzeitmotivation hapert es bei Netherrealms Hochglanz Beat em Up. Profispieler werden sich natürlich online austoben, um an die Spitze der Kampfliga zu gelangen. Es wäre aber das i-Tüpfelchen gewesen, wenn die Entwickler auch für Solospieler viel Freischaltbares geboten hätten. An der Kämpferriege bekommt man so beispielsweise alle Charaktere zur Auswahl, die in Mortal Kombat Rang und Namen haben. Einige andere wie Sonya Blade oder Goro werden aber nur als Kameo Kämpfer gehandelt, die einen in den Kombats unterstützen, aber nicht regulär als Kämpfer ausgewählt werden können. Da wäre noch viel mehr möglich gewesen, wenn man sich diese noch hätte freispielen können. Denn abgesehen von Kosmetiks oder Konzeptgrafiken hat man da leider nicht viel.
Da ist für mich ein Super Smash Bros. Melee vom Gamecube noch das Nonplusultra, da es neben unzähligen Figuren, Stages und anderen Dingen weiteres zum Freischalten bot. Dazu gab es viele verschiedene Singleplayer Modi wie einen Abenteuer- oder Missionsmodus, der gerade die Solospieler sehr lange auf Trab hielt.
Trotzdem kann man MK 1 die hohe Qualität im Gameplay sowie der Präsentation nicht absprechen. Hier bekommt man als Fighting Game Liebhaber oder MK Fan alles geboten, was man sich wünscht. Nur am Umfang hätte man noch schrauben können. Mit bereits angekündigten neuen Kämpfern sowie wechselnden Season Inhalten ist zwar auf lange Sicht vorgesorgt. Ob diese aber wiederum auch lange genug vor dem Bildschirm fesseln, bleibt abzuwarten.
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The Avengers Infinity War in the Mortal Kombat universe.
It's nice that Ed Boon's team continues to expand their story and MK lore even after more than 30 years and offer a high-quality story mode. A nice constant in the beat em up genre. Sure, purely narratively you get the usual trashy martial arts fantasy fare. In what is now the twelfth part, you don't get a deep story. But it's really so polished that it's just a treat to be a part of. The facial animations alone are better than any other next gen title for a long time. The whole thing around is also designed with a lot of love for the MK universe, which makes it feel like its own little finale towards the end with all the popular characters. Like a large-scale arc from the Sunday morning anime or fantasy series. Just with a lot of blood.
Apart from that, you get the new Invasion mode, which tells its own little multiverse story that changes after 50 days with each new season. Like on a game board, you move from field to field, take part in battles or carry out certain mini-games. Until at the end you fight a boss and travel to the next world.
This motivates for a certain time, but it also wears out very quickly. Just like the Tower mode, which in the end only deserves the rating “nice”. Mortal Kombat 1 doesn't offer any more solo modes. You can also compete with others online in online modes such as the battle league or refine your own skills in training modes.
So you can see that online and solo one are getting definitely high quality. The only thing that's lacking in Netherrealm's glossy Beat em Up is long-term motivation. Pro players will of course fight online to get to the top of the battle league. But it would have been the icing on the cake if the developers had also offered a lot of unlockables for solo players. For example, in the fighter squad you can choose from all the characters who have a rank and name in Mortal Kombat. Some others like Sonya Blade or Goro are only considered as Kameo fighters who support you in the kombats, but cannot be regularly selected as fighters. It would have been a lot more achieving if you could have unlocked them. Unfortunately, apart from cosmetics or concept graphics, there isn't much there.
For me, a Super Smash Bros. Melee from the Gamecube is the ultimate, as it offered countless characters, stages and other things to unlock. There were also many different single player modes such as an adventure or mission mode, which kept solo players busy for a long time.
Nevertheless, you can't deny MK 1's high quality standard in regard of gameplay and presentation. Fighting game lovers or MK fans can get everything they want here. The only thing that could have been screwed on was the circumference. With new fighters already announced and changing season content, there are provisions for the long term. It remains to be seen whether these will keep people glued to the screen long enough again however.

I expected to hate the combat and love the story but the opposite happened.

The story is trying really hard to be smart about the really dumb shit that has been made fun of in the past like rebooted universes and shitty characters like Nitara (before you argue, she was shitty you are just horny go jerk off). Witty jokes and actual explanations for stupid things like timelines just clutter the mind with useless information that does nothing for me. The only real fun happens in the whole game is when STUPID ASS SHIT happens. That Armageddon sequence at the end? It's the stupidest fucking thing. A GIANT cop out for a real ending to a boring ass story -- and it is the best shit I've seen in a Mortal Kombat game maybe ever.

I might keep playing it idk I'm really having fun with Johnny. Maybe the DLC will go full stupid. Havik is a stupid awful character so maybe the content might go in a fun direction.

As of right now before all DLC. I personally think it deserves the same rating as 11 in comparison. A lot of qol is missing and somehow lacks polish compared to the previous. However unlike 11. There is some sauce to the characters and kameos which is a unique addition that feels like a MVC lite for babies. Still a lot of fun and vaires the matchups. Combos are finally existing and same with air combos witch is great. Story was rather entertaining but for some reason devolved into all too familiar territory although again entertaining. Roster in the base is better than last. Missing some crucial characters imo. May re review when it's fully DLC up and all see what Changes. A good time worth watching the good parts on yt. Even tho the gameplay is better. It's unfortunate how behind it is on its on sensibilities and right now the competition. The lack of a working and stable netcode and no rollback. No modern or simplified controls severely hinder the amount of new players or customers or retain its casual audience. Lot of kontent but the Warner Bros DRM plaques every menu of this game and for some reason has progression broken from time to time and even locked me out of characters if I didn't have a stable wifi which is utter trash. Mk11 just has the better guests for me. That's why I'm soft on it

This review contains spoilers

So, Mortal Kombat 1. Usually I'm not the biggest fighting game guy, but MK has a way of getting me hyped to play one, especially since this game just looked like such a cool way of reinventing the series. A reboot in the most literal sense of the word, taking place in a new timeline written by the god Liu Kang. I'll save the rest of that for the story section, though. Took me about 8 hours or so to finish the Story Mode, the rest (approximately 11 more hours) were spent playing matches with my bro online and a bit of the Invasions mode. I'll try to cover everything in the gameplay section, like I usually do.

I'll make this a brief paragraph to describe my issues with the game. Particularly, this is related to performance and the like. I have no idea if this is more my computer's fault or the game's, since I think I might be reaching the point where my PC isn't strong enough to reliably play new games, but, whatever the reason is, I do know that this game takes quite a while to load stuff in. Whether its characters, screens, or cutscenes in the story mode, the game is just real slow for me. Again, no idea how much of this is the game's fault or my PC's, but I figured I'd mention this anyway.

This game just feels great. Its very fast and fluid. Its perhaps a little too speedy for an FGC noob like me, but man does it feel nice to start the very limited kombos I know how to do. The Kameos really add to this, there's so many possibilities that are added just through their inclusion alone. Its a new system that's sorta like tag-team assists in games like Marvel VS Capcom or Dragon Ball FighterZ, but they're not full fledged characters you can play as, so you don't need to learn two different characters to play the game (thankfully). I haven't really found one that synergizes with me the best yet, though. Also, the roster in this game is great in my opinion: there's no new faces, but every veteran is completely reinvented in some way that makes them feel unique to play from previous iterations. Some are more drastically changed than others, but I loved that they brought back so many characters - some of which haven't been seen in a Mortal Kombat game in a very long time - and totally changed them around like this. I consider myself a Reptile main and I've been most excited for him since his reveal, but there are other characters I'm interested in seeing. I think the only jarring omissions are some of the Special Forces characters like Jax and Sonya, but that's because they straight up do not exist in this new timeline so I can understand why they aren't playable. There's also Quan Chi and Ermac, who are being added as DLC but are two really odd cases in my opinion since they're prominent in story mode and they even have a full move set pretty much already made for them. I have no idea why they're being saved for DLC, but I am interested in being able to play as Quan Chi once the Kombat Pack releases. This game has a pretty decent amount of content, too: aside from the typical Story Mode, Versus, Online, and Klassic Towers, there's also a new mode called Invasions which adds RPG elements to the mix (things like leveling up, allocating stat points to your characters, and type weaknesses/strengths). I found that one to be really fun.

The story...well, it is a fighting game story, so things can feel rather rushed or awkwardly paced. I don't know why the NetherRealm Studios Mortal Kombat games all do this, but the game is divided into character based chapters, so the story kinda has to revolve around whoever you're playing at the time. Sometimes this works pretty well, other times it leads to weird scenarios where characters win fights that it doesn't feel like they should've been able to win, and it pretty much always results in some characters feeling super underutilized. It has a pretty good chunk of characters in it, though, so I suppose its only natural some of them go underused. As far as the characters go, though, the game makes some much needed touchups on long established veterans. In my opinion, Liu Kang is far more interesting as a god trying to keep the peace of this new world he's created than any other role he's had in the other Mortal Kombat games. I've never really cared that much about Shang Tsung aside from stuff like the first Mortal Kombat movie, but MK1 Shang is an absolutely amazing villain in my opinion; I loved his snide little expressions, smug voice, and great villainous presence in the story. I was also very happy to see Reptile and Baraka actually have plot relevance and things to do here instead of just being mindless grunts of Shao Kahn (now General Shao) since I've always been a fan of these two characters. Baraka in particular gets a big glow-up here in terms of personality, though I suppose that's not much of an achievement since he didn't have much of one before. The actual story itself...I think it starts excellent, focusing around Liu Kang trying to have this timeline's events go as intended only for Shang Tsung (and later Quan Chi) to be skulking around in the background ruining everything. There's a bit of a mystery for the characters trying to unravel everything that's going on, like the conflict in Outworld sparked by Shang Tsung feeding them lies about Earthrealmers. However, once the bombshell gets dropped that Shang Tsung got his powers back from a past version of Shang Tsung that came from the Mortal Kombat 11 universe, it just devolves into a bunch of multiverse shenanigans real quick. Admittedly, some of this was badass. I mean, I'd be a pretty joyless guy to not love this game's ending being a huge homage to Mortal Kombat Armageddon (a big game of my childhood and my first MK game), for example. Still, though, I can't help but feel some of that cool stuff from before got muddled with timey-wimey wibbly wobbly stuff and suddenly all hell breaks loose. Also it kinda bugs me that they didn't bring back Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa to play the MK11 Shang Tsung since that's literally who played him in the last game, but I also love the new Shang Tsung's face and voice a lot so its not too big of a deal. They seemed really inconsistent on which characters got the proper actor back and which ones didn't. Nonetheless, I do still think this was a really cool story and a nice clever way to reinvent the Mortal Kombat universe. Also, that ending bit teasing Havik as a Titan looks to be leading to an interesting sequel. I almost think Havik made the roster just for that teaser considering how he only shows up in the story like three times.

Overall, I really like this game. I will likely be trying to play the multiplayer stuff or Invasions more since I just like this game that much, but I doubt I will really try to be a pro at it or anything. Just never been how I've rolled with fighting games. Still, though, its a fun time and a great way to reinvent Mortal Kombat (I know I keep saying that but I really do think the way they pulled this off was so cool). Earns 4 stars from me.

Throughout the very quick campaign (which I'm not complaining about; I don't mind a shorter game), I was really happy to see that the fighting mechanics were like a happy medium between X and 11. The core gameplay is fantastic, and I know it's a game I'm gonna get a lot of longevity out of in multiplayer.