Would-be Reboot Brings Little Novelty. We Played Mortal Kombat 1
Is NetherRealm resetting its flagship series with Mortal Kombat 1? Only in terms of marketing and, somewhat, narratively. The fighting game does not dramatically change its face and in terms of gameplay, it rather sticks to the guns.
Mortal Kombat 1 is a reboot but only in theory. As you know, MK1 is a plot reset, but again, directly driven by the events from the previous installment (specifically, Aftermath). So maybe a little refresh of the formula and a few new gameplay features? It would be very welcome here. No, not really. Don't expect a revolution in the combat system. The developer, once again, is relying a little bit too much on the Mortal Kombat released in 2011. Fans, of course, should be satisfied, though. I bet they'll feel like they're returned to a renovated apartment. And those who are sick of NetherRealm's use of an outdated formula will quite quickly sense the musty stench and conclude that they simply have nothing to look for here. I got an impression myself that Mortal Kombat 1 is focused on core gamers and would rather not try to pierce its hermetic bubble.
Two against one?
Of course, to say that the new Mortal is a lazy copy of the previous series installments would be an act of colossal ignorance. After all, this time the most important combat system core is the cameo fighters mechanic. Reminiscent of the more elaborate assists from Marvel vs. Capcom. Before the duel, we select two fighters – a main character and a companion, who can support us with several attacks of different characteristics.<br>Where is the difference from what the iconic Capcom series offered? Here, we don't choose a predefined assist. Instead, we decide about the partner's attack choice just a moment before it is executed. Kinda cool.
Assists are the heart of Mortal Kombat 1 – it's the main game mechanic which must be used. You can't ignore it. With them, we extend combos, set traps and create lethal mechanisms to force the rival to pay constant attention. The companion is often present on the arena – it helps to break out of the enemy's attack, performs grappling and X-Ray strikes together with us. The presence of the companion is noticeable. The same as their significant influence on the course of duels. I wanted to play around with the assists more, but unfortunately there was no training mode in the tests. The classic tower and everything I discovered during online fights had to suffice for me.
Mortal Kombat 1, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, 2023
Nevertheless, the overall impressions from fights are still similar. Casual gamers who don't pay much attention to details won't notice the gigantic changes. The gameplay of the new Mortal Kombat remains the same. Performing special attacks and basic combinations won't be hard for anyone. The duel tempo is similar to the one in MK11. What puts me off Mortal Kombat 1, however, are the stale animations, which haven't been improved in any way. It's a shame, but that's the way it is in this series and perhaps this is the key ingredient of the atmosphere. We should have seen the necessary revolution on this field many years ago, and it's a shame that we won't see it this time around – and once again.
Runs like a charm
The attention to details and the way the game works are most satisfying. Everything loads instantly and we smoothly move to gameplay proper. The online source code looks solid – during tests, I didn't experienced any delays and lags. Obviously, the real test will come at launch. Then, we will see how things are going. Nevertheless, right now everything works very well. Mortal Kombat 1 instantly connects to the network infrastructure, and selecting a rematch immediately starts the next fight. I'm glad that such a comfortable experience is slowly becoming the standard for modern brawlers and at first sight, NetherRealm's did an excellent job. Certainly no worse than Capcom did with the excellent Street Fighter 6.
Mortal Kombat 1, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, 2023
I probably don't need to write about the visuals, because everyone should be aware that Mortal Kombat is a high-budget series, and NetherRealm spares no expense here. From a purely technical standpoint, this is the most beautiful fighting game on the market and this probably won't change until the next game from this developer arrives.
Artistically? It's a matter of taste. The creators definitely opted for much more vibrant colors and hues, the new Mortal isn't as gloomy and sad as the last two parts. But the whole framework has been transferred from previous games. Descriptive Fatalities and X-Rays look identical for me, and to be honest – they're kinda boring. Every single blend into the other – I have the impression that I've seen each of their variants a thousand times.
Mortal Kombat 1 promises to be a successful sequel created primarily for the fans of previous installments. This is by no means a disadvantage, I even glorify this approach. Although at the same time I criticize the sequel for too safe an approach. From the perspective of a person who's not a fan of the series and just wants to complete the story mode – I don't see anything really exciting here. I don't feel anything in the gameplay to confirm that there was a reboot and explain the whole thing with calling it Mortal Kombat 1. I expected that the loudly announced reboot would bring more freshness and flip more elements upside down, but there's no hope for that now. I'm certain that this will be a solid installment and probably a highly rated game, which at the same time wasted the perfect opportunity for bolder experiments, because it was afraid to go wild.
