Despite a Timeline Reset, Mortal Kombat 1 Feels Stuck in the Past

From this point until the end of the game, the interpersonal conflicts and interesting nuances that were painstakingly presented over the last few hours become entirely irrelevant, as they’re replaced by a numbing whirlwind of multiverse nonsense and referential asides. Shang Tsung summons maniacal variants of the cast from his world to battle their counterparts as the baddies take turns shooting laser blasts at Liu Kang’s Hourglass for an interminably long period of time. After the heroes repel this first wave, we eventually learn that there are even more alternate realities, leading to an impressively boring denouement where an army of parallel universe doppelgangers storm Shang Tsung’s world so they can destroy his Hourglass.

Look, I don’t go into these games expecting high art or anything. Even during the better stretches of this story, the writing and performances didn’t perfectly hit all the beats they were going for. But still, this earlier sequence succeeded because its narrative reimagined these characters in interesting ways that felt tethered to more grounded conflicts. I cared about the fragile power balance between Earthrealm and Outworld because those on both sides of the conflict felt fleshed out. It portrayed the lived details of Outworld amidst the martial arts shenanigans, like how people with the Tarkot disease were treated, and gave us effective emotional beats, such as how the former king Jerrod’s assassination impacted Sindel, Mileena, and Kitana. Kenshi saved Johnny’s life, and later, Johnny returned the favor by helping his friend at his lowest point, showing he had become less of a prick in the process. The start of this tale took advantage of the timeline reset to give these popcorn antics extra punch and reminded me of how much fun I had after Mortal Kombat 9 started things fresh. 

But, by its last desperate stretch, these aspects are tossed aside so we can instead fight the exact same villain from the previous game, a character who has no connection to anyone here besides Liu Kang. Worse, this multiverse angle is geared towards entirely hollow fan service that carries about as much impact as a little kid smashing their favorite action figures together. For the final battle, you pick a fighter from a character select screen who then faces a gauntlet of procedurally generated characters, a stretch that carries no weight because everything feels haphazardly assembled from random parts like it’s been written by an AI. Instead of focusing on the emotional stakes and personal conflicts established earlier, these are brushed aside for a battle that takes the worst elements from reference fests like Ready Player One. It all comes across like an unnecessary epilogue to Mortal Kombat 11 instead of a proper conclusion to the story built up over multiple hours. While I understand many fans are fatigued by the numerous timeline resets in recent years, Mortal Kombat 1 established a sturdy foundation, only to scrap it all and return to its old rotting infrastructure.

Although story modes in fighting games usually aren’t the main draw for me, and I’m mostly here to play against others online, my interests have historically been flipped for Mortal Kombat, in large part because of how successful previous versions were at building out single-player offerings. However, in this case, on top of this new tale turning out to be a dud, its other major mode, called Invasions, is also quite lackluster. Here, you maneuver a board-game-styled map as you engage with RPG mechanics and face a gauntlet of enemies, but between repetitive battles and the agonizingly slow traversal in its overworld, this mode was also a letdown.

All that said, there is a very important bit of positive news buried in the gloom: when it comes to its core gameplay, the part where you fight against other people, I’ve enjoyed the latest entry more than any of the studio’s other recent titles. Combatants have robust movesets compared to the previous game, making battles feel far more dynamic. Although I was a little disappointed that it failed to introduce any newcomer playable characters, they at least brought back fighters that hadn’t been in the series in quite some time, which added novelty. Additionally, the inclusion of Kameos, which let you call in assists for the first time in series history, sets up powerful setups and extended combos that are a blast to perform. Other additions, such as the ability to blow up jump-happy adversaries with aerial combos, add more satisfying layers. 

Unfortunately, similar to how its story initially had me excited, these welcome changes to the core formula are trapped within a game that otherwise feels plucked from a bygone console generation. While Mortal Kombat 11 had best-in-class netcode that made its online play feel silky smooth, the latest entry is much more inconsistent when playing over the internet. This is made worse because you can’t filter out opponents by connection speed, and ranked matches require playing best out of three sets, meaning you can be forced to play multiple matches against laggy opponents. Across the board, the game is missing bells and whistles that other entries in the genre have begun to adopt en masse. There’s no crossplay, leaving each platform in a silo. The training mode feels barebones and doesn’t let you save playbacks, meaning if you want to practice against a specific tactic, you need to re-record it every session. You can’t cue up for matches while practicing either, which leads to additional time spent in menus instead of playing.

There are also a few jaw-dropping bugs, especially on the PC port. At launch, the most egregious of these was that if you were in the player two spot, you would deal less damage, lose access to certain combos, and have a larger hurtbox, which obviously gave the first player a substantial advantage and invalidated competitive play. Another issue is that each time the game crashes on PC, it leaves behind an additional 1GB file secretly tucked away in your AppData folder, which can quickly add up. I’ve also frequently had things freeze between online matches, which would inevitably reset the “will this next person have a good connection” lottery. Although some of these issues, like the player one advantage bug, have been patched, these problems indicate that the game was released well before it was ready. Add in other issues like charging $10 for a single Halloween-themed fatality or the disastrous state of the Switch port, and it’s difficult to feel good about how things panned out. 

As someone who welcomed Mortal Kombat 1 as an opportunity to break from the series’ past and deliver something fresh, this latest entry largely squanders this opportunity. After a promising start, its storytelling careens off a cliff, hitting every cloying fan service-oriented trope on the way down as it dredges up the franchise’s burdensome history. I had a similar trajectory with its central gameplay, and after having far more fun than I was expecting, I chafed against its many regressions elsewhere, like its poor online experience and unimpressive training mode, which feel ripped from a previous era. This latest Mortal Kombat was supposed to be a clean slate, but I’m already pining for NetherRealm Studios to hit the reset button once again.

Elijah Gonzalez is an assistant TV Editor for Paste Magazine. In addition to watching the latest on the small screen, he also loves videogames, film, and creating large lists of media he’ll probably never actually get to. You can follow him on Twitter @eli_gonzalez11.