Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns Review – Organized Chaos

Mortal Kombat 1’s time-twisting campaign ended on a high note, as the introduction of various timelines signaled a wealth of opportunities for future installments. Khaos Reigns is the first DLC expansion on the story, in which a Titan version of the anarchic villain Havik tries to throw Liu Kang’s version of the world into his own brand of chaos. The only chaotic force at play here, though, is the storytelling, as this expansion is plagued by rushed story beats and a boring, monotonous structure.

Khaos Reigns features five chapters–one-third the number in the main campaign–with three of those focusing on the three new roster additions: Cyrax, Sektor, and Noob Saibot. The two chapters between Sektor and Noob follow two main roster characters, Rain and Tanya–albeit in new Emperor and Empress variants, respectively.

Every one of these chapters plays out the same way: A cutscene eventually bleeds into a pre-fight dialogue, then the fight happens, followed by post-fight dialogue, and repeat. There is no variation to this structure, which means that a story themed around chaos and anarchy instead feels confined and frustratingly rigid. That theme seems like a natural fit for some experimentation, whether that’s quick minigames or gauntlet-style matches against multiple opponents, but alas none of that is found here–a point made to feel even more uninspired by the fact that this format is also how the story of the base game played out.

The cutscenes are hurt by weak dialogue, whether it’s lines that sound like they were pulled from a thesaurus–who uses the word “expeditiously” over “quickly”?–or cringe-inducing attempts at banter between Johnny Cage and pretty much any woman that crosses his path. Of course, Cage is supposed to be a pompous, wannabe ladies’ man regardless of the timeline, but some of these lines sound so forced, it’s hard not to roll one’s eyes along with the character to whom he’s speaking.

Another maddening part of Khaos Reigns is how quickly story beats with massive potential are wrapped with little to no conflict. For example, a major deception teased by Bi Han and Sektor is addressed and concluded in the very same chapter, without any real room for the story to breathe. In fact, this argument could be made for the story as a whole, as the Khaos Reigns story ends so abruptly, it could cause whiplash. After chapter upon chapter of being told Titan Havik is a menace, his eventual defeat leaves a lot to be desired.

These narrative issues are a real shame, too, as the expansion also adds elements to the core game experience that give plenty of new things to discover. Each of the three aforementioned new roster members offers a fun and unique style that thrives on experimentation–Sektor’s ordnance and quick-drop attacks make her a formidable foe, while setting off a Cyrax bomb just right for a follow-up combo is incredibly cool every time. Meanwhile, the shadowy, portal-summoning tricks of Noob make him the most interesting character of the three; a few of his combos are jaw-dropping when pulled off correctly.

There’s also a new way to finish off opponents in Animalities, where a character transforms into a wild beast and dispatches their opponent with primal flair. Even among the over-the-top kills seen in normal Fatalities and Brutalities, some of these new Animalities are incredibly gruesome, thanks to the impressively detailed representations of these animals.

Mileena’s mantis transformation is the most harrowing, as watching her chew into her poor opponent’s head with a realism that rivals real-world nature inspires equal amounts of smiles and sickness. Others hearken back to Fatalities from previous games, like Noob’s double-crocodile Animality, which calls back to one of his Fatalities in Mortal Kombat 9.

On the other side of the coin, Rain turns into a giant pufferfish and explodes his foe from within in silly fashion, while Peacemaker morphs into a clone of his pal Eagly and the two rain down an American-themed whooping with hilarious results. Finishing moves in modern Mortal Kombat games have always been an exercise in over-the-top evisceration, and have only grown more visceral as technology has advanced. The Animalities on display here might be the best example yet of how far the imagination can go.

Neither the new roster additions nor the amusing Animalities, however, are enough to overcome the weakness of Khaos Reigns’ story expansion. Where the original story of MK1 concluded with a sense of open-endedness, Khaos Reigns instead sets a surprisingly low bar for future narrative elaboration. Titan Havik isn’t the only villainous MK character out there, obviously, and perhaps another expansion should one occur will explore another villain’s vision for the MK universe, but any future story DLC will suffer from the same fate as this one if the accompanying story is similarly rushed.

It should be noted that there are three more characters still to come, each of them guests from other IP: Ghostface from Scream, the T-1000 from Terminator, and Conan The Barbarian. All three could add even more variety and fun to the roster after Cyrax, Sektor, and Noob Saibot’s strong showings, but they won’t be able to cure what ails the story at this point.

Unfortunately, the excitement of that original Mortal Kombat 1 ending is gone, and in its place rests a trepidation and unease over where the story might go next. Fittingly, it seems this once-promising story has been thrown into, well, chaos.