Mortal Kombat 1 Review (Nirhildija)
Mortal Kombat 1 Review
Mortal Kombat 1 is a restart of the Mortal Kombat series that follows the events of Mortal Kombat 11 as Liu Kang becomes the God of Fire and replaces Raiden while creating a new universe that has some of the cast that are known from this classic game. The new roles given to characters make for a fresh experience that gives Mortal Kombat a coat of new paint, and the roster is of decent size for an AAA game of this quality and visuals.
Featuring multiple game modes such as ranked matches or invasion and an excellent story mode gives this title a lot of content to explore and discover as you unlock different cosmetics and rewards from leveling up your favorite fighters. NetherRealm focused more on the single-player content than the multiplayer side of things for this entry, so keep reading to find out whenever this entry might interest you.
Single-Player
As a single-player game, this entry is fantastic thanks to the new story mode that revisits the classic tale of Mortal Kombat while adding new twists and events to the mix. The voice acting is pretty good as characters become imposing on the screen; an example is when Liu Kang speaks, he sounds like a benevolent God, yet he doesn't mind exercising violent force and aggressive tones if he is disrespected.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3042122523
The cinematics are a joy to watch as they unfold due to the high visuals of the game, and it is akin to watching a movie in a theater. For other modes, Invasion Mode turns the game into an RPG as you select a fighter and a Kameo (an assist), then fight different types of enemies while getting unique challenges, quests, rewards, items, and other content. It is addictive and a lot of fun, and thanks to the seasonal currency it gives, it is worth playing to unlock seasonal content.
Multiplayer and Balance
The multiplayer of the game is good as it can offer a lot of adrenaline as you fight rivals from all over the globe. It uses a best-out-of-3 system where the first player to win more matches will be victorious, giving you some room for mistakes and learning your opponent's tactics. The tournament formula benefits the multiplayer matches and creates good battle pacing. That being said, the game does suffer from balancing issues.
Sub-Zero, Shang Tsung, Scorpion, Li Mei, and Liu Kang are all extremely powerful, making the rest of the cast pale in comparison. Scorpion can combo from attacks that cannot be blocked and can take all of your HP down in a single chain, while Sub-Zero gets a ton of offensive and defensive options as he can lay out ice clones, shoot ice balls, and even get moves with super-armor, making him incredibly hard to counter.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3039268768
In contrast, characters like Kung Lao, Kitana, Sindel, or even Raiden, supposed to be the new Liu Kang, all feel they could be better. During my time online, I played around 30 matches, and most opponents only played Sub-Zero, Scorpion, or Li Mei. Scarcely were when I found other characters, and the game mode novelty would have fared better with a diverse pool of opponents, making the multiplayer less stellar than the single-player experience.
Performance
The game has some issues with performance at launch; this is due to the developers focusing more on the PS5 version of the game and treating the launch on Steam as a port. Sadly, the optimization is not the best here, but patches should eventually make running the game smoother as the quality of changes should be implemented.
On an RTX 2060, the game runs fatally on most graphics settings at 2K, yet running the game at 1080P results in enjoying 60FPS on high settings. If you struggle to run the game, consider lowering your resolution until the patches come out to fix the optimization.
Longivity
Suppose you are a hardcore player who loves the sensation of dominating opponents online. In that case, a great title here can last you for a long time, especially with DLC characters such as Omniman and Homelander coming in the future. Remember that the roster has a hierarchy, so if you don't play the top fighters, you be handicapping yourself.
If you are staying for the long run, be prepared to put some money down on the table. Based on how Shang Tsung performed as a DLC/pre-order fighter and the hype of future DLC characters, you can expect those fighters to outperform base game ones as they are released. Either way, adding these future fighters to your roster as they come out will add more replayability to the title and give you more options to choose from when playing the game.
Visuals
The game graphics are pretty good; characters feature a lot of detail when losing body parts or becoming wounded as they suffer a fatality at the hands of their opponents. Speaking of deaths, some of the finishers in this game are phenomenal, as you can get scenarios such as Liu Kang, The Fire God bringing you to space, and then using a black hole to suck your guts until you disappear.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3042121685
The visuals are crips, adding details to attacks and making battles a shown to witness; during brutality or critical moves, the screen turns black on the edges, giving the screen a nice contrast as it focuses on the action and the colors that remain "pop" masterfully on your monitor. Mortal Kombat 1 is an immersive venture that is the best-looking title in the series to date.
Conclusion
Mortal Kombat 1 shows you that there is potential in fighting games to create an outstanding game for single-player fighter titles. The story mode reimagines a classic tale in the game industry that is as old as the hobby origins, and the other methods give good content to explore and discover.
The seasonal system promises to deliver support and life to the game in the long run, and the multiplayer is excellent, too, if you can ignore some heavy imbalance and have the backbone to grind your fist against your opponents in Mortal Kombat (pun intended). Whenever you are a relaxed player wanting to enjoy some tremendous single-player content or a multiplayer hardcore expert ready to demolish your opponents, Mortal Kombat 1 is a game that excels at reinventing the series. Go forward into the tournaments of Earthrealm and Outrealm fighters.
8/10 GREAT
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